Heel Tough Blog: Jelani Thurman Named Mackey Award Semifinalist
The Tar Heels landed a player on the Bednarik Award semifinalist list on Tuesday and on Wednesday they followed up by landing one of their star offensive players on a significant semifinalist list.
The Nassau County Sports Commission released its list of semifinalists for the Mackey Award, which is awarded to the nation’s best tight end at the end of each season, and Tar Heel tight end Jelani Thurman was amongst the prestigious group of nine. He becomes the first Tar Heel tight end to be named a semifinalist since Bryson Nesbit back in 2023.
So far this season, Thurman has played 519 snaps across the first nine games of the season and has caught 45 of his 64 targets for 525 yards and eight touchdowns, the latter of which is tied for a single season program record and leads all tight ends in college football. He sits tied for fourth nationally in receptions and third in receiving yards.
With the way that he has been playing in the last couple of weeks, Thurman has a legitimate shot to win this award. TCU’s Kari Ashley and Virginia Tech’s Luke Reynolds seem to be the two positioned in a similar spot to him and both are worthy of the awards, as well. With the passing pretty reliant on him and Jordan Shipp and Bobby Petrino continuing to do a good job of freeing those guys up, there is a chance that he could become the first Tar Heel to ever take home this award.
The three finalists for the award will be revealed on November 24th and it will be handed out at the ESPN Home Depot College Football Awards on December 11th.
Comments