Spring practice in Chapel Hill began on this morning as the Tar Heels will officially took to the practice field for the first time since the hiring of Bill Belichick. While every position might be a battle entering camp because of the new staff, there are some spots that should be more competitive than others. Here are the top battles to watch in the spring.
Starting Quarterback
For a second straight year, the Tar Heels are set to start a battle for the starting quarterback job on Tuesday as redshirt freshman Ryan Browne and true freshman early enrollee Bryce Baker get the battle underway. Both guys will be hoping to separate themselves by the end of the spring before graduate Max Johnson can, hopefully, return from last year’s severe leg injury and compete for the job in the fall. This will easily be the most important one to monitor over the next month.
Starting Offensive Line
The Tar Heels return three of their five starters from last year’s offensive line, but there is only one that looks guaranteed to start, center Austin Blaske. It feels like Aidan Banfield and Trevyon Green will be left to battle for snaps at their respective positions with the four offensive line transfers that the team landed in the portal. Prairie View A&M transfer William Boone, Rice transfer Chad Lindberg and Alabama transfer Miles McVay are expected to be battling for those tackle spots, while Holy Cross transfer Christo Kelly will be doing so on the interior. It will be incredibly interesting to monitor who is standing out from these groups in the next month.
Starting Safeties
This is another position where there will be a blend of holdovers from Mack Brown’s final roster and transfers looking to gain some separation in the spring. Senior Will Hardy and sophomore Malcolm Ziglar headline the incumbents competing for the starting jobs, while transfers Coleman Bryson and Peyton Waters enter the fray hoping for bigger roles than they had at their previous stops. These should be some fierce battles and hopefully the team can begin to find some answers over the next month.
Starting Defensive Tackles
This is the one position group where it’s hard not to feel at least a little bit disappointed with where the team is at after the first opening of the transfer portal, but it should create some interesting battles after the team lost all four of its major contributors from a year ago. East Carolina transfer CJ Mims is the guy with the best shot at earning one of the starting jobs, while sophomores Joel Starlings and Rodney Lora and redshirt freshmen Peter Pesansky and Leroy Jackson will hope to show the staff they don’t need to add another starting caliber player to the room in the spring transfer window. Regardless of what happens, this is a position where the team should get some important answers over the next few weeks.
Starting Kicker
With the transfer of Noah Burnette, the Tar Heels are once again searching for a starting kicker. Holdovers Liam Boyd and Lucas Osada will have their shot, as will Michigan transfer Adam Samaha who joined the team back in January. D2 transfer Jaffer Murphy and true freshman Guytano Bartolomeo will enter the conversation in the summer, but the spring trio will each have the chance to establish a little bit of an advantage over the others in the next few weeks.