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Hollywood Hampton, here he comes.
The Tar Heels’ all-star running back went almost exactly where the prognosticators had predicted. Omarion Hampton is going to Los Angeles to play for the Chargers under run-oriented head coach Jim Harbaugh. He was the second of two running backs selected in the first round after Ashton Jeanty of Boise State.
He will also be another weapon for quarterback Justin Herbert, who will use him as a first-down back, on short-yardage situations and on run-pass options.
“No one wants to tackle this guy,” Nick Saban said during the ABC broadcast of the 2025 NFL Draft Thursday night. Hampton was home in Clayton with his family and reacted just as all who knows him figured. No jumping or gesticulations despite everyone around him going bonkers.
Just a slight smile of satisfaction as the first true UNC running back to go in the first round since Ken Willard in 1965 (49ers with second pick) and Don McCauley in 1971 (Colts with 22nd pick). Ethan Horton, who was the 15th pick by the Chiefs in 1985 draft, was both a running back and tight end at Carolina and spent most of his seasons in the NFL catching passes and blocking for the Raiders and Redskins after his rookie year in Kansas City.
According to his college coach Mack Brown, Hampton was the perfect student-athlete, a phrase that has meant less since NIL and the transfer portal had college players moving around every season. Brown said Hampton was more than soft-spoken, he barely spoke but was a great team leader by example more than words.
He came to practice early and was among the last to leave. He worked at his craft to become a 220-pound running back with 4.4 speed. He had patience at the line of scrimmage, picked an opening and busted through it, often dragging more than one tackler with him for solid gains and break-away bursts to the end zone, which he reached 15 times in each of his last two seasons and 36 in three years, plus he caught three TD passes.
Hampton was a two-time ACC first-teamer in 2023 and ’24 and leaves Carolina with the second most single-season yards (1660) behind McCauley’s (1720) and finished his three-year career as the fourth all-time rusher with career 3,565 yards.
Carolina had great running backs who were drafted high but not in the first round. Natrone Means, now an assistant coach under Bill Belichick, Giovani Bernard and Javonte Williams went in the second round; Mike Voight and Tyrone Anthony went in the third round and Michael Carter went in the fourth round. All were thousand-plus yard rushers in college and made All-ACC.
UNC was once known as “Tailback U” with so many thousand-yard rushers, sometimes two in one season, like Carter and Williams in 2000. The Tar Heels’ all-time career leader is Amos Lawrence, who had four 1,000-yard seasons from 1977-80 for 4,391 yards.
Featured image via UNC Athletic Communications/Jerome M. Ibrahim
Art Chansky is a veteran journalist who has written ten books, including best-sellers “Game Changers,” “Blue Bloods,” and “The Dean’s List.” He has contributed to WCHL for decades, having made his first appearance as a student in 1971. His “Sports Notebook” commentary airs daily on the 97.9 The Hill WCHL and his “Art’s Angle” opinion column runs weekly on Chapelboro.Chapelboro.com does not charge subscription fees, and you can directly support our efforts in local journalism here. Want more of what you see on Chapelboro? Let us bring free local news and community information to you by signing up for our newsletter.
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