Mack Brown said a couple of weeks ago prior to the game against the Florida State Seminoles that the Tar Heels bye week would be where they would sit down and talk to players about what their plans for next season would be. Brown said that, similar to what they did before fall camp, each guy would have their role laid out there for them and they could decide from there what they wanted to do with their futures. Those conversations have already started and decisions are already being made based on the news that was released on Monday morning.
The struggles of redshirt sophomore Khafre Brown this season are well known and that will be the lasting memory that most Tar Heel fans will now have of him. As first reported by Inside Carolina and Tar Heel Illustrated, Brown has entered his name into the transfer portal as of Monday morning and that was confirmed just a short time afterwards when he posted on social media about his decision to transfer. This comes after hauling in just one catch this season, a 75-yard touchdown in the third game of the season against Virginia. This comes after a redshirt freshman season where he showed some nice signs, hauling in 15 catches for 337 yards and two touchdowns and even starting two games in place of the injured Beau Corrales late last year. His biggest issue this season, though, were the drops, something that he could never seem to shake after an important one in the Orange Bowl last year. The talent is definitely there for the former 4✮ prospect from Charlotte, NC and he is electric and has plenty of success after the catch when the football is in his hands, but he has to be able to catch the football going forward and have a chance to showcase those attributes.
This move is one that makes some sense, though, when you realize that his snap count had steadily dropped all season and that it culminated on Saturday with him failing to take a single snap for the Tar Heels. Still, this is an impactful loss for a Tar Heel team that hasn’t found another consistent receiving threat to go alongside of Josh Downs. That leaves the Tar Heels with one less option as they attempt to find some sort of solution on the outside at wide receiver. With Beau Corrales looking like he will likely not play this season, that likely means the group of Emery Simmons, Antoine Green and Justin Olson will be left to figure out the problems on the outside. The hope is that this possibly opens the door for one of the younger guys such as Kobe Paysour, J.J. Jones or Tylee Craft to get some snaps here late in the season.
Brown entrance into the portal might not be the last of these decisions that we get this week. The Tar Heels still have another influx of talent coming in this year on the recruiting trail and there are a lot of current members of the team who have seen their roles change during this season. Don’t be shocked if we see a couple of other names surface that could at least test the transfer waters in the next few days.