Heel Tough Blog: Tar Heels Lose Two Second Year Players to the Portal

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The portal deadline is closing in and two more Tar Heels have entered their names right before the buzzer sounds.

As they both announced via their social media accounts, sophomore tight end Ryan Ward and redshirt freshman edge rusher Curtis Simpson have entered their names into the transfer portal. Both guys will have four years of eligibility remaining wherever they eventually land.

Ward, a former 3✮ prospect, spent one season in Chapel Hill and played in 10 games for the team. He took eight snaps on offense and 60 snaps on special teams, failing to register any stats. This spring, though, Ward climbed the depth chart a bit and he had a tremendous showing in the ‘Practice Like a Pro’ event catching two touchdowns.

As for Simpson, he played in just one game, taking two special teams snaps for the team in last season’s regular season finale against NC State. As far as we know, he was still buried on the depth chart at the position again this spring leading to this transfer.

Ward is clearly the more impactful of the entries to the portal as there is a chance that he could have factored in this season as the team’s receiving tight end, but the tight end is still not in bad shape right now thanks to Jake Johnson and South Carolina transfer Connor Cox. At edge rusher, Simpson’s loss will be felt depthwise, but there is still a lot of depth in place with six scholarship players still in the room after the defections.