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Three Tar Heels look to fill Omarion Hampton’s shoes at running back

2025-08-04T09:00:00-04:00

Photo by Grant Halverson/Getty Images

Who will step up in 2025?

A tall task looms over the running back room. Who steps up to replace nearly 40 percent of last year’s offense?

Omarion Hampton had 2,033 yards from scrimmage and 17 touchdowns last season. UNC’s workhorse became a first-round draft pick, leaving a huge hole in the backfield.

But now, a great opportunity is there for the taking for one of these players. Who will step up for the North Carolina Tar Heels in 2025?

Unlike other position groups on the team, the running backs room has just one new addition from the transfer portal, Benjamin Hall. Charleston French was a junior college transfer last season. The other six running backs are Carolina recruits.

Davion Gause comes into camp as the favorite for RB1. Gause was Hampton’s backup, appearing in all 13 games and earning the start in the bowl game.

Photo by Grant Halverson/Getty Images

Davion Gause

Gause finished his freshman season with 326 yards on 67 attempts and four touchdowns.

Like Hampton, Gause can break tackles. He averaged 3.57 yards after contact per carry last season. If Gause has that type of success with a larger sample size, he will have a successful year.

All Tar Heels are rooting extra hard for Caleb Hood this season. The UNC legacy had a career marred by injuries, appearing in just 26 games in four years. Last season, Hood appeared in just five, tallying 81 yards on 18 attempts.

Photo by Grant Halverson/Getty Images

Caleb Hood

Hood entered the transfer portal after the bowl game loss last season. He mentioned in his training camp press conference that conversations with the new coaching staff convinced him to return. Hood said he “felt like this is where God wanted me to be.”

Hood has the potential to be a dual-threat star. He has a power run game, but is also a receiving threat out of the backfield. Hood and Gause each had four receptions last year, notable since Hood had much less time on the field.

The x-factor remains his health and avoiding injury.

Charleston French has the skills to earn some reps this season. French’s strength is his speed, and his quick cuts make him an open field threat.

Dominic Gwinn / Hattiesburg American / USA TODAY NETWORK

Charleston French (9)

Last season, French appeared in four games and had 84 yards on 10 attempts. Most of those yards came on a 45-yard touchdown run against NC Central, French’s lone Division I touchdown.

French’s downside is his size, although he tops 200 on his 5-9 frame. Head coach Bill Belichick has a good track record in finding success with undersized players. If French does the little things right, he will have opportunities to showcase his speed.

Hall, the Michigan transfer, is the biggest back in the room, weighing in at 235 pounds. He is a power back and a downhill runner.

Photo by Joe Robbins/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

Benjamin Hall

Despite his size, Hall did not get much action up in Ann Arbor. He had just 44 carries and 131 yards in two seasons with the Wolverines. Needless to say, Hall will get an opportunity here.

Hall will earn snaps because of his blocking ability. He has an 82.5 PFF grade in pass protection, which is near the top of the ranking. By focusing on the fundamentals and doing the dirty work, Hall will get reps with the ball.

A new, yet familiar face will lead the group. Carolina legend Natrone Means was promoted by Belichick to running backs coach. Means, who is tied with Ethan Horton for eighth in program history with 3,074 rushing yards, spent the last four seasons as an offensive analyst for the team.

There are a lot of unknowns this season, and the running back room is no exception. The players have different styles, which allows offensive coordinator Freddie Kitchens to open up the playbook. Expect a committee approach early, but who will emerge as Carolina’s featured back?

Belichick said that Kitchens is “an aggressive coach who wants to have a physical team, physical running game [and] physical presence on offense.” Kitchens’ zone-heavy scheme, combined with the new mantra of building from the inside-out, tends to favor the downhill runners.

Do Gause and Hall have the early upper hand with their styles? Perhaps, but doing the whole job of a running back is a focus of this coaching staff.

Hood spoke about spending more time during practice on hitting drills, blocking, and ball protection. This is where toughness and heart earn reps on offense. The featured back will be the one who best embodies that aggressive, physical style.

UNC Football: Tar Heels flip four-star Carson Sneed from Tennessee

2025-08-03T11:00:00-04:00

Nicole Hester / The Tennessean / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Another big time addition for UNC!

On August 1, North Carolina football received some extremely positive recruiting news regarding the 2026 class.

Four-star tight end Carson Sneed, a longtime commit to the University of Tennessee, officially announced his flip to Bill Belichick and the Tar Heels. The Nashville native will join forces in Chapel Hill with his brother, who also transferred from the Volunteers in the most recent cycle.

BREAKING: Four-Star TE Carson Sneed has Flipped his Commitment from Tennessee to North Carolina, he tells me for @rivals

The 6’6 245 TE from Nashville, TN had been Committed to the Vols since August 2024

“My recruitment is shut down.”https://t.co/G7JgZwHxHr pic.twitter.com/jFPgb3CIQo
— Hayes Fawcett (@Hayesfawcett3) August 1, 2025

Sneed is listed at 6’6” and 245 pounds, ranking as a top-20 player both in the state of Tennessee and at his position. According to 247 Sports, Sneed’s commitment slots UNC as the No. 18-ranked recruiting class in the country, making them the fourth-highest ACC squad behind Miami, Clemson and Florida State.

This is not the first time that new head coach Bill Belichick has flipped a recruit from a school located in their home state. A few weeks ago, four-star safety Jakob Weatherspoon, an Avon, Ohio native, made the commitment switch to the Tar Heels.

The 2026 class now sits at 35 commits, the most of any school ranked within the top-50. Belichick and his support staff are clearly looking to turnover the entire roster into their players, and they continue to do so by flipping marquee prospects.

Tyler Hansbrough to help give UNC Convocation this month

2025-08-03T09:00:00-04:00

Photo by Peyton Williams/UNC/Getty Images

20 years after he started at UNC, Hansbrough will help greet the class of ‘29

One of the great things about the outstanding athletics program at UNC is that if you need someone to be a motivating speaker for a group of students, you have a rich...well...to draw from. We saw this in action this past May, when UNC great and US Soccer star Mia Hamm gave the commencement speech to the class of ‘25, and another great will be speaking to students before classes start up again.

Former UNC basketball star Tyler Hansbrough will lead convocation at the university on Aug. 17.

Soccer star Mia Hamm was graduation speaker in May.
— Brian Murphy (@murphsturph) July 31, 2025

Convocation is a time when the administrators at Carolina open their arms to the first year students that are about to begin their academic journey. It’s traditionally held the day before the first day of class, and in the past it’s also been timed to lead into a mass student gathering welcoming everyone back to campus. First-years also start to learn the school songs, and if they haven’t yet, begin to make connections that will last them through UNC and beyond.

Hansbrough should be a good choice to speak, as the 2009 National Champion has been around the world with his professional career, but life brought him back to Chapel Hill both as a podcast host and as an occasional color commentator for the Tar Heels Sports Network.

Using former athletes seems to be a theme under Chancellor Lee Roberts. Last year, Erin Matson was the speaker for the ceremony—fresh off her first year of being the head coach of the UNC Field Hockey team after her ridiculously successful run as a player.

This announcement, plus the start of summer practice for the football team on Saturday, means that signs of life are starting to pop up on the Chapel Hill campus. UNC’s First Day of Class is two weeks from tomorrow, August 18th, with move-in happening between August 13th and 17th. Amazingly, the first exhibitions of the 2025-26 college sports year happen this week, with the defending national champion women’s soccer squad taking on UNCW on Wednesday, and the men’s squad taking on Campbell on Saturday, August 9th.

In fact, by the time Hansbrough speaks to the students, two 2025 events will be in the books as the women’s team will take on Tennessee on August 14th and then Sienna on August 17th. Of course, the countdown will also be on for the first football game on Labor Day, September 1st.

UNC Football: Extremely Quiet and Incredibly Close

2025-08-02T13:00:00-04:00

Photo by Chris Leduc/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

One thin sheet of paper on the calendar now separates us from the season opener

July has finally dripped off of the calendar, and we find ourselves melting into the final month without Tar Heel football. August, unusually, has arrived on the scene with a welcome break from the heat here in North Carolina’s piedmont, just in time for the imminent start of practice for the Carolina football team.

We’re within a month of the season, and there are still question marks all over the roster, at least from where I sit. I’m not sure that those questions will have concrete anwers anytime soon, either; Coach(es) Belichick and the rest of the staff will doubtless remain tight-lipped about two-deep specifics, hunting for any possible edge in the season opener as all eyes now turn to the Labor Day tilt against the Horned Frogs of TCU. Fall camp is underway in Chapel Hill, though, and any questions left outstanding when it ends will all come crashing to clarity in 30 days.

A month is not all that long, but that can be both a blessing and a curse. A blessing, obviously, for us: we get to watch the Tar Heels soon, and ever sooner. A curse, perhaps, for a coaching staff and team with new faces throughout who are trying to adjust to each other on a timeframe that can no longer be counted in months. Before we know it, we’ll be in the middle of the season, and there will be a transfer with whom we are currently unfamiliar who will feel like he’s always been a Tar Heel. It’s the nature of the college football season, the rubber-banding of the normal flow of time between the interminable offseason and the beautifully hectic and short-lived season.

I’m choosing to operate under the belief that no news is good news. At least compared to earlier in this decades-long offseason, the quiet has a feeling of peace, rather than foreboding. The noise from outside Kenan Stadium crashes and breaks on the concrete; nothing answers from within. We may get some trickles of information, here and there; a guy who showed up having put on 25 pounds of muscle, perhaps, or someone whose work running routes over the summer is readily evident, but I expect the majority of the summer to be a hush unbroken even by cicadas.

That will make the roar of the home crowd on that Monday night that much sweeter, though. I, for one, can’t wait to hear more.

Bill Belichick looks to Gio Lopez as likely quarterback for new-look Tar Heels

2025-08-02T09:00:00-04:00

Photo by Derick E. Hingle/Getty Images

This group has potential, but how much potential is yet to be determined.

The 2025 Carolina football season feels like a fresh start in a number of ways. There are the obvious things, like a complete overhaul in the coaching staff, but the other way that this team feels like a fresh start is because of the roster. There are a number of Mack Brown era survivors that we will see suit up in Carolina blue this season, but there are also a decent amount of new faces. When it comes to arguably the most important position in football, we will see mostly new faces come out of the tunnel at Kenan Stadium, but there is one familiar name that will join them.

With no further delay, let’s take a look at this year’s quarterback class for the Tar Heels, but first, we have to discuss the players that are no longer with the program.

Key Departures

The most obvious key departure from last year’s team is Jacolby Criswell, who actually had two separate tenures with the Tar Heels. After transferring from Arkansas, Criswell managed to land the starting quarterback job after Max Johnson went down with an injury. There was a guy that took the starting job before he stepped into the role, but we will get to him in a second. Criswell finished his season completing 58.1% of his throws for 15 touchdowns and six interceptions. I would classify his senior campaign as steady, with no extreme up or downs in his game. After having to fill the massive shoes Drake Maye left behind, Criswell’s expectations for me was to be a net positive for the team, and not try to do too much. I would say that he accomplished that mission.

The other key departure was Conner Harrell, who immediately took over as the starter when Johnson got hurt. He started a few games for the Heels, but wasn’t able to have a whole lot of success. He ultimately finished his season completing 56% of his passes for two touchdowns and a pick before getting benched in favor of Criswell. Following Mack Brown’s departure, Harrell decided to transfer to Charlotte for his junior season.

Key Returnee

The only key member of the quarterback room that returned from last season was Max Johnson, who went down with an injury rather quickly against Minnesota in the first game of the season. To be perfectly honest, it was really hard to get a fair evaluation of Johnson since he got injured so quickly, but the draw for fans going into last season was that he was a SEC quarterback that perhaps could bring some juice to what was a questionable situation. It’s unclear if we will see him much this season, but as we know from 2024, anything could happen.

Key Additions

When looking at the new faces at quarterback for UNC, we have to start with Gio Lopez. Hailing from Madison Alabama, Lopez started in 11 games for South Alabama, and was very impressive in those games. He finished the season completing 66% of his passes for 2,559 yards, 18 touchdowns, and five interceptions. Considered a dual-threat quarterback, Lopez also ran 73 times for 540 yards. The overall feeling is that Lopez will be starting for the Tar Heels, which tracks if you are looking at college experience and talent.

Another newcomer for the Tar Heels is incoming freshman Bryce Baker. The North Carolina native is a four-star prospect out of East Forsyth High School, and was ranked as the 11th-best quarterback in the 2025 class. Baker is quite the athlete, who played football, basketball, and ran track & field in high school. He finished his senior season completing 74.8%(!!!) of his passes for 3,523 yards and 40 touchdowns, while also running for 536 yards. There’s no doubt that Belichick has a promising young talent that could likely step in if needed, and if I were to expect any sudden change during the season, I wouldn’t be shocked if it involved Baker.

Outlook

While it’s really hard to know how to feel about UNC as a team going into September, I do feel like the quarterback room is pretty solid, though I say that cautiously. I have mostly heard positive buzz about Gio Lopez, but there’s the obvious increase in difficulty that comes with joining a Power Four team. Should Belichick not get the warm fuzzies about him after a couple of games, I do feel like Max Johnson or Bryce Baker could step in, but then it becomes a question of what do you want from your quarterback? Do you want an athletic guy who may be too young to make the mature plays, or do you want the experienced SEC veteran who a number of us were skeptical of going into last season because it didn’t seem like Texas A&M fans loved him all that much? Thankfully I do not get paid to answer such questions with any kind of authority, but given the fact that we’ve had to deal with the Chazz Surratt / Nathan Elliott season, all I can say is: I’m just thankful that there are options if the initial starter doesn’t pan out.

The thing that I am the most curious about with this group is whether or not they will be the biggest factor in whether the team wins or loses this year. I don’t say this because I think they are weaker than the other groups — if I’m being honest, I don’t really have an opinion one way or another at the moment — but I say it because none of the guys that I have discussed in this article are of Drake Maye or Sam Howell quality…or at least that we know of. It’s hard for me to have specific expectations with how different this team looks, specifically at the quarterback position, but I at least feel like this is a serviceable group that probably will be more of a positive than a negative. Let’s just hope that I am right.

Home Run Derby X to feature Gavin Gallaher

2025-08-01T11:00:00-04:00

Steven Worthy / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

The action will be on next Saturday at the Durham Bulls Athletic Park and feature multiple former MLB players

If there is one thing a minor league ballpark can do, it’s find ways to use the space even when their team is on the road. Major League Baseball has helped their affiliates out with this by creating a new product that tours various stadiums during the summer: Home Run Derby X.

Everyone is aware at this point that the Home Run Derby is the most popular part of the All Star Weekend, and it was even used this year as a way to settle the tie in the All Star Game. The format has been messed around with, but the basic heart of it is this: Hit as many home runs as possible.

Home Run Derby X takes this format and makes it a team competition that tours the country. If you want to know the full rules for how Home Run Derby X works, check them out here—basically defense also matters. MLB has also found a theme for each area in which they play. For instance, when they are in Des Moines, they lean into the Cubs vs Cardinals rivalry. In Oklahoma City—which is not only home of the NCAA College World Series for Softball, but will be the venue for softball in the 2028 Summer Olympics—they are bringing in star softball players to compete.

So it shouldn’t be a surprise that the format in Durham is called “Clash of the Colleges.” It’s taking advantage of the UNC/Duke/NC State players all within a stone’s throw of the park, and matching them with various teams that also include former MLB players. Thanks to NIL and the ability of college players able to make money with events like this now, current players will be on the field playing.

Which gets us to UNC’s representative: Gavin Gallaher.

The team that Gallaher will join will be comprised of him, former Atlanta Braves great Andruw Jones, and USA Baseball and Softball Superwoman Alex Hugo. This group will be competing as part of the Braves, a nod to one of the teams that the Durham Bulls used to be affiliated with. NC State’s Chris McHugh will be with the Nationals team, Duke’s Jessica Oakland and Macon Winslow will join former Red Sox player Manny Ramirez, and ECU’s Colby Wallace will play for the Cubs team.

All in all, the event looks to be a star-studded show full of players that you’ll recognize, and frankly a great opportunity for all of these college players to get some first-hand advice from former major leaguers as they look to take the next step themselves.

Tickets are available for $18-$33, and note that, unlike most minor league games, the outfield seats are the most expensive for obvious reasons. The action kicks off at 7 PM next Saturday, August 9th at the Durham Bulls Athletic Park, and the winning team gets to go to Salt Lake City in Late September for a chance to win from a $200,000 prize pool. It appears that it should be a great night to see Gallaher and plenty of former MLB players hit some dingers.

The Tar Heels add High Point transfer Ivan Matlekovic to the 2025-26 roster

2025-08-01T09:00:00-04:00

Photo by Rich Graessle/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

Hubert Davis is working until the 11th hour to complete his roster.

There had been some talk for some weeks now that UNC may not be completely done putting together their 2025-26 roster, and it turns out that there was some accuracy to that. Last night, it was announced that Hubert Davis added High Point University transfer Ivan Matlekovic to his roster, which should in theory put a bow on the Heels’ involvement in the transfer portal for the summer.

Ivan Matlekovic is a 6’11” sophomore from Croatia. During his lone season with the Panthers, Matlekovic averaged 2.6 points per game, 1.8 rebounds, and 0.8 blocks per game while averaging 6.2 minutes of playing time. Needless to say, this move by Hubert Davis feels like it is to build depth more than anything, but you never know how guys like this will turn out. It’s worth noting that Matlekovic played for a professional league prior to attending High Point, and during that time he averaged 5.9 points and 5.1 rebounds per game.

Now that Hubert Davis has landed yet another big man, here is how the roster is looking: as far as the front court goes, Davis has four players on the roster that are 6’10” or taller, with Caleb Wilson barely being left out due to being 6’9”. UNC also has a number of guards on the roster, with Seth Trimble and Kyan Evans likely being the two highlights. Matlekovic also gives Davis his sixth transfer, which is a pretty wild number. Though let’s be honest: it’s probably normal for some teams at this point, because that is just where we’re at with college basketball now.

I will wrap things up by saying what I said at the beginning of this article: landing the former High Point big man should wrap up the Heels’ adventure in the transfer portal. I would be shocked if we see any other moves made since there are already 12 players on the roster. It will be interesting to see how quickly this roster can become a team — only three players from last year’s team stayed, and one of them didn’t even play last season. We’re in a very unfamiliar place, friends, but let’s hope all of this leads to some good things this fall.

UNC Basketball: Tar Heel women to take on South Carolina in preseason exhibition

2025-07-31T13:00:00-04:00

Photo by Carmen Mandato/Getty Images

Carolina will get a big name test ahead of the new season.

Last week, the North Carolina Tar Heels’ men’s basketball team announced that they were going to take on BYU in a high profile preseason exhibition game. This week, the women followed suit with a big clash of their own.

On October 30th, ahead of the new college basketball season, the UNC women will take on South Carolina at State Farm Arena in Atlanta.

The Gamecocks have been arguably the preeminent program in the women’s game in recent years. While they lost to UConn in the national championship game last season, South Carolina won the previous title and has two other titles and seven Final Four appearances since coach Dawn Staley took over in 2008.

UNC has gone through its ups and downs over the last 15 years, but they have been a regular opponent of the Gamecocks in that time. The two have met in the 2014, 2015, 2022, and 2024 NCAA Tournaments. The two teams also met in Chapel Hill in the inaugural ACC/SEC Challenge in 2023. South Carolina has generally gotten the better of things in that time, but the Heels have kept things close on most occasions.

This game will also be a very interesting test ahead of the Tar Heels’ new season. South Carolina is again seen as a contender for the national championship in 2025-26. UNC will get an up close and personal look at how they might be able to perform against that kind of team, but without it counting in the standings or having any effect on their NCAA Tournament résumé. The ACC figures to be a meat grinder again this year, so this could be a very valuable barometer ahead of the conference slate.

One other interesting thing about this matchup is the location. Not only is the location on neutral ground in Atlanta, but it’s at State Farm Arena, which is the home of the NBA’s Atlanta Hawks. The popularity of women’s college basketball has grown in recent years to a point where it would hardly be a shock if/when this game is packed out. UNC hasn’t had quite enough sustained success over recent years for them to be the driving force in that, but it would certainly be a fun trip for any Carolina fans that make it.

Again, this isn’t a game that will count in the standings, so you’ll only be able to draw so many conclusions from it. That being said, it should be a very fun opportunity for Courtney Banghart’s squad.