Heel Tough Blog: Tar Heels Name Team Captains for 2026
On Monday morning, the Tar Heels officially named their captains for the 2026 season.
The group of seven contains senior edge rusher Melkart Abou Jaoude, senior cornerback Kaleb Cost, junior running back Benjamin Hall, senior Isaiah Johnson, graduate center Christo Kelly, graduate linebacker Derek McDonald and junior wide receiver Jordan Shipp.
In 646 snaps a year ago, Abou Jaoude tallied 47 total tackles, 12.0 tackles for loss, 10.5 sacks and 42 total quarterback pressures on his way to earning second team All-ACC honors.
As for Cost, he was much better last season after a rough first year at the position and is hoping to carry that over into this year. In the 480 snaps that he played a year ago, he collected 45 total tackles, 2.0 tackles for loss, an interception and five pass breakups while allowing 31 of his 45 targets to be caught for just 266 yards and one touchdown.
Hall is back for another season in Chapel Hill after serving as the team’s third option at running back for most of the year and is set for a bigger role after a big offseason. In 168 snaps this past season, Hall ran for 274 yards and two touchdowns on 71 carries and caught eight passes for 34 yards.
Johnson, who started three games for the team a year ago, collected 40 total tackles, 2.5 tackles for loss, 2.0 sacks and seven total quarterback pressures in 330 snaps and is poised for an increase in reps this season.
Kelly is one of the main vocal leaders on the team, but he is still relatively unproven at this level after playing just sixteen snaps a year ago. In those snaps that we saw him play last season, he had trouble with slow snaps, so the hope is that the staff has been able to speed him up this offseason.
McDonald’s 2025 season was cut short by a hip injury, but he played a major role for Syracuse in the previous three seasons. So far in his career, he has collected 173 total tackles, 7.0 tackles for loss, 3.5 sacks, an interception and three pass deflections, which are solid numbers to this point in his career.
Shipp caught 60 of his 80 targets for 671 yards and six touchdowns, easily leading the team in all three categories. With what is expected to be better quarterback play this season, he could be poised for an even bigger breakout season this year that could earn him first team All-ACC honors at the end of the season.
Comments