With the Tar Heels in the midst of official visits for their 2025 recruiting class, it appears that the staff has closed the book on the 2024 transfer cycle. While the Tar Heels may not rank amongst the nation’s top portal teams, they shouldn’t be receiving the criticism that many of the sites have been giving them for what they’ve done. Here’s a look at what they did and our grade for their transfer portal performance.
Outgoing (22)
OT Diego Pounds: North Carolina → Ole Miss
CB Tayon Holloway: North Carolina → Louisville
TE Kamari Morales: North Carolina → Boston College
WR Andre Greene Jr.: North Carolina → Virginia
RB Elijah Green: North Carolina → Indiana
RB George Pettaway: North Carolina → James Madison
LB Sebastian Cheeks: North Carolina → Wisconsin
WR Tychaun Chapman: North Carolina → Marshall
K Ryan Coe: North Carolina → California
DL Kedrick Bingley-Jones: North Carolina → Mississippi State
RB/DB D.J. Jones: North Carolina → Wyoming
LB Jalen Brooks: North Carolina → Campbell
QB Jefferson Boaz: North Carolina → Stephen F. Austin
IOL Chance Carroll: North Carolina → Georgia Southern
OT Justin Kanyuk: North Carolina → Georgia Southern
LB Deuce Caldwell: North Carolina →
QB Russell Tabor: North Carolina →
P Cole Maynard: North Carolina →
OT D.J. Geth: North Carolina → Liberty
CB Lejond Cavazos: North Carolina → Michigan State
S Ayden Duncanson: North Carolina → East Carolina
QB Tad Hudson: North Carolina → Coastal Carolina
While the team did lose a significant amount of players to the portal, only 18 of the 22 are scholarship players and just one of those was a full time starter by the end of the season. Diego Pounds’ departure at left tackle will certainly hurt and Tayon Holloway would have been nice to have at corner with Armani Chatman gone, but most of the other guys were young guys buried on the depth chart. Guys like Andre Greene Jr., George Pettaway were all younger players who had potential and their departure signifies the end of the program’s domination of Virginia. The good news is that most of the pieces that were buried on the depth chart have already been replaced by a massive 2024 recruiting class.
Incoming (10)
TE Jake Johnson: Texas A&M → North Carolina
S Jakeen Harris: NC State → North Carolina
RB Darwin Barlow: USC → North Carolina
IOL Zach Greenberg: Muhlenberg → North Carolina
QB Max Johnson: Texas A&M → North Carolina
OT Howard Sampson: North Texas → North Carolina
OT Jakiah Leftwich: Georgia Tech → North Carolina
IOL Austin Blaske: Georgia → North Carolina
QB Jacolby Criswell: Arkansas → North Carolina
DL Joshua Harris: Ole Miss → North Carolina
This certainly isn’t a historic class for the Tar Heels, but there are some big contributors that the team brought in. The team almost completely remade their offensive line, seeming to have found their starting center and left tackle already before Jakiah Leftwich and Zach Greenberg have even arrived. Jakeen Harris looks set to be a starter for the team at safety and both quarterbacks have a shot at the starting job entering fall camp. Jake Johnson, Darwin Barlow and Joshua Harris all have the chance to major contributors at their positions this season out of rotational roles.
Grade: B
It may seem like the Tar Heels lost more than they gained here, but they really didn’t lose any significant pieces outside of Diego Pounds. The turnover with the depth pieces shouldn’t be that shocking in this age of the portal and with 27 commits in this class, some turnover was required. The additions the team made will all be very helpful in their own way, although there were guys at almost every position that were more desirable and didn’t come to fruition because of a lack of NIL funding. The staff took care of the spots they needed to outside of backup linebacker, where the team could have probably used a more experienced rotational option. Overall, this is a solid haul and doesn’t deserve the criticism that some have given.