Heel Tough Blog: 10 Most Impactful Transfers
- Anthony Pagnotta
- 24 minutes ago
- 7 min read
The Tar Heels hit the transfer portal hard this offseason as they completely overhauled the roster in preparation for Bill Belichick’s first season on the sidelines. The team saw 51 outgoing transfers, but did take on 40 incoming transfers, including many who will play a major role on this team this season. Here is a look at the ten transfers that we think will have the biggest impact in 2025.
1. Thaddeus Dixon CB/Washington
Dixon is the most talented transfer that the team landed in the portal this cycle and will probably be the most impactful. He spent the last two seasons in Seattle with the Huskies after transferring in from Long Beach Community College where he played the first two years of his career. In 2023, he finished the season with 26 total tackles, 1.0 tackles for loss, one interception and five pass breakups while allowing 25 of his 40 receptions to be caught for 315 yards and four touchdowns in 361 snaps. This season, Dixon earned All-Big Ten honorable mention after an outstanding season where he finished with 43 total tackles, 2.0 tackles for loss, one interception and ten pass breakups while allowing just 23 of his 51 targets to be caught for 237 yards and two touchdowns in 751 snaps. He has a really good shot to be the team’s best player this season, especially on the defensive side of the ball.
2. Gio Lopez QB/South Alabama
It might be shocking that the projected starting quarterback isn’t atop the list, but that is how good we believe Dixon is going to be. Lopez, who ranked as one of the top quarterbacks in the portal in the spring window, is coming off of a two year career at South Alabama. Back in 2023, Lopez played in four games, starting his first career game against Troy, where he completed 17 of his 27 passes for 155 yards and an interception. He was much better in his next start in the team’s bowl game against Eastern Michigan as he threw for 192 yards and three touchdowns on 14 of 19 passing and rushed for 88 yards and a touchdown on just seven carries. This season was Lopez’s breakout year as he started eleven of the team’s twelve games, missing the second game of the season. In those twelve games, the Jaguars posted a 6-5 record while Lopez completed 206 of his 312 passes (66% completion percentage) for 2,559 yards, 18 touchdowns and five interceptions. He also ran for 463 yards and seven touchdowns on 83 carries. His performance will go a long way towards determining just how successful this season will be for the Tar Heels.
3. Andrew Simpson LB/Boise State
Simpson was the last addition for the team in the portal, but was one of the biggest that the team made this offseason as they look to fill the shoes of Amare Campbell. He is coming off a productive three-year career in Boise, where he saw action in 40 games, including 25 starts. This past season, as a junior, he finished with 45 total tackles, 11.0 tackles for loss, 3.0 sacks, 24 total quarterback pressures, three forced fumbles and one interception. The year prior was his breakout season when he collected 66 total tackles, 16.0 tackles for loss, 6.5 sacks, 33 total quarterback pressures, two forced fumbles and two interceptions. The expectation is that Simpson can come in here and be an all-conference caliber player and the Tar Heels need him to be that in the middle of this defense that will be attacked, especially by opposing run games.
4. Pryce Yates EDGE/Connecticut
When Yates originally committed, he was expecting to be paired alongside Beau Atkinson as the team’s top two edge rushers, but now he will be shouldering most of the load himself this season with Atkinson at Ohio State. He spent the first three years of his career with the Huskies and was a major contributor in all three. As a redshirt freshman in 2022 starting at defensive tackle, he finished with 45 total tackles, 9.0 tackles for loss, 4.5 sacks, 27 total quarterback pressures and one forced fumble in 528 snaps across thirteen games. In 2023, he moved out to the strongside defensive end spot and racked up 42 total tackles, 14.0 tackles for loss, 4.5 sacks and 30 total quarterback pressures in 559 snaps across twelve games. This season, he saw limited action because of an offseason injury, but he still tallied 21 total tackles, 6.5 tackles for loss, 3.5 sacks and 14 total quarterback pressures in 340 snaps across seven games. He closed his time with the Huskies by being named defensive MVP of the Fenway Bowl after collecting six total tackles, 3.0 tackles for loss and a sack. Yates is an all-conference caliber player and they will need him to be just that if this Tar Heel defensive line is going to have any chance of succeeding.
5. Daniel King OG/Troy
King was the biggest addition to the Tar Heels offensive line room this offseason and the spring proved he should be the most impactful. He spent the last three years at Troy as a full-time starter splitting his time between left tackle, right guard and right tackle. In 2022 after transferring from Georgia Military Institute, he played 890 snaps, spending the 860 of them at right guard. He graded out with a 62.8 run blocking grade, a 74.4 pass blocking grade and a 65.2 overall grade while allowing two sacks and 13 total quarterback pressures. In 2023, he played all but one of his 963 snaps at right guard and posted a 66.4 run block grade, 75.5 pass block grade and 69.4 overall grade, he allowed five sacks and 15 total quarterback pressures in 520 pass block snaps on his way to earning second All-Sun Belt honors. This season, he rebounded nicely while splitting his 789 snaps between right guard (360) and right tackle (429), posting a 76.5 run blocking grade, a 79.6 pass blocking grade and a 75.8 overall grade while allowing just one sack and 10 total quarterback pressures on his way to earning second team All-Sun Belt honors once again. King has the talent to be the anchor of the Tar Heel offensive line out of his offensive guard spot.
6. Khmori House LB/Washington
House was another huge addition for the team in the fall portal and is going to be expected to play a significant amount of snaps at linebacker this season. He played in all 12 games of his true freshman season with the Huskies, which included five starts. He finished the regular season with 35 total tackles, 1.0 tackle for loss, 0.0 sacks, eight total quarterback pressures, an interception and four passes defensed in 317 snaps. House is a player that has a ton of upside and will make an immediate impact for the team at linebacker, especially on passing down with how versatile he is.
7. Gavin Gibson CB/East Carolina
Gibson is another veteran addition that will make a major impact for the team in the defensive backfield. In Gibson’s lone season at East Carolina, he played in all thirteen games, starting ten of them at that nickel corner spot. In the 630 snaps he played, he finished with 52 total tackles, 6.5 tackles for loss, six quarterback pressures, three interceptions and three pass breakups. Gibson was thrown at 53 times this season and while 36 of those were caught, he allowed 322 yards and two touchdowns and a 73.0 QB rating. Prior to that, he spent the first two seasons of his college career at Maryland where he played 315 snaps in 20 games. Gibson should be able to sure up the team’s nickelback spot and help make this one of the better secondaries in the ACC this season.
8. CJ Mims DL/East Carolina
Mims and Robinson are pretty interchangeable but we’ll lean with Mims here because of how important he is going to be in run defense. He played in all 12 of the team’s games this season as a rotational piece on the defensive line for the Pirates. In 339 snaps, he finished with 23 total tackles, 4.0 tackles for loss, 1.5 sacks, eight total quarterback pressures and a forced fumble. He played in 12 games in 2023 as well in the same role, tallying 14 total tackles, 2.0 tackles for a loss, 0.5 sacks, 2 total quarterback pressures and a forced fumble. Mims will be incredibly important in the middle of this defensive line and the team needs him to take his game to the next level this season.
9. D’Antre Robinson DL/Florida
Robinson is still going to be a big part of the charge up front for the Tar Heels this season based on the upside that he showed in his lone season at Florida. Robinson, the former 4✮ prospect in the 2024 class, spent his true freshman season in Gainesville where he played 162 snaps on defense and seven snaps on special teams across eleven games. He finished the season with 17 total tackles, 3.0 tackles for loss, 1.5 sacks and two total quarterback hurries. Prior to that, he spent two years at Jones High School in Orlando, FL where he had 168 total tackles, 37.0 tackles for loss and 19.0 sacks. The Tar Heels are hoping that Robinson will be able to build on the promise that was there this past season and become a consistent producer for the team in the middle of that defensive line.
10. Smith Vilbert EDGE/Penn State
Vilbert may not have been very productive in his time at Penn State, but the Tar Heels will be asking much more of him this year with Atkinson’s departure. In 2019, as a true freshman, he played in just two games, failing to register any stats before he took a redshirt season. The following year, during the COVID season, he played 49 snaps between defense and special teams, finishing with just one total tackle and one quarterback pressure. In 2021, he saw the most extensive action of his career to that point when he played 182 snaps on the defensive side of the ball and finished the season with seven total tackles, 4.0 tackles for loss, 3.0 sacks and four quarterback hurries. All three of his sacks that season came in the Outback Bowl against Arkansas where he simply wrecked shop and had many hopeful about what he could become. He was hoping to build off of that the next season as a junior in 2022, but only saw action in the team bowl game against Utah where he played just five snaps before he missed the entire 2023 season with an injury that led to a medical redshirt. This past year was his most successful at the college level, as he featured in all 16 games that the Nittany Lions played, playing a career-high 339 defensive snaps and 80 special teams snaps. In those snaps, he collected 12 total tackles, 4.0 tackles for loss and 1.5 sacks. The Tar Heels will most likely be counting on him to play a lot more this season and need him to be an effective player off the edge to take some of the attention off of Yates and free him up.