As we head into the offseason, it’s time to bring back the weekly storyline to help you catch up on what you may have missed around Tar Heel football over the past week. This week around Tar Heel football was a busy one, so there is no better time than now to bring this feature. Here are the storylines that may have slipped under the radar this week.
Quincy Roche Closing in on Decision
The former Temple Owl defensive end, who played against the Tar Heels in the final game of his Temple career, is closing in on making his transfer decision. The American Conference Defensive Player of the Year entered the portal back on New Year’s Day and has progressed quickly with his decision. Many schools have shown interest, but Carolina is one of the few that he has shown some mutual interest with. The roadblock appears to be the fact that he wants to enroll early, something he won’t be able to do at Carolina with all of the early enrollee spots already filled. There are some rumors rumbling around that it is between the Tar Heels and Georgia Tech at this point, and while these are just rumors, these are the two schools that he seems to have the closest ties to at this time. As of right now, there are no crystal ball predictions for where Roche will land, but there should be some emerging in the next few days. If the Tar Heels can convince him to enroll in the summer landing Roche would be a huge addition for a Tar Heel defensive line that is tasked with replacing their two best players from this season as they head into next year. Roche finished his Temple career with 137 total tackles, 39.5 tackles for loss and 26.0 sacks, closing it with career highs in tackles for loss (19.0) and sacks (13.0) in 2019.
Carolina Holds Off A&M; Holds on to Tim Brewster
This was some news that actually snuck under the radar until this morning, but Brewster was offered the opportunity to return to Jimbo Fisher’s staff in College Station. The offer came after the Aggies tight end coach Joe Jon Finley bolted for Ole Miss, leaving the Aggies to find their third coach at the replacement in the last three years. As reported today by multiple sources, Brewster will remain with the Tar Heels after turning down the offer. While the tight ends may not have had a great overall season in their first year under Brewster, he made a major impact in his role as recruiting coordinator, headmanning the push to land an early signing class back in December that ranked 19th according to 247Sports Composite team rankings.
Major 2021 Targets Beginning to Narrow Things Down
Three major 2021 in-state targets a looking to take that next step in their recruitments sooner rather than later. 4✮ WDE Naquan Brown got things started on New Year’s Day when he listed the Tar Heels in his top ten. 4✮ RB Evan Pryor announced on social media Monday that he was down to five schools for his services, a group that he decided to keep quiet, but that is expected to contain the Tar Heels. 3✮ ILB Dameon Wilson as made an announcement on Monday about his future, revealing that he will cut his list to five soon, another list the Tar Heels are expected to be snuggly on. As for 4✮ ATH Gabriel Stephens, he too will be looking to narrow down his list soon, but his focus will be a bit wider, as he’ll release a top seven. This is a list that the Tar Heels are expected to top being that they are the early favorites for him.
2020 LS Spencer Triplett Commits to Carolina
The Tar Heels added their second preferred walk-on commitment of the 2020 class back on New Year’s Day when Triplett announced his commitment. Triplett, rated by Rubio’s LS as the No. 15 long snapper in the class of 2020, hails from Shelby, NC and earned first team all-conference and second-team all-region honors for his duties as a long snapper this past year with the Golden Lions. Both Trevor Collins, who handled long snapping duties on field goals, and Drew Little, who handled the long snapping for punts, will return in 2020, meaning Triplett will likely be a depth option in his first year on campus.