No. 17: Dre' Bly
Every offseason, we run historical ranking series focusing on North Carolina basketball and football.
The purpose each spring isn’t to make declarative statements, but to have fun offering a subjective look at the best teams and players ever at Carolina. This effort is to generate discourse, debate, and take UNC fans down memory lane.
This season, we are doing something a little different, combining football and basketball, as we offer our take on the Top 40 UNC football and basketball players of all time. The criteria is quite simple: The process includes playing careers with the Tar Heels and professionally, other relevant impacts they’ve had on their sports, coaching, and championships. We also gave a lean toward all UNC accomplishments.
So, this isn’t a UNC-only list, a pro-only list, or a straight up purely best ever list. Some Tar Heels on this list didn’t have great pro careers but were so good and historic at UNC, they simply had to make the cut. Some on this list weren’t stars at UNC, but had outstanding and/or highly distinguished pro careers, that it warranted their place among these 40 athletes.
We hope you enjoy the list and feel free to disagree, as we know many will.
We continue our countdown with:
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No. 17: Dre' Bly (1996-98)
A cornerback, Bly was a two-time consensus All-America, three-time All-America, he’s the only three-time, first-team All-ACC, was ACC Rookie of the Year in 1996, and named to the 50-year 50 Greatest ACC Players Ever team.
Bly was one of three finalists for the Bronco Nagurski Award, which goes to the top defensive player in the nation, in 1998.
As a freshman in 1996, Bly intercepted an ACC-record 11 passes (since broken) in the regular season (two more in the bowl game), and became just the fifth freshman to ever earn consensus All-America honors, joining Tony Dorsett and Hershel Walker, among others. He finished with 20 career interceptions, which was an ACC record at the time. He would have 22 if bowl stats counted back then.
Bly registered 27 career pass breakups; 102 career combined tackles, returned two interceptions for touchdowns. Returned 37 punts for 255 yards. Returned five kickoffs for 74 yards.
He was a key part of UNC teams that finished ranked in the Top 10 in 1996 and 1997, which included Tar Heels defenses that ranked in the top-10 as UNC went a combined 21-3.
Professionally, Bly played 11 seasons in the NFL. He was a two-time Pro Bowl selection, Super Bowl champion with the St. Louis Rams (1999 season, 2000 Super Bowl), Super Bowl runner-up, intercepted 43 passes in his career, defended 149 passes, registered 419 tackles, recovered 12 fumbles, forced 20 fumbles, scored seven defensive touchdowns and returned a punt for a TD. Recorded 420 tackles. He was the NFL’s fumble return yards leader in 2003.
He is currently as assistant coach with the Tar Heels. Bly was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2014.