Last week, the Tar Heels saw two players enter their name into the transfer the past week in the midst of the team’s bye and on Monday that number climbed to three.
As first reported by Inside Carolina and Tar Heel Illustrated earlier this morning, Tar Heel junior running back Josh Henderson has entered his name into the transfer and will look to go elsewhere after a three-year stint in Chapel Hill. As a true freshman back in 2019, Henderson appeared in eight games, finishing with 127 yards of 18 carries, including rushing for a career-high 98 yards in the game against Mercer. Last year, he appeared in all 12 games for the Tar Heels between running back and special teams, once again carrying the ball 18 times, but for just 61 yards while also catching three passes for 10 yards. This season, Henderson had only seen action in three of the seven games and carried the ball five times for 21 yards, twice against Georgia State and three times against Virginia. He finishes his Tar Heel career with 44 touches for 219 yards in 73 offensive snaps and four total tackles in 23 games.
With his playing time being reduced this year this shouldn’t come as much of a shock, especially with what the Tar Heels are bringing in at the spot in the 2022 class to go along with the returning members of the backfield. Leading rusher Ty Chandler will depart after the season and there is a chance that depth back British Brooks could be gone, but the rest of the group, sophomore D.J. Jones, redshirt freshman Elijah Green and true freshmen Caleb Hood and Kamarro Edmonds, are all scheduled to be back next season. The group will also add a strong duo to the room in the offseason, as 2022 4✮’s Omarion Hampton and George Pettaway will bring two extremely talented options, hopefully starting in January.
This will likely be the end of the in-season transfers for the Tar Heels as they now set their eyes on Saturday’s trip to South Bend to face Notre Dame. The good news for the Tar Heels is that none of these three losses are crippling and that this will likely open up scholarships for a team that needs to be aggressive in the transfer portal this offseason.