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The number seven is prominent as Carolina winds up the 2023 football season.
Seven starters, including Drake Maye, Tez Walker and three tight ends, plus star linebacker Cedric Gray, will miss the Tar Heels’ fifth straight bowl game Wednesday while a makeshift cast tries to avoid their fourth bowl loss in a row. West Virginia, at 8-4 like UNC, also enters the game with key starters sitting out.
Regardless of whether the Heels win or lose, however, early optimism has been building for the 2024 season and beyond, thanks to another great recruiting class by Mack Brown and his staff with promising signees, plus incoming transfers whose number won’t be final until they show up this spring.
The incoming recruiting class numbered twenty-SEVEN on National Signing Day, which is ranked 26th in the country and one of UNC’s largest ever.
For Maye, Gray and the other stalwarts, this would have been their last chance to win a game since Carolina edged Duke in the double-overtime thriller on November 11, when Maye twisted his way into the endzone and hit an acrobatic two-point pass to John Copenhaver in the 47-45 Senior Night win.
That replay was on the ACC Network Tuesday, and watching it again brought goose bumps. The Blue Devils nearly won the game behind third string freshman quarterback Grayson Loftis, who led Duke to a bowl win and may portal himself or face a high-profile transfer coming in under new coach Manny Diaz.
For the Tar Heels, their offensive depth chart is decimated. The O-line will be without center Corey Gaynor and replaced by the versatile Willie Lampkin, usually the right guard. Hopefully, they can open some holes for All-ACC back Omarion Hampton, who might get to carry the ball 50 times.
Maye will be replaced by 6-foot-1 red-shirt freshman Conner Harrell, who got into four games during the regular season and has gaudy stats, if a super-small sample size. Harrell had 132 yards of total offense, plus a 41-yard TD pass and a 71-yard TD run, both against Campbell. He finished with a 221 QB rating for the season.
Tez Walker will enter the NFL draft, where he’ll be among the fastest and best deep ball threats out of college. Harrell’s short passing game won’t have the same weapons as Maye did on his way to 3,608 yards on the season and 24 touchdown passes for a 149 rating, plus 449 net yards rushing and 9 TDs.
The biggest position drain is at tight end where All-ACC selection Bryson Nesbit, Copenhaver and Komari Morales are either opting out or injured.
The depth chart for the Mayo Bowl has listed red-shirt freshmen Deems May and Cal Tierney and true freshman Cort Halsey. Brown’s preferred game plan is one we’ve heard since before the season began: “Run the damn football.”
Photo via Associated Press/Reinhold Matay.
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