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topicnews · August 28, 2024

3 Bold Predictions for UNC Football in 2024

3 Bold Predictions for UNC Football in 2024

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Certainly. Probably. Undoubtedly.

Those aren’t the words we’ll be using for our North Carolina football predictions for the 2024 season. Let’s head into the new year with some bold predictions for the Tar Heels, who play a nationally televised opener at Minnesota on Thursday (8 p.m., FOX).

Head coach Mack Brown is entering his sixth season and second stint at UNC. The team has won at least eight games in three of Brown’s five years since returning to Chapel Hill.

For the first time since 2018, the Tar Heels begin a season without Sam Howell or Drake Maye as starting quarterback. Despite the change at the center position, UNC returns six All-ACC players, including running back Omarion Hampton and pass rusher Kaimon Rucker.

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Here are three bold predictions for the Tar Heels this season:

UNC Football starts the season with 8-0

After a trip to Minnesota, the Tar Heels won’t leave North Carolina again until just before Halloween (October 26 at Virginia). According to ESPN, UNC is the favorite in each of its first eight games of the season. In fact, the Tar Heels are underdogs in just two of their 12 regular-season games: November 2 at Florida State and the November 30 finale against NC State.

With a manageable schedule, including five of their first eight games at Kenan Stadium, the Tar Heels will begin the year with an 8-0 record for the first time since 1997, Mack Brown’s final season in his first tenure at UNC. The Heels finished that year with an 11-1 record, losing in their ninth game of the year at FSU.

UNC pass rusher Kaimon Rucker will lead the ACC in sacks

Graduate Kaimon Rucker, an All-ACC pass rusher for the Tar Heels, will be the first UNC player to leave with a bang since Kareem Martin, who had 11 ½ sacks in 2013. Seven players in UNC history have recorded at least 10 sacks in a season, led by a duo of Hall of Famers: Lawrence Taylor (16 sacks in 1980) and Julius Peppers (15 sacks in 2000).

Louisville’s Ashton Gillotte led the ACC with 11 sacks in 2023. Rucker, who was fourth in the league last season with 8 ½ sacks, will surpass that mark and surpass double-digit sacks to lead the conference in that category as the ACC’s best pass rusher.

Tight End Bryson Nesbit will have a season like Eric Ebron

Eric Ebron set season records at UNC in 2013 and made 62 catches for an ACC-record 973 yards in his final season as a Tar Heel. Current tight end Bryson Nesbit will follow in the footsteps of the 6-foot-4, 250-pound Greensboro native with an Ebron-like season in 2024.

Nesbit, a 6-foot-5, 235-pound senior from Charlotte, had 41 catches and led the ACC’s tight ends with 585 yards last season. Despite UNC’s uncertainty at the quarterback position, Nesbit will prove to be a valuable safety valve for the player who ends up throwing most of the passes for the Heels. UNC’s top pass receiver will reach 50 catches and 600 yards in 2024.

Editor Rodd Baxley can be reached at [email protected] or @RoddBaxley on X/Twitter.

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