Carolina football has got to do it by committee this season.
An interesting story was published recently about why Tennessee transfer Ty Chandler is the key to the Tar Heels 2021 hopes for an ACC and national championship.
While Chandler will be a welcome addition to Mack Brown’s third UNC team of his second stint here, such a story about Chandler is both unfair and a bit absurd. That’s what happens during a long off-season while we’re all trying to find story lines.
First of all, Chandler may be versatile but remember he is replacing two All-ACC running backs and NFL draft picks in Javonte Williams and Michael Carter. So one player rarely is good enough to replace two, especially those two 1,000-yard rushers.
Second, the entire Carolina team will have to be better in sum than all of its individual parts because the Tar Heels lost five of their top six All-ACC players and have to replace dynamic departures at wide receiver and linebacker as well as running back.
Scouting reports say Chandler can do some of what Carter and Williams can do, but he’s not projected in the NFL draft right now and must prove he has their speed and tackle-breaking ability of among the best positional tandems in the history of the program.
So, yes, Chandler is a key but so is the incoming freshman backs and young receivers who are supposed to be taking the place of Dyami Brown and Dazz Newsome, two more NFL draft picks. And because those players will all have to step up quickly, there will be more pressure on Sam Howell to be even better early than he’s been the last two years.
Why say Ty Chandler is the key to Carolina’s season when that is patently wrong? Even if he does rush for 1,000 yards, that is only one half of the two-headed monster that will now be playing on Sunday.
The Heels have to improve markedly on defense and demonstrate they can control the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball, which was the reason they lost the games that they did lose in last year’s 8-4 season.
Those will be the true keys to 2021 more than a transfer from Tennessee, who needs to fit in before he can be called a star.
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