UNC Staff Already Forming Spring Depth Chart

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — Preparation for the spring begins much earlier these days for North Carolina.

Mack Brown said on Monday that he worked with the coaching staff to schedule spring practice and the spring game plans during the bye week. He also had the coaches make an early depth chart for the spring, predicting the returners and departures by the end of the season.

“With the roster management, you can end up with no running backs,” Brown said. “We ended up with two linebackers, and it hurt us. We're starting to get that room back now, but it's been a problem. We got thin at wide receiver. So I actually told them to give me, a year in advance, who's coming in early of our commitments.’

“Who you think's gonna stay, who you think's gonna leave, who will go to the NFL, who will graduate, (who) might transfer? And if a guy's not playing and he graduates, we would encourage him to transfer because that would be best for him.”

Brown said he never began spring preparation this early into the regular season prior to last season. The evolution of the transfer portal — and team’s high-frequency usage of it — has caused a boom in roster turnover year-to-year. In creating a spring depth chart, Brown hopes to stay on top of things and have an idea of who UNC will be working with.

Inevitably, roster departures would lead to new additions to the team with both high school recruits and transfers. North Carolina added 20 players from its 2023 recruiting class and grabbed 10 players from the transfer portal before the start of the season. Currently, 26 players are committed to UNC’s class of 2024.

The NCAA allows for 25 “initial counters” on a team’s roster, but teams can add up to seven more players based on the losses they take in the transfer portal. The rule is something Brown and the staff have to account for when bringing in early enrollees.

“You don't know who you're losing, so you don't know who you can bring in,” Brown said. “Some of the high school guys are saying, ‘I want to come in January,’ and we're saying ‘Well, we don't know who's leaving yet.’ And then, you've got to look. Do you take a high school guy instead of a grad transfer or a transfer? So it is all over the place right now.”

Brown and the staff held individual meetings with all of the players to discuss their futures on the team. They discussed the possibility of redshirts, transfers, NFL aspirations, graduating and playing time.

George Pettaway was highlighted by Brown as a player who will likely redshirt this season. He’s participated in all four games so far, with 19 special teams snaps and two offensive snaps. He added, though, that no player will officially redshirt until after the postseason in the event that they’re needed for injury relief.

“You're standing out there and three guys get hurt, and all of a sudden you're saying ‘Hey, come here, we were kidding,’” Brown said. “‘You need to play, man. Get ready to go.’”

As North Carolina pursues another ACC Championship Game appearance with its 4-0 record, it’s playing the long game with the roster.

“So there's a whole lot of multitasking and unknowns out there,” Brown said. “There's more unknowns for your future and on your team than ever before.”