As we sit here today, the Tar Heels are just 13 days away from the start of spring practice beginning in Chapel Hill. As we grew another we closer, let take a look at the most recent storylines around Tar Heel football that you may have missed from this past week.
Tar Heels Two PWO Receivers
Prior to this week, all three of the preferred walk-ons that the team had landed were either kickers or punters, but they were able to land two walk-on wide receivers in the last week. Brooks Miller, who played his high school football at Greater Atlanta Christian in Norcross, GA, was the first to commit when he did so on Wednesday. Miller finished his prep career with 99 career receptions for 1,418 yards and 15 touchdowns, with his best season coming this past fall as a senior where he hauled in 56 passes for 761 yards and ten touchdowns one his way to earning first team all-state honors from the Atlanta Journal Constitution. He would be joined on Friday when Charlotte, NC’s Thomas Flynn announced his decision to enroll as a preferred walk-on with the team later this summer. Flynn finished his prep career at Providence Day School this past fall with the most productive season of his career, hauling in 35 catches for 602 yards and nine touchdowns on his way to first team all-conference and all-region honors for the fall season in the state of North Carolina. He finishes with 92 catches for 1,320 yards and 16 touchdowns in his three years as a varsity player with the Chargers. Both guys will be joining the team later this year before the start of fall camp.
Former QB Ronald Curry Named QB’s Coach for the New Orleans Saints
Curry, a former quarterback for the Tar Heels from 1998-2001 who threw for a then-program record 4,987 yards and finished his career with 6,236 yards of total, a program record at the time as well, will now coach the position that he played at Carolina. Curry has been a part of the Saints staff since 2016. In each of the past five seasons, he has worked in some capacity with the wide receiving corps, helping aid in the development of guys like Michael Thomas and Trequan Smith along the way. Curry will now have the chance to try and navigate a smooth transition from franchise longtime franchise quarterback Drew Brees, who is set to retire, to the next starting quarterback of a Saints team that will look to remain a contender in the NFC for the foreseeable future.
Tar Heels Officially Out of the Running for 2022 3✮ Cornerback
2022 3✮ CB Ryland Gandy released his top 12 schools to the public on Sunday via social media and the Tar Heels were not among the group that will be battling for his services going forward. This shouldn’t come as too much of a shock with the team already having a commitment from Tayon Holloway and being in the running for some of the other top players in class in the class like 4✮ Jeadyn Lukus, 4✮ Daylen Everette and 3✮ Marcus Allen. Dre Bly already has this group in phenomenal shape thanks to his success on the trail since arriving and there is no reason to believe that he won’t be able to keep this as one of the ACC’s best going forward.
Chazz Surratt Participates in House of Athletes Combine
Surratt was amongst a substantial group of draft prospects to compete in the House of Athletes combine in conjunction with The Draft Network down in Weston, FL last week. In the event that took place last Thursday and Friday, Surratt had an up and down showing that left some scouts confused about where his draft stock sits with a little over a month and a half to the draft. He blew it out of the water on Thursday when he produced 27 reps on the bench, an extremely impressive number, especially for someone of his size. While he may have led all of the participants in reps on the bench, he did not have nearly the success that he would have liked in the 40. Surratt originally was timed to have run a 4.72 and a 4.74 in his two runs, respectively, on Friday. Paige Dimakos later in the day announced that the official time for him was 4.64. While that isn’t bad, at his size, it feels like a lot of people were a little disappointed in the run. This seems to have left NFL Draft analysts confused about exactly what he is. The good news for Surratt is he will get another chance to impress scouts during the pro day, so his hopes of remaining a Day 2 pick live on.
Tar Heels Sit 8th in Phil Steele Spring Top Ten
Last Wednesday, the writer of the college football preview bible released his spring top ten to commemorate six months until the start of the college football season. Despite the loss of offensive production that guys like Javonte Williams, Michael Carter and Dyami Brown leave behind, Steele, like many national talking heads throughout college football, remains high on the prospects of what the Tar Heels could be this season. Steele placed the Tar Heels eighth in his latest preseason poll, putting them thickly in the race to be one of the teams to create a little bit of chaos in College Football Playoff that has primarily consisted of a combination of six teams since some early parity at the outset of the new version of the college postseason. Steele has historically been one of the most, if not the most accurate, preseason forecasters in college football and unless something drastic changes, it doesn’t appear as if the Tar Heels will be moving outside of his top ten before the season starts.