GoHeels Exclusive: Expectations Remain High For RB Room

By Pat James, GoHeels.com

No matter how many times he was asked last offseason for his opinion on North Carolina's best position group, Mack Brown remained unwavering in his answer: running back.

As it turned out, the tailback trio of Michael Carter, Antonio Williams and Javonte Williams met, if not exceeded, all expectations, helping UNC rush for 2,446 yards. That total marked the Tar Heels' second highest since 1994. It also provided a benchmark for what the running backs can feasibly accomplish with Carter and Javonte Williams returning this fall.

Yet, with Sam Howell, Dyami Brown, Beau Corrales and Dazz Newsome coming back, along with a promising group of offensive linemen, the hype surrounding the running backs hasn't been quite the same this offseason. That, however, doesn't mean expectations are any different.

"My expectations are like they are every year: We have to be one of the best units on the football field," said running backs coach Robert Gillespie during a videoconference with reporters on Wednesday. "And I think that's where you compete within each other. The receivers want to be the best unit, the running backs, the offensive line, the linebackers. So, we just challenge ourselves every day to do the right things on and off the field.

"How we watch film is very competitive. Once we begin to do walkthroughs, which the NCAA will allow us to do as time permits, we want to be the best in the walkthroughs. (We want to do) all the things that will give us a chance to be the best unit, which will in turn make us the best football team in this conference and in the country."

Surely, if Carolina becomes just that, it will be on the coattails of one of the nation's top tailback tandems.

Carter and Javonte Williams combined for 1,936 rushing yards last season, the most by two UNC running backs in a season since Curtis Johnson and Leon Johnson posted 2,046 in 1993. (Elijah Hood and Marquise Williams totaled 2,411 in 2015.) Much of their success was due to their elusiveness, as they avoided a combined 105 tackles, according to Pro Football Focus (PFF).

In rushing for a career-high 1,003 yards, Carter joined Giovani Bernard and Elijah Hood as the Tar Heels' only 1,000-yard rushers since Mack Brown's first stint in Chapel Hill ended in 1997. After the year, Carter could've easily turned pro. But he ultimately chose to return for his senior season, which he'll enter with 2,159 rushing yards, the 15th most in Carolina history.

"It's good he's coming back and bringing an explosiveness to the group," Gillespie said. "That's a guy who can do a lot of different things. … Mike is a guy who you can put in space, run between the tackles, block, he can do it all."

Most UNC fans knew all that about Carter going into last season. The same, however, couldn't have been said of Williams.

Severely under-recruited out of Wallace-Rose Hill High School, Williams didn't receive a single FBS scholarship offer until December of his senior year, when the Tar Heels offered him after he rushed for 207 yards in the 2A state championship at Kenan Stadium. He went on to enroll early at Carolina and consistently impress the coaching staff heading into the 2018 season. As a freshman, though, he carried the ball just 43 times for 224 yards and five touchdowns.

Although his playing time was limited, Williams benefited greatly from getting some experience. And that showed throughout last season, as he rushed for 933 yards and five touchdowns en route to the fifth-highest offensive grade (89.8) by a Power 5 running back, according to PFF.

Gillespie said the moment that he realized Williams had arrived was in the season opener against South Carolina, when the reserved running back caught a swing pass, bulled over a defender on his way to a 10-yard gain and then flexed toward the UNC sideline.

"His freshman year he was just trying to find a place to fit in," Gillespie said. "But that moment in that game – I'll never forget it – was the moment I said he's ready. That's what you saw from him; you saw his confidence get better. …

"If you look at his freshman year, he was a kid kind of trying to find his way around. Sophomore year, he gained a lot of confidence. The sky is the limit for what he can do his junior year because I think he understands that he fits what we do offensively, his teammates respect him and I think he knows he's good enough to dominate on this level."

Although Carter and Williams could put up even gaudier numbers if they were a team's lone feature back, Gillespie said they respect the fact that their ability to stay fresh and healthy is a byproduct of the Tar Heels using a rotation. Gillespie plans to continue doing that this fall. And ideally, a third tailback will be involved.

With the graduation of Antonio Williams – who rushed for 322 yards and three touchdowns last season, but will be missed most for his steady leadership – Josh Henderson is Carolina's third-most-used returning running back.

Henderson showed glimpses of promise as a freshman, carrying the ball 18 times for 127 yards. He might have learned his most important lessons, though, when he was off the field, not on it.

"He came into a group of guys (in which) he wasn't called upon to have to come in and play last year, so he was able to sit back and just learn the game," Gillespie said. "So, after every game, I would go up to him and say, 'Tell me what you learned.' And it was interesting to hear him say, 'Coach, I saw the ball security and how important it is. I saw how important it is to strain to get a first down.'

"As a freshman, you think, 'I'm ready to come play.' But when you get into the game and you're on the sidelines and you see all the moving parts of it, that's when you learn. So, he learned a lot as far as what the demands are that go into being a college football player."

Unfortunately, with the cancellation of spring ball due to the coronavirus pandemic, Henderson has yet to get the chance to prove himself. Neither has D.J. Jones, who enrolled in January.

Jones, from Fayetteville, and fellow freshman Elijah Green, from Roswell, Georgia, are both three-star prospects, according to 247Sports. Gillespie said he won't have a true feel for what sort of roles they'll have this season until the team starts going through walkthroughs later this month. But he likes the intangibles they bring to his group.

"Getting to know those guys, I could tell they were tough and they were very competitive," Gillespie said. "A guy like Elijah Green, a (three)-time state champion in a really good, competitive, high-level football state in the state of Georgia. His dad (Victor Green) played in the NFL. So, you could just tell he had good blood and he's a guy who knows how to train and compete. And then D.J. Jones is a kid from a military family. His mom and dad are both military. He's kind of got a chip on his shoulder, kind of felt like he was under-recruited.

"I like those guys, I like the guys who have an edge to them, some of the things you can't evaluate. I think both of those kids are going to come in and compete really hard."

Rounding out Gillespie's room is British Brooks, who has rushed for 67 yards on 10 career carries. While the rising junior could also factor into the running back rotation, he cemented his role as UNC's special teams captain last season.

Brooks, Carter and Javonte Williams are the only three tailbacks remaining from when Gillespie arrived in Chapel Hill prior to the 2018 campaign and asked each player in his room one simple question: How great do you want to be? Their answers then have since served as the foundation for the running back room. And hype or no hype, that won't change.

"We want to compete with each other so much that we don't worry about the outside, the left and right, whether it's the next room (that's getting attention)," Gillespie said. "We want to work so hard every day that when the offensive line puts the film on, they get motivated. The receiver group sees how hard we work, they get motivated. ...

"We feed off the energy that the offensive line brings every day. We feed off Dyami going and catching big balls and finishing down the field. I think that's the fun thing about our team. Our team is so competitive and our kids love each other, but they love to compete against each other so much. So, some of the outside accolades and pushing us as a team, of course we hear some of it. But we've got to stay focused on what's going on in between these walls here in Chapel Hill, and then everything else will take care of itself."

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University of North Carolina Athletics

Players Mentioned

British Brooks

Dyami Brown

Michael Carter

Beau Corrales

Elijah Green

Josh Henderson

Sam Howell

D.J. Jones

Dazz Newsome

Antonio Williams

Javonte Williams

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