By R.L. Bynum
DUBLIN — Tight ends weren’t a big part of the passing game last season, but an Ohio State transfer is changing that in a big way.
In one game, Jelani Thurman, who is on the watchlist for the John Mackey Award that goes to the nation’s top tight end, topped his season total from a year ago with the Buckeyes.
The 6–6, 245-pound redshirt junior led UNC with 94 yards on four catches, including a 73-yard play, in the 15–10 opening-game win at the Aer Lingus College Football Classic in Aviva Stadium on Saturday.
He had 13 catches for 144 yards in 34 games for Ohio State over three seasons, but only had seven catches for 84 yards last season.
Coach Bill Belichick made clear that Thurman was central to how Carolina moved the ball against TCU.
“Jelani gave us some explosive plays, especially early in the game,” Belichick said. “That got us started, and then the pass on the naked [bootleg] to the flat was a big first down, at the end of the last drive,” Belichick said, pointing to two of Thurman’s biggest gains as pivot points in a game that came down to the final possession.
Thurman himself framed the performance as validation of a tight end room that Belichick and his staff have leaned on heavily since the coach’s arrival.
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“I feel like tight end is just a great position overall,” Thurman said. “Carolina showed me they believe in the tight ends, and they showed everybody how tight ends can work. This year we’re just executing as a whole team, executing on offense. So, it should be a good year.”
That trust showed up most on Carolina’s final drive, a four-minute possession that quarterback Billy Edwards Jr. said the offense had rehearsed for exactly this kind of moment.
Thurman’s fingerprints were on the sequence that sealed it, catching a pass and then focusing on nothing but survival once the ball was in his hands. On a second-and-12 at the UNC 21, Edwards connected with Thurman for 25 yards with 2:20 left.
“After getting the ball, it was really green grass out there,” Thurman said. “I saw my two blockers in front of me, and I was just trying to stay in bounds so we could keep the clock running and get the game over with.”
The transition from Columbus to Chapel Hill hasn’t slowed him down, and Thurman said the early returns have only reinforced his decision to transfer.
“I’m truly grateful,” he said. “Being able to come in and fit into the offense, be a key player, be a highlighted player, catch some balls from Billy, and be coached by one of the best coaches in the game, I can’t complain. It’s good football. I’m ready to play.”
Belichick, for his part, credited the tight end position as part of a broader pattern of players stepping up in high-leverage moments that helped Carolina earn a huge victory.
With Thurman already producing at a pace that outstrips his entire final season at Ohio State, that trend looks like it’s just getting started.
Photo courtesy of UNC-Chapel Hill
