Extra Points: California Dreaming

When Carolina's football team kicks off against the University of California at 10:30 p.m. EST Friday night in Berkeley, the Tar Heels will have played just one game in 27 days. An open week after their non-conference schedule combined with another open week that the ACC attempts to set before East Coast schools travel three time zones west for a Friday game have combined to upend what is the normal ebb-and-flow of the football season.

Now it's the Cal Bears on Friday followed by a gauntlet of six games in six weeks, including contests against the Tar Heels' Big Four opponents in Wake Forest, Duke and N.C. State and their long-standing rivalry with Virginia.

"Man, I am ready to go," says linebacker Khmori House. "I like the byes because it's a time to reflect and work on what we've done wrong. But now it's time to catch up and get into the flow of football. I'm super excited to see what these seven weeks can bring. It's what I've been waiting on."

"After the Clemson game, you kind of want to get on the field and play as soon as possible," adds fellow linebacker Andrew Simpson. "But we took time to reflect on the season and ask, 'What can we do better? What can we build on?' But we're here to play football. This will be taxing on the body and the mind but it's a challenge we're up for. I'm ready to get back on the football field."

Simpson and House get that opportunity as do seven of their teammates to return to their home state, the state of California with landmarks like the Golden Gate Bridge, Yosemite and Napa Valley, music harkening to the surf rock and folk music genres set in the 1960s and a rich culinary palette ranging from stuffed burritos to avocado toast to cioppino along San Francisco's Fisherman's Wharf.

In an interesting roster twist born of modern-day college football and the transfer portal and player independence, California ranks fourth in 2025 for producing players behind North Carolina, Georgia and Florida.

In addition to Simpson (from the Los Angeles suburb of Bellflower) and House (Pasadena), Californians having moved east to Chapel Hill include Paul Barton (Palo Alto), Thaddeus Dixon (Los Angeles), Khristian Dunbar-Hawkins (Tustin), Cort Halsey (Atherton), Chinedu Onyeagoro (Los Angeles), Jason Robinson Jr. (Long Beach) and Peyton Waters (Northridge).

"It's a big change coming out from the West Coast, but the people here are cool and nice and treat you like family," says Simpson, a fifth-year senior who transferred from Boise State. "The transition has been smooth, and I've been accepted well."

"It's been very new, but it's a good new," adds House, a sophomore who moved east after one year at the University of Washington. "It's a lot greener and there are a lot more trees. It's starting to turn cooler, too. After practice I felt the wind really blowing—I didn't see that much in L.A."

Khmori House

It's ironic that Simpson and House are now starting on a college team located 2,500 miles to the east from the Los Angeles high school juggernaut where they both played.

St. John Bosco High is a private Catholic prep school located a dozen miles south of the downtown Los Angeles skyscrapers. It's a perennial state title contender and in mid-October of 2025 ranked No. 1 in the country with a 7-0 record. Of its enrollment of around 850 students, some 98 percent go on to college, and it has students from 110 different zip codes. Simpson was a senior for the 2020 football season, and House followed three years behind.

"It's education and ball, it's a great school with a big-time football program," says House, who drove himself on an hour-long daily commute both ways from Pasadena. "It was a great experience going there. The structure and discipline there sets you up for life."

"It's a full-circle moment coming to Chapel Hill and playing with Khmori," says Simpson, who as a junior in 2019 helped Bosco to a 14-0 record and No. 1 national ranking. "It's kind of surreal. He was three years younger than me, so I didn't know him very well. But I know how he was brought up at Bosco—the coaches and teachers and the culture. It's why he's the way he is, why I'm the way I am—our foundations going back to high school."

Simpson and House share a devotion, despite their L.A. roots, to the San Francisco 49ers. Both were at that impressionable adolescent age during the Colin Kaepernick and Frank Gore led era from 2011-13 and have followed the red and gold ever since. And both have developed their own games in the mold of outstanding 49er linebackers of that era like NaVorro Bowman and Patrick Willis.

They are at the top of the defensive statistic numbers through five games for the Tar Heels. House has 15 solo tackles and 14 assists with 1.5 TFL and three QB hurries. Simpson is in lockstep with 17 solos, 12 assists, five TFL and two sacks.

All nine of the California-bred Tar Heels will have extra motivation when the Tar Heels play their sixth game all-time in the Golden State (they beat Southern Cal 8-7 in 1958 and 31-9 in 1993, lost at Stanford 37-34 in 1998 and at Cal 24-17 in 2018 and to Oregon 28-27 in the 2022 Holiday Bowl.)

House expected some 14 family members and close friends to attend the game (including one grandfather, who has never seen him play), and Simpson's fan club was expected to be at least 20.

"Going back to California means a lot to me," Simpson says. "Obviously, it's a chance for a lot of family to come see me play. I'll try to play hard for my family and my teammates."

There is plenty more motivation for these homegrown Tar Heels as well as the entire roster. The Tar Heels are 2-3 and have a lot to prove after a 38-10 loss at home to Clemson two weeks ago. Simpson harkens back to playing at Boise State in 2024, when the Broncos posted a 12-2 record and made the College Football Playoff.

"Every single day, every practice, every game there's something you can grow in," Simpson says. "I feel like whether you win or lose, it's not always the sunshine and rainbows everybody expects. It's all about doing your best every day, putting your best foot forward, being thankful you have the opportunity to grow and get better. That's how I look at it."

Chapel Hill writer Lee Pace (Carolina '79) has been writing about Tar Heel football under the "Extra Points" banner since 1990 and reporting from the sidelines on radio broadcasts since 2004. Write him at leepace7@gmail.com and follow him @LeePaceTweet.

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University of North Carolina Athletics

Players Mentioned

Paul Barton

Thaddeus Dixon

Khristian Dunbar-Hawkins

Cort Halsey

Khmori House

Chinedu Onyeagoro

Jason Robinson Jr.

Andrew Simpson

Peyton Waters

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