Heel Tough Blog: LSU Kicker Transfer Signs With Tar Heels

Gus Stark- LSU Athletics

When the Tar Heels lost kicker Guytano Bartolomeo to the portal earlier this week, it became important that they brought in another kicker to compete with true freshman David Green. On Saturday, the team did just that in the form of an LSU transfer kicker that earned second team All-SEC and Freshman All-SEC honors in 2024.

As announced by the football program on Saturday evening, the Tar Heels have signed Aeron Burrell to be a part of their kicker room. He will have two years of eligibility remaining.

Burrell, who measures in at 6’2, 190 lbs., spent two seasons in Baton Rouge with LSU, handling the team’s kickoff duties. He was third nationally in both kickoff average (64.8) and touchback percentage (89.2%) and sixth in touchbacks (66) in 2024. This year, he wasn’t nearly as dominant, as he averaged 63.8 yards per kickoff, had just 45 touchbacks and posted just a 68.2% touchback percentage. Those numbers are still solid enough, though, to make this a legitimate pick up.

His commitment is a nice one as he will almost surely take over for Rece Verhoff on kickoffs and could provide a little competition for incoming freshman David Green at the placekicker spot. He’s not the sure thing that Verhoff was last year that could handle both roles, but that might speak more to the staff’s confidence in Green than anything.