CHAPEL HILL – Saturday is Senior Day for North Carolina’s football program, and following practice Tuesday, four prominent seniors met with the media to discuss their careers at UNC, what they’ve learned on and off the field and more.
UNC hosts Western Carolina at noon on Saturday at Kenan Stadium for the final home game for many Tar Heels.
Here are interviews along with notes and pulled quotes from Michael Carter, Chazz Surrat, Tomon Fox and Dazz Newsome:
Michael Carter
*Rushed for 3.022 yards, 17 TDs and caught 79 passes for 641 yards and six touchdowns.
*Carter is on track to rush for 1,000 yards for a second time in his career, something seven other Tar Heels have done. So, Carter was asked what is his legacy on the field.
“I want them to remember me for being a good person… and then just being a good player,” Carter said. “At the end of the day, I think all the players want to leave a legacy on the field and I’m one of them.”
*The whole of the college football player’s experience doesn’t only reside on the gridiron, it’s about college life, self-discovery and academics. Carter’s take on what he’s learned the most out of his college experience is the kind of thing that sticks with a person long after their playing days are over.
“I learned how to get out of my comfort zone because I definitely feel like I can talk to anybody, I can be personable to anybody,” he said. “So, just exercising my social side of myself has just been really fun my last four years. And just getting to know people. It’s really fun.”
*The traditions of Senior Day will be another casualty to COVID-19 as the players’ parents are not allowed on the field with them before Saturday’s game. What are Carter’s thoughts on how strange it will be?
“I think it’s gonna be special,” Carter said. “I don’t know how it’s going to feel yet because I don’t think you can really put it into words and everybody’s experience is different. But, I’m definitely grateful to have been playing here the last four years. I don’t want to get too far ahead, but just looking forward to Saturday and actually having the last game here, it’s crazy. It’s just a blessing to be here.”
Chazz Surratt
*190 tackles, 12.5 sacks, two interceptions, two forced fumbles, two fumble recoveries, and as a QB he completed 111 of 193 pass attempts for 1,352 yards, 8 TDs, 6 INTs and ran the ball for six TDs, including two 56-yard TD runs.
*Few college players have shared a similar path as Surratt, so if he were commissioned to write his own story, what would be in the lead sentence?
“It’s been a journey. Been up and down,” Surratt said. “I’m just thankful for the relationships that I’ve built with the coaching staff here and the teammates, the guys I came in with, that’s really what I’m most thankful for.”
*Now that he’s fully entrenched at linebacker, how does Surratt look back on the switch he made from quarterback to defense?
“I don’t even think I’ve heard of anybody else doing it,” he said. “So, definitely, if I was another person looking at another guy’s switch from quarterback to linebacker and playing well, that would be incredible to me. It takes a lot and not many people are able to do it. So, yea, from the outside in, it’s a pretty cool story. I know they touch on it, so yea it’s cool. But I don’t really think about it too much because it’s me, so I just try to go out there and work hard.”
*Surratt’s brother, Sage, who played at Wake Forest and was first-team All-ACC a year ago, opted out to work on the NFL draft. Chazz chose to play this season at UNC, and here he lays out why.
“It was definitely a thought, but I think the biggest reason I did is because Sage has played receiver all his life,” Surratt said. “He dominated last year, he had like 1,000 yards in eight games. There was not really much for him to go out there and show anymore. As far as me, I wanted to come out and become a better linebacker and play with my team.
“I thought we were gonna have a special year going into it, knew we were gonna be really talented. So, nah, I wasn’t really too close. I wanted to get better, more polished as a linebacker before I came out to go to the league. That was really my thought process. I think we were two different directions in our thought process going into the season…
“Definitely, I think I’ve gotten better from last year. I don’t regret my decision at all. I’m happy I got to come back and be with my teammates and play these nine games and I’m looking forward to the next two.”
Tomon Fox
*Defensive end/outside linebacker, Fox has racked up 122 tackles, 19.5 sacks, one interception, and four forced fumbles as a Tar Heel.
*Fox arrived at UNC the season after the Tar Heels won 11 games, the program’s only double-digit season in victories since Mack Brown’s final year during his first stint at the helm. So he’s seen it go from being ranked to winning five games in two seasons to climbing back up again. Through that, how has he seen the culture change?
“Since I’ve been here, the culture has changed a lot,” Fox said. “What stayed the same is I think just the family atmosphere here. All the players, we play for each other. The same thing with the coaches. Even when the new coach came in, he’s here for us and we’re there for him. As long as we stay together, we know we can overcome any adversity, which we have.
“Like you said, in two years we won five games. We just had to hunker down and stick to ourselves and then we were able to get wins.”
*Fox actually played a lot in UNC’s games versus Georgia in Atlanta and at Illinois to open the 2016 season before suffering a season-ending injury, or his senior day would have been a year ago because he wouldn’t have taken the year as a redshirt. Now that he looks back, how has he grown as a player and off the field since that opener versus UGA?
“That was a long time,” he said. “It’s my fifth year now, so that was my first year playing here, first game actually. It was nerve wracking for me because I wasn’t really supposed to play that game. I was on the backend on the depth chart, but I got my snaps in and I just ran with it. But, from there I changed a lot as a player.
“I became a lot more confident in myself, learned the game better. I’ve just become a better player overall.”
*This hasn’t been a normal year for anyone, including college athletes. What has Fox missed in his final year on campus that he’d always appreciated about being a student at UNC?
“For me, I just like to stay to myself and be with my friends type thing,” Fox said. “So, with the pandemic, I can’t really change that. The biggest thing that changed was not being on campus, not being able to see all the students out there, not being able to see some of my favorite professors everyday just walking across the quad, things like that.”
Dazz Newsome
*The wide receiver has caught 174 passes for 2,270 yards and 16 TDs, he also ran the ball 19 times for 193 yards and two scores while returning 45 punts for 478 yards and a TD and seven kickoffs for 144 yards. Total yards: 3,085.
*During his time at UNC, Newsome not only turned into a terrific ACC player, but he also became a father. How has it been balancing both along with being a college student?
“I did it with a great support system,” Newsome said. “I have a great mom, a great grandma, dad, coaches, just everything. I guess it was tough, but it’s not as tough as people think.”
*What does Newsome think his legacy will be once his career is finished over the next month?
“Remember me as a competitor,” Newsome replied. “Somebody that was always wanting to compete.”
*Newsome has had some entertaining moments as a Tar Heel, but what does he view as the most memorable?
“Maybe against Miami last year,” Newsome said. “It was just a loud moment. I didn’t really hear the crowd during the game, but I went back and put a video (on) in my car and had my aux cord plugged in, and it was so loud it scared me.”
*Jacob Turner contributed to this report.
