Heel Tough Blog: Member of QB Battle Enters the Portal

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For the second time in the last 24 hours, the Tar Heels have received news of a significant entry into the transfer portal.

As first reported by Hayes Fawcett of On3 Sports, sophomore quarterback Ryan Browne, who transferred to the Tar Heels back in December, is re-entering his name into the transfer portal after competing for the starting quarterback job in spring camp for the team. Browne will have three years of eligibility remaining wherever he ends up landing.

Browne, who took the first team snaps for the first half of the ‘Practice Like a Pro’ event on Saturday, played in nine games in his two seasons at Purdue, including his two career starts which came this year against Illinois and Oregon. Last year, in the lone game that he played for the team, he threw for just 104 yards and two interceptions against Northwestern while filling in for the injured Hudson Card. This year, Browne played in eight games and finished the regular season with 532 yards passing and a 4-2 touchdown-interception ratio while completing 56.6% of his passes and 155 yards on 50 carries. In his first career start against Illinois, he threw for 297 yards and three touchdowns and ran for 118 yards on 17 carries. His second start against Oregon didn’t go nearly as well, but the Ducks were the best team in the country this past season.

This is a bit of a wild decision from Browne considering he probably had the edge coming into the final practice on Saturday night. The reasoning behind it, though, likely has to do with the combination of Bryce Baker’s promising showing on Saturday night and the team’s interest in South Alabama transfer Gio Lopez. With Browne now gone, the interest in Lopez makes even more sense and makes it important that the team lands some sort of experienced presence to battle Baker who still had some issues early in Saturday’s practice with holding onto the football too long and taking sacks. In terms of depth, the room is still in good shape, especially if Max Johnson can return to full action in the fall.