With Focus on UNC Quarterbacks, Rebuilt Offensive Line Looms Large
By David Glenn
When North Carolina led the Atlantic Coast Conference last season with 491 yards of total offense per game and averaged 34.5 points per game, most of the credit understandably went to superstar quarterback Drake Maye, All-American running back Omarion Hampton and sensational wide receiver Tez Walker.
Maye and Walker are now in the National Football League, of course, while Hampton is back for his junior year in Chapel Hill.
Less famous are the five men who made UNC’s explosive and well-balanced 2023 offense possible: the Tar Heels’ starting offensive linemen.
Left tackle: first-year starter Diego Pounds (6-5, 330, So.)
Left guard: fourth-year starter Ed Montilus (6-3, 315, Sr.)
Center: fourth-year starter Corey Gaynor (6-3, 305, Sr.)
Right guard: fourth-year starter Willie Lampkin (5-11, 290, Sr.)
Right tackle: third-year starter Spencer Rolland (6-6, 315, Sr.)
Because of a combination of injuries, redshirt years and COVID-related NCAA rules (allowing for an extra year of eligibility), Gaynor was in his seventh season of college football in 2023, Rolland his sixth, Montilus his fifth, and Lampkin his fourth. Gaynor turned 25 years old last year, Rolland and Montilus 24.
As indicated, all but Pounds had extensive previous experience as a starter, including Gaynor (Miami), Rolland (Harvard) and Lampkin (Coastal Carolina) both at their former schools and with the Tar Heels.
Lampkin (third-team), Gaynor (honorable mention) and Rolland (honorable mention) all received All-ACC honors during the Tar Heels’ 8-5 campaign.
image via UNC Athletic Communications
Last year’s offensive line even had a “sixth starter” of sorts, versatile fifth-year senior William Barnes, who compiled four starts at left tackle and four more at right guard when others were injured or otherwise unavailable. This summer, Barnes even got a National Football League tryout with the Cleveland Browns after playing well this spring in the new United Football League.
Carolina’s extremely experienced six-man rotation in 2023 reflected at least a little bit of quality offensive line depth, a relatively uncommon phenomenon in college football and an extreme rarity in Chapel Hill in recent decades.
Unfortunately for the Tar Heels, Barnes, Gaynor, Montilus and Rolland all exhausted their college eligibility last season. Pounds transferred to Mississippi, where he’s expected to start at left tackle this year.
So who’s back? Lampkin … and, well, that’s it. Lampkin.
“There’s only one offensive lineman on our team that’s ever started a game. I mean, they’re totally inexperienced,” UNC coach Mack Brown said Friday. “And I told (offensive line coach) Randy Clements … it’s not an excuse, it’s a fact, and you’ve got a new defensive coordinator (this week at Minnesota) we’ve never seen before.
“So we’re going to have to do a great job of figuring out who they are, what they’re going to do.”
During the 2024 preseason, while most UNC coverage understandably followed the quarterback battle between Max Johnson (the likely starter in Thursday’s opener at Minnesota) and Conner Harrell, only a few articles truly identified and dissected the most unpredictable variable of the Tar Heels’ entire season.
Yes, that’s the offensive line, and it’s not a particularly close call.
Compare and contrast this year’s projected starters, and their respective experience levels, with the stunning six-man success story described above.
Left tackle: 0 career starts, Howard Sampson (6-8, 325, r-So.)
Left guard: 0 career starts, Malik McGowan (6-5, 325, r-Jr.)
Center: 0 career starts, Austin Blaske (6-5, 310, r-Jr.)
Right guard: fifth-year starter Willie Lampkin (5-11, 290, Sr.)
Right tackle: 0 career starts, Trevyon Green (6-8, 340, r-So.)
Lampkin, by himself, played more than twice as many snaps last season (816) than the rest of that starting group has played, combined, in their entire college careers (fewer than 350, with almost half of those from Blaske).
Obviously, Brown and Clements saw these o-line vacancies coming and tried hard to fill them with quality replacements during the offseason.
Sampson, described by UNC offensive coordinator Chip Lindsey as someone with NFL potential, transferred to the Tar Heels in January from North Texas. Sampson played only four games in two seasons for the Mean Green, in part because of injuries and a coaching change, and he ultimately chose to follow Clements — his OL coach at UNT in 2022 — to Chapel Hill.
Blaske spent the past four seasons at Georgia, serving as a top backup at tackle and center on the Bulldogs’ national championship teams in 2021 and 2022. Injuries limited him to only three games last season.
McGowan and Green are returning Carolina players who have played mostly on special teams prior to this season. Green, who weighed more than 400 pounds while in high school, is now listed at 340.
At least two additional offensive linemen are expected to see significant action for the Tar Heels this season. At some point in 2024, they may even be starters.
Georgia Tech transfer Jakiah Leftwich, a 6-6, 310-pounder who can play guard or tackle, is actually the second-most experienced offensive lineman in UNC’s projected seven-man rotation, behind only Lampkin.
Leftwich, who missed the Tar Heels’ spring practice sessions while completing his graduation requirements (in only three years) at Tech, started eight games for the Yellow Jackets in 2023. He is expected to push both McGowan (at guard) and Green (at tackle) for a starting role, but he has spent only about a month, since the start of preseason practice, in a Carolina uniform.
Finally, although it’s uncommon for a true freshman to play on the offensive line, Brown said that’s a virtual certainty for UNC signee Aidan Banfield.
A 6-3, 300-pound guard who enrolled in January and impressed his Carolina coaches and teammates during spring drills, Banfield was a two-time first-team all-state player in Georgia, at Mill Creek High School near Atlanta. A three-star prospect whose mother is a UNC graduate, he signed with the Tar Heels over Duke, Georgia Tech, NC State, Pitt, Vanderbilt, Virginia and Wake Forest.
David Glenn (DavidGlennShow.com, @DavidGlennShow) is an award-winning author, broadcaster, editor, entrepreneur, publisher, speaker, writer and university lecturer (now at UNC Wilmington) who has covered sports in North Carolina since 1987.
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