The Tar Heels return to action on Saturday against the Wake Forest Demon Deacons after their second bye week in the last month. This was a great chance for the team to tweak anything that still wasn’t quite where they wanted it to be in the previous two weeks and rest up for a stretch of three straight winnable games to close out the season.
As expected, the team’s injury report was rather sparse outside of the players who are already out for the season. Running back Darwin Barlow seemed to reaggravate whatever lower-body injury he has been dealing with for most of the year during the Florida State game and a team spokesperson said Monday he will not play Saturday as a result. With him sidelined again, the expectation is that true freshman Davion Gause will handle all of the backup reps behind workhorse starter Omarion Hampton.
Meanwhile, junior tight end Bryson Nesbit’s status remains the same as it was before the bye week as he continues to recover from surgery to repair a broken wrist. With no change, it’s getting harder to envision him returning to the field this season with just two more games left in the regular season and him likely heading to the NFL Draft at season’s end. John Copenhaver will continue to handle the bulk of the snaps at tight end with help from Jake Johnson whenever the team wants to use two tight end sets, which they’ve continued to do at a pretty high rate since Nesbit’s injury.
The rest of the roster is in great shape for this home stretch as the team looks to build off what they did in the two games prior to the open week and flip the narrative on what looked like a lost season entering the first bye.
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