The Tar Heels are officially back in offseason mode with spring camp a couple of weeks behind us. While this hasn’t been the busiest time around the program, a few storylines may have flown under the radar in the past couple of weeks.
Tylee Craft Receiving More Treatment for Cancer
Craft’s mother provided an unfortunate update on the status of her son’s cancer on Monday. Ty is going through it,” September Craft posted on her Facebook account. “The cancer has spread to his brain. There are four growth spots there. Ty has to do 10 sessions of radiation on his whole brain. He is currently admitted in the UNC Cancer Hospital.” We at the Heel Tough Blog, continue to pray for the Craft family and hope that those reading this will join in those sentiments.
Giovani Bernard Retires
The former Tar Heel running back announced last Friday that he was retiring from the NFL after ten seasons. He spent his first eight seasons in Cincinnati, totaling 6,564 yards of offense and 33 touchdowns, including three straight seasons with 1,000+ yards from scrimmage to begin his NFL career. He spent his final two seasons with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, where he played in just 20 games in large part due to injury and touched the ball just 41 times. Bernard had an outstanding three-year career in Chapel Hill, producing arguably the biggest play in the history of the rivalry with NC State with his 73-yard punt return touchdown in the 2012 matchup. He finished his Tar Heel career with 3,333 yards from scrimmage and 31 total touchdowns, running for over 1,200 yards in each of the two seasons that he played for the team, the only player in program history to ever accomplish that.
Tar Heels Miss on 2024 4✮ In-State WR
The 2024 recruiting cycle has seen the Tar Heel struggle mightily with the top prospects in the state and those struggles continued on Tuesday. As expected, 4✮ WR Micah Gilbert, who is the No. 5 prospect in the state according to 247Sports, committed to Notre Dame over the Tar Heels and others a few weeks after his trip to South Bend. This means that the Tar Heels have already missed on five of the top ten in the state and as of right now, they don’t seem to have a lead in a race with any of the other five. Not quite what Tar Heel fans want to hear for a staff that has banked on recruiting success for the reason to be hopeful about the direction of the program.
2024 3✮ OT Target Releases Top Five
In a bit of good recruiting news, the team did land in the top five for one of their remaining offensive line targets. 3✮ OT Mason Wade announced his final five schools on Tuesday after a month full of unofficial trips around the country. The Tar Heels were one of those five, joined by Auburn, Boston College, Duke and Virginia Tech. Everyone but Brian Harsen’s squad is scheduled to receive an official visit from him in the month of June, with the Tar Heels slated for June 16th. Virginia Tech has been the long-time leader and still seems to be in the pole position, but the Tar Heels might pose the biggest threat to them at this point.