Settling The Unsettled RB Room Remains A Process

**************************************************************************************

Remember, for just $8.33 a month, YOU CAN BE A TAR HEELS INSIDER, TOO!!!

***************************************************************************************

CHAPEL HILL – The unsettled running backs room at North Carolina might finally have a sense of foundation building. Then again, it might not.

British Brooks’ season-ending injury in August left the room with five players, each of whom is talented and a tad bit unique to one another. But nobody has pulled away from the pack, complicating the preferred process of settling into a pecking order in the position grouop.

So, as the 21st-ranked Tar Heels (6-1, 3-0 ACC) prepare for their eighth game of the season, with Pittsburgh visiting Saturday (8 PM, ACC Network), the staff is hoping they might be close to establishing a semblance of a rotation there.

“It’s good to have this many good ones, I just want one leader, two great ones,” offensive coordinator Phil Longo said during his weekly press conference Monday at the Kenan Football Center. “You want two to separate.”

But which two players are most likely to do so? And have they done so?

It appears sophomore Caleb Hood, who has started the last two games, and true freshman Omarion Hampton are backs one and two, but junior Elijah Green has suddenly emerged as one of the three players competing for the top two spots. For now.

Green somewhat came from out of leftfield during the Duke game to launch himself into the conversation. Previously, it was a four-man competition because Green’s only offensive snaps through the first six games was in the opener versus Florida A&M. A broken thumb relegated him to scout team duty, but he is healther now and a factor moving forward.

With Hood often banged up within games, and Hampton struggling to read holes, Green got the call in the second half in Durham and more than came through. He ran the ball three times for 24 yards, including two touchdowns, displaying a second-level burst of speed needed at that position. He played 18 snaps in the game, and was effective in pass protection, which has at times been an issue this season.

“We had a pack of five guys in the spring, and Elijah was one of them,” Longo said. “Not that he played poorly, but some of the others kind of separated from him in camp, and obviously you can't play four to five guys.”

Even with Green wearing a club on his left hand, he still insisted on playing special teams, doing anything "to help the team" he said Tuesday. He has been in for 67 plays on special teams, mostly on kickoff coverage. And really, his opportunity is in part because D.J. Jones was banged up once again forcing him to miss the Duke game, and Jones hasn’t been all than effective when healthy.

True freshman George Pettaway is draped in talent, but is still adjusting to the college game and elements associated with the position in UNC’s air raid offense.

Interestingly, quarterback Drake Maye leads the Tar Heels in rushing with 378 yards, with most of the yards coming on called runs. Hampton is second with 345 yards (4.7 average) and tops the team with six rushing touchdowns. Hood has 253 yards (6.0 average), followed by Green (93 yards), Pettaway (89 yards) and Jones (88 yards).

Running Maye, though he is gifted, isn’t the preferred recipe moving forward for a team that is in the driver’s seat in the ACC Coastal Division. To improve over the next month and have a shot at winning 10 or 11 regular season games, the Tar Heels must run the ball better more conventionally. They almost must settle their rotation.

Longo gave the impression earlier this week they are inching in that direction.

"He will be in the mix more than he was before," Longo said about Green, who has played 28 offensive snaps this season. "We don't know where DJ is right now and George is more situational... It's going to be Elijah, Omarion, and Caleb Hood."

That’s the rotation going into the Pitt game, and for the sake of cohesion and role-solidifying, the staff would be just fine if that’s the trio the rest of the way.