CHAPEL HILL – Picture this for a moment: Two very large Power 5 college football players trying to one-up each other lifting weights in the middle of a pandemic all for the sake of who could pound their chest just a little bit more for that particular day.

Such was the case in the Fox household in Suwanee, GA, this past spring. Tomon versus Tomari.

And you know what? Tomari, all of two-plus years younger, usually won.

“It’s just one of those things where I can’t let myself lose,” Tomari said, wearing a grin that shouted good-natured sibling rivalry. “If I see him go in there and throw up some serious weight, I’ll throw on five more pounds just to be that kind of guy.”

Herculean strength isn’t the name of the game for Tomari, but it’s a big part of what he brings to the field for North Carolina. It's not legendary yet, but it’s getting there.

“He’s a strong dude for real,” Tomon said. “It started off working out with my father ever since he first started playing football. He started before I did, so he has all that experience in the weight room putting 600 pounds on his back or putting 400 pounds on the bench. He’s one of the strongest dudes on this team.”

Then came sort of a confession.

“He might be stronger than me, I don’t know about that, but he might be stronger than me,” the big brother said. “He’s got it in the legs.”

Strong legs are a necessity when playing along the defensive line, and it was that attribute that helped Tomari serve an important reserve role for the Tar Heels last season. His brother has been a starter for UNC his entire career, first at defensive end and now entering his senior campaign as a hybrid linebacker.

Tomari, a 6-foot-2, 280-pound sophomore, will see plenty of action this season rotating along UNC’s front line. He played both tackle spots and even some end a year ago, and that will be the case this fall, though his quickness has defensive line coach Tim Cross working him more at end right now than anywhere else.

But Fox’s versatility and enthusiasm embracing each spot on the line make him very valuable to the Tar Heels.

“I feel like that’s what I brought to the table my freshmen year and is something that is unique about me is my willingness to play all four spots,” he said.

“I’m not saying this about my team, but a lot of people are unique to one position. But where I pride myself is being coachable and being athletic enough to move around all along the line just so we can work in different fronts, different blitzes and put a lot of different packages in.”

Not many guys can be consistently effective inside and on the edge. But Cross outlines exactly why Fox has that potential.

“He is superhero strong and extremely smart, has great twitchiness,” Cross said. “And a lot of that comes from he was a heavy weight wresting champ. So, he knows leverage and balance and stuff like that and he really, really has invested in learning the defense and holds himself accountable, so he continues to grow daily.”

Fox played 255 snaps last season finishing with 32 tackles, 2.5 sacks, 4 TFLs, 8 QB hurries and a forced fumble. His biggest adjustment took place more at tackle. It’s more physical and he had less experience there in high school, but the intricacies of the position took some time for him to gain comfort, especially with respect to executing an effective pass rush.

“While you get contact a lot quicker, you also have to be a lot more patient and kind of let the rush progress for everybody else around you,” he said. “If you expose the integrity of the rush for everybody else, it could just set the whole defense apart. So, playing tackle is a very key position when it comes to everybody rushing the passer.”

UNC was 49th in the nation a year ago registering 31 sacks, and defensive coordinator Jay Bateman wants his unit to improve those numbers.

And as Fox says, it starts up front, so how are he and the rest of the line doing in this department more than a week into preseason practice?

“I feel like we’ve come quite a long way, me and my teammates,” Fox said. “Just having that chemistry there and being able to recognize each other’s rushes and being able to balance it out in mid-lay so we don’t end up making a bust on defense.”

As for this fall, when the Fox brothers are on the field at the same time, there’s no doubt they’ll be trying to out-do each other, but all for the good of the Tar Heels.