Heel Tough Blog: Tar Heels Lose Key Member of OL to Injury

To this point in camp, the Tar Heels have been relatively healthy by all accounts, but that injury luck changed on Sunday.

Earlier this evening, Inside Carolina revealed that the Tar Heel offensive lineman Austin Blaske has suffered a foot injury and will miss the start of the season. 

According to Inside Carolina lead writer Adam Smith, the injury took place sometime late this week during training camp and was a non-contact injury. Sources are telling Smith that the foot is in fact broken and that the timeline is close to two months for recovery. Early speculation is that the team is shooting to have him back for the conference opener against Clemson, which is set for October 4th in Kenan Stadium, but that timeline is based on the most optimistic scenario.

Blaske, who was the Tar Heels starter at center for twelve games last year, graded out with a 65.1 run block grade, an 84.5 pass block grade and a 69.5 overall grade, according to PFF, while failing to allow a single sack and allowing just five quarterback pressures in 780 snaps. Since Belichick’s arrival, he had been working all across the offensive line and was looking as if he was going to slot in at right guard to begin the season. Prior to his arrival in Chapel Hill, Blaske spent three seasons as a backup for the Georgia Bulldogs, where played in 15 games, splitting time between right and left tackle and center.

With Blaske out, the Tar Heels will likely turn to Troy transfer Daniel King to handle the bulk of the snaps at right guard early in the season. King, who was working at left guard a lot back in the spring, spent the last three years at Troy as a full-time starter splitting his time between left tackle, right guard and right tackle. In 2022 after transferring from Georgia Military Institute, he played 890 snaps, spending the 860 of them at right guard. He graded out with a 62.8 run blocking grade, a 74.4 pass blocking grade and a 65.2 overall grade while allowing two sacks and 13 total quarterback pressures. In 2023, he played all but one of his 963 snaps at right guard and posted a 66.4 run block grade, 75.5 pass block grade and 69.4 overall grade, he allowed five sacks and 15 total quarterback pressures in 520 pass block snaps on his way to earning second All-Sun Belt honors. This season, he rebounded nicely while splitting his 789 snaps between right guard (360) and right tackle (429), posting a 76.5 run blocking grade, a 79.6 pass blocking grade and a 75.8 overall grade while allowing just one sack and 10 total quarterback pressures on his way to earning second team All-Sun Belt honors once again. He should be the starter for the team, at least until Blaske returns and should maintain a rotational role once he is back.

Smith also points to Rice transfer Chad Lindberg as someone that could factor in here. This past season with the Owls, Lindberg played and started in eleven games across three different positions. He played 642 snaps last season, 377 of which came at left guard, 245 at left tackle, 17 at right guard and two at right tackle, showing just how versatile he is which could help him. He graded out incredibly well in pass protection with a 77.8 from Pro Football after allowing just one sack and 11 total pressures. He will have to improve in run-blocking scenarios after finishing the season with a 50.9 grade, something that was an issue for him in the limited snaps that he saw in 2023 at Georgia. He needs to be better than he was in the spring to show that he is deserving of the rotational reps for the team until Blaske returns.