North Carolina coach Mack Brown spent Monday afternoon going over film of the team’s new transfers with assembled media.
When he showed clips of cornerback Armani Chatman there was a play that started with him lined up against receiver Nate McCollum and Brown paused to acknowledge just how far things have come in when it comes to transfers.
“Here is our Virginia Tech guy playing against our Georgia Tech guy,” Brown quipped. “That’s how crazy some of this is.”
Nothing seems too crazy in college football today. The Tar Heels welcome nine transfers — including Chatman (Virginia Tech) and McCollum (Georgia Tech) — along with 10 high school signees who enrolled early. When spring practice rolls around in March, that will be a total of 19 newcomers suiting up for UNC.
Four of the transfers are from within the ACC, including edge rusher Amari Gainer, who played inside linebacker at Florida State; and safety Derrik Allen, who played three years at Georgia Tech, but will now lineup alongside his brother. Freshman Marcus Allen started at cornerback in the Heels’ Holiday Bowl loss to Oregon.
Brown’s hope is by adding so many transfers Carolina can take the next step as a program. After appearing in, but coming up empty at the ACC championship game, the Heels’ drought of 40 years between conference titles remains.
“We’re really good program, we got to be a great program,” Brown said. “And to do that we had to win the last four games, and three of them we were down to the last play. So we’ve got to get guys that love football and compete all the time and figure out how to make that one more play.”
Carolina got immediate help in the secondary, which was the unit that lost the most players to the transfer portal. Tony Grimes (Texas A&M), Storm Duck (Penn State) and Cam Kelly (Virginia) started nearly every game for the Heels this past season, but are now suiting up elsewhere.
That’s why Chatman, Allen and East Tennessee State transfer Alijah Huzzie weren’t just welcomed, they were needed to help fill out the depth.
Brown has had to adjust his approach to the transfer portal to keep up with the changing times. He initially said he’d only sign players from the portal who he thought would come to UNC and start.
In 2021, running back Ty Chandler came from Tennessee as a graduate transfer and was the only major addition. That number increased to five in 2022 — center Corey Gaynor (Miami), offensive tackle Spencer Rolland (Harvard), Noah Taylor (Virginia), Jacolbe Cowan (Ohio State) and Lejond Cavazos (Ohio State) — before growing to nine for this class.
“The last four years have been more changes in this business than in my other 30 as a head coach,” Brown said. “It’s just crazy all the things that are going on.”
The only absurdity at this point would be not trying to get better through the portal.
