Heel Tough Blog: Availability Report - California

After a second bye week in three weeks, the Tar Heels are on their way out west to take on California in an ACC contest, set for tomorrow night, at 10:30 PM on ESPN. Carolina has only played once in the past 27 days, a blowout loss to Clemson, despite Bill Belichick’s insistence that his team is improving. The good news about the time off is that it allowed for some players to get healthy, heading into the back half of the season, where Carolina will play seven straight games without a week off. One notable update during the bye week was the medical retirement of veteran running back Caleb Hood, who endured an injury-plagued five seasons with the UNC program before calling it a career. 

Something new this year to the ACC is availability reports, where each program has to provide an update on players that are either currently injured or working their way back from injury, for each ACC game, which every game the rest of the way qualifies as such. In addition to Caleb Hood’s medical retirement, UNC will be without star corner Thad Dixon. In addition to Dixon’s absence, Carolina will also be without Ty White, Peyton Waters, Chinedu Onyeagoro, Tyler Houser, Jake Bauer, Peter Pesansky, Laderion Williams, Kamarion Thomas, Cort Halsey, Deems May, and Guytano Bartolomeo. 

While Carolina has a number of players that aren’t available for tomorrow night’s game, there are a handful of players that are either questionable or probable to play, including defensive backs Kahlil Conley and Ty Adams, along with offensive lineman Aidan Banfield. 

In addition to the availability report, Carolina also released an updated depth chart coming off the bye week, and with QB Gio Lopez not on the injury report, he was listed above Max Johnson on the depth chart, leading you to believe that he will be the starter for the game against California. That shouldn’t come as a surprise, as every time he’s had the opportunity to endorse Johnson as the starter, Belichick has reinforced their commitment to Lopez, despite massive struggles so far during his first season at UNC, and at the Power 4 conference level. 

Make sure to tune in to tonight’s live edition of the Heel Tough Blog Podcast, beginning at 8 PM, on the Heel Tough Blog social media platforms.