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CHAPEL HILL – Tomon Fox first took the field wearing a North Carolina football uniform in an actual game a mere 1,903 days ago. Exactly 1,896 days ago, Fox picked up the first of his 26.5 career sacks as a Tar Heel.
The time spent in Chapel Hill in between has been quite the experience for Suwanee, GA, native. He has seen UNC go from nationally relevant to five wins in two seasons leading to a coaching change, and now creeping back toward mattering on the college football landscape.
And sometime before noon Saturday, Fox will walk on Senior Day, as the Tar Heels’ home game versus Wofford will be his last inside Kenan Stadium. He ought to lead the way for the other departing seniors, as Fox went through this a year ago. He kind of knows the drill.
“He came out there for senior day last year and decided to stay when they (NCAA) gave him the year back, so this is his second senior day,” UNC Coach Mack Brown said earlier this week.
His second Senior Day comes near the end of his sixth year playing meaningful snaps for North Carolina. Fox has given up his body for 3,068 defensive snaps, an unofficial record for the program. He has played in 63 games, which is an actual record.
There won’t be a seventh season, so this is it for Fox.
“My last time at Kenan Stadium is going to be a memorable day, especially since I’ve been here so long,” he said Tuesday evening. “It’s going to be a time for me to put everything I’ve got on the field to show I’m a true Tar Heel at heart, and to just put everything out there for my teammates.”
Nobody needs any convincing of Fox’s commitment to the program, his teammates, or himself at this point. And it started more than 400 days before he played 21 snaps in a UNC loss to Georgia in Atlanta opening the 2016 campaign. If reminders are necessary to gauge how long ago that was: It was Mitch Trubisky’s first start at quarterback for the Tar Heels; Ryan Switzer and T.J. Logan were seniors; Cole Holcomb had his first college start that evening; and Brown was just starting his third season as an analyst at ESPN.
Back to Fox’s official foray into all things Carolina. It happened June 22, 2015.
He was participating in “Fedora’s Freakshow” annual recruiting event run by former UNC Coach Larry Fedora. Fox was surrounded by a bunch of other highly touted prospects and former UNC players in the NFL that returned for the event. And, the Tar Heels were coming off an 11-win season in which they ended up ranked No. 15 in both major polls and No. 10 in the final CFP poll.
Fox had planned on waiting, but he was overcome with the desire of making Carolina his academic, football, and social home for the coming years, so he popped.
“It just felt right, it felt like the time to do it,” he told THI that night. “No more need to wait.”
Statistics aren’t the only way to gauge a football player’s career, but they do tell a bit of Fox’s story:
*169 tackles (just 25 missed tackles); 26.5 sacks (third all-time at UNC); 38.5 TFLs (seventh all-time at UNC); 84 QB hurries; 91 STOPs (plays that result in failures for opponents); five forced fumbles; three recovered fumbles; one interception; and a career grade average of right at 70.0.
But college football, the college experience, and that shaping period in one’s life is about a lot more than just sacks and shedding blockers. Fox has checked all of the intangible boxes.
“I don’t know if I’ve coached a guy that I respect more than him,” said UNC defensive coordinator Jay Bateman, who has been around Fox for the last three seasons. “He shows up every day to work, works real hard, plays really hard, he’s everything you want in a player.
“When I’m done coaching, he’s going to be one of those guys I compare everybody to. He’s just a tremendous young man.”
The term “warrior” is overused in sports, but one could easily apply it to Fox, given his trek on and off the field. The defensive end-turned outside linebacker has been a tremendous example to his teammates, a role he embraced a couple of years ago, and something into which he’s enjoyed growing.
“I think I’ve definitely become a better leader both on and off the field due to my position as being one of the older guys on the team,” Fox said. “I have to lead a lot of things we do out here come from the weight room, the field, and in the classroom that just leads to everything I do outside of football, too.”
In football, Fox hopes to continue playing beyond his time in Chapel Hill. Fox is projected by some NFL draft trackers as a late-round selection, and a certainty to at the very least sign as a free agent.
So, he will end up in a camp somewhere, and once there, NFL teams don’t care how a player got there or that much about what they did in college. Go to a camp and perform, and a roster spot is there to be had.
Bateman is confident Fox will get a solid look by a team in the league.
“I hope he gets a chance to play professional football,” Bateman said. “I think he’ll get a really good chance to do that, but I think he’s going to be really successful at whatever he does because of his work ethic and how he attacks life. He’s a special kid.”
And wherever Fox ends up next year, he leaves UNC with the satisfaction of knowing the program is in good shape. Carolina football has powered through some serious change over the last 1,900-plus days, and Fox has been one of its pseudo lead blockers.
“Just thinking about it since I first got here,” he said. “It’s amazing to see how much this team has progressed with the new coaching staff and the new players, and to see how we’ve overcome a lot of adversity.”
And in nearly 2,000 days, Fox also has, and he’s come out quite well.
For fun, here is our interview with Fox right after he committed
June 22, 2015...
