Heel Tough Blog: Ten Names to Monitor Through the Rest of Fall Camp

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The Tar Heels are about halfway through fall camp as they steam towards the opener against TCU in Dublin. With us in the competition portion of camp as Bill Belichick said on Thursday, there will be some important names that we will be monitoring in the notes we receive about practice. Here is a look at the ten names that we will be following closely heading up until  the opener.

Benjamin Hall

One of the more interesting notes that came from the two days of training camp that the media was able to watch was that Hall was taking the first reps in most running back drills and it doesn’t seem like that is a coincidence. With Kaleb Jackson reportedly coming into camp overweight, it feels like there is an opportunity for reps at the running back position heading into the season opener and Hall seems poised to be the guy that can take advantage of that after emerging as a leader this offseason. Expect to hear his name a lot in the notes coming out of practice and for him to have a pretty significant role out of the gate in the Tar Heel backfield this season.

Jordan Hall

Hall was someone who ran with the second team some during the spring, but he has firmly established himself as a starter at left tackle in fall camp. Belichick brought his name up unprompted when talking about the veterans standing out on the offensive line and even talked about how he has made strides this offseason. He wasn’t bad in the final four games that he played a year ago, but the hope is that he has taken a step forward and can just be solid. If he can, he should hold on to this job for the majority of the season.

Greg Smith

Smith is one of the more intriguing members of the defensive side of the football this year as he makes the conversion from the hybrid linebacker/safety role that he played last year to one of the starting safety spots. We didn’t hear much about him in the spring, which could be seen as a good thing, but hopefully this is one that the media gets to see more of over the course of fall camp. With his success being a big key to what this secondary does this season, he needs to be someone that shines over the next few weeks.

Jonathan Agumadu

Agumadu was one of the guys who shined on the defensive side of the ball back in the spring and has himself fully entrenched in a battle with Derek McDonald to start at one of the team’s two linebacker spots. He is going to be a part of the rotation, but it feels like the goals have been readjusted for him over the past few months. If Agumadu is going to win this job, he is going to need to build off what he did in the spring and it will be interesting to see if that’s what the notes and intel tell us about this battle.

Jalon Thompson

Thompson is in the midst of a battle for the starting cornerback job opposite of Jaiden Patterson, but seems to be the name that is trending there right now. He was another guy that we didn’t hear a ton about back in the spring, but the hope is that he is showing the staff enough in the preseason to at least play rotational snaps at the position. In the best case scenario, he would beat out guys like Ade Willie and Tre Miller, who have struggled in coverage at times during their college careers, but he is going to have to earn it.

Peyton Waters

One of the more surprising notes that came from the latest media practice was that Waters was running with the ones. Waters only played in four games last year, but flashed his talent and it looks like he has shown that and made some headway early in training camp. It will be interesting to monitor him the rest of camp to see if he has taken enough of a step to be a starter when the team arrives in Dublin in three weeks.

Jacqawn McRoy

McRoy is another guy who exited the spring appearing to be a second teamer who spent his time with the first team in the first two media practices. He, too, will be locked in a battle in fall camp, as he’ll have to hold off Eidan Buchanan, who won a starting job out of camp last year at left tackle. McRoy is a former 4✮ prospect that may have finally found the right situation for him to succeed and it will be interesting to see if he stays in that starting role over the next few weeks.

Carson Sneed

Sneed is a player who has some nice buzz around him coming into camp and looks like he will get a chance to earn some significant snaps right out of the gate. He was a guy that shined as both a receiver and blocker throughout his high school career and if he can build upon the hype he is getting coming out of the summer, he could certainly earn a role in this room. It will be interesting to continue to monitor his progress over the next few weeks and see if he can be a part of the rotation that the team uses in the game against the Horned Frogs.

Trashawn Ruffin

You couldn’t go wrong with either Ruffin or Viliami Moala here after they seemed to make a nice impression in the spring, but we’ll go with Ruffin as the one that we’re keeping our eyes on the most. His size was what really stuck out back in April and the hope is that he can put everything together technically to be able to consistently make plays in fall camp. If he can do that, he might just play some rotational reps as soon as the opener at the defensive tackle spot.

Travis Burgess

It feels like any of the quarterbacks would be a good answer here, but Burgess has to be the most intriguing of the group now that he is a full go in practice. While it’s still likely to be Billy Edwards Jr. or Miles O’Neill in the opener, Burgess has the talent to make things interesting if both of those guys stumble a bit in camp. At the least, he has a chance to win the No. 3 quarterback job and set himself up to get called upon if Edwards and O’Neill struggle throughout the season.