While the Tar Heels got their season off to a solid start on Saturday night with a 56-24 win, they head into Week 1 with some important injuries already affecting them. As the team revealed just prior to Monday’s presser, they willing being monitoring the statuses of both Josh Downs and Tony Grimes throughout this week after they suffered injuries in the game on Saturday night and both will be questionable heading into the trip to Appalachian State.
Brown did confirm early in his presser on Wednesday that sophomore Ohio State transfer cornerback Lejond Cavazos is “well” and is on track to be able to play this weekend. This comes after a lower body kept him out for a good portion of fall camp and forced him to miss the opener this past Saturday.
This would be a huge boost for the Tar Heel secondary, especially if Grimes can’t go due his upper body injury. With Cavazos just returning practice earlier this week, it seems unlikely that he will be a starter on Saturday, but having him as a rotational option would be huge after the struggles for the unit against Florida A&M. The two players that played the most reps for the team the other night at corner, Storm Duck and Dontae Balfour, were targeted a combined 21 times, fifteen of which were caught for 180 yards and a touchdown. Having Cavazos back would be a huge help if that duo was to struggle once again.
Brown also provided an update on wide receiver Antoine Green, who is recovering from a broken collarbone. Green is back to running and even catching balls already, a great progression that has him on track to return well within the original window that was laid out for him.