By R.L. Bynum
CHAPEL HILL — If there was an area of concern coming out of the opening-game victory over TCU in Dublin, it was the inconsistency of the rushing attack even as the offensive line stood out as a strength.
Although Benjamin Hall started, it’s clear that he hasn’t separated himself from the rest of the running back room, and only running for 37 yards on 11 carries didn’t change that. Jaylen McGill had only four fewer yards on five carries, and Demon June didn’t get any carries until rushing six times for 25 yards on the last drive of the Tar Heels’ 15–10 victory.
Hall pushed back on the idea that the ground game is a concern, pointing instead to how the offense closed the door on TCU in the fourth quarter with June’s late carries.
“I think we’re going to be all right in the running game. I’m not worried about it,” Hall said during a Monday press conference at the Kenan Football Center. “We sputtered in week one, but that’s stuff you’re going to see in week one. If you look around the country, no one put up an absurd amount of yards on the ground in week one.”
June had the best Pro Football Focus offensive grade of the running backs at 69.6, followed by McGill at 67.8 and Hall at 60.4. The troubling numbers, though, were in the run grades, with quarterback Billy Edwards Jr. topping the entire running back group at 71.8, with June and McGill both at 70.5 and Hall at 55.9. McGill led the team with his pass-blocking grade of 77.9.
Asked whether the coaching staff had scripted the rotation among the three backs beforehand, Hall said the plan was looser than it might have appeared from the outside, with the staff reading the game rather than working off a predetermined script. He credited the depth of the room for allowing whoever was needed in a given moment to answer the call.
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“I don’t think there was anything really predetermined for that rotation,” Hall said. “We just kind of played off feel, and I think it shows that we have guys in the room who can get the job done whenever their number is called.”
UNC coach Belichick echoed Hall’s confidence in the group’s depth, making clear that he views the competition as a strength rather than a problem to solve.
“It’s always better to have one too many or two too many running backs than not enough. We’ve been there before, and that’s not good,” Belichick said. “If one guy can emerge as the guy, then he will. And if not, then we’ll continue to use our depth.”
Heading into Saturday’s noon home opener against ETSU, the running game remains one of the bigger areas the Tar Heels need to sharpen, but Hall wasn’t the only voice in the building crediting preparation for how UNC handled the tougher moments in Dublin.
UNC center Christo Kelly said TCU’s defense at times struggled with run fits.
“A lot of that was just being able to fit it up properly,” Kelly said. “But when we got man on man, we were playing physical, we were playing the brand of football that we wanted, and you kind of saw it towards the end of the game, being able to wear out TCU, play good football, and end the game with the ball in your hands.”
Kelly led the offensive line with a 63.2 offensive grade and a 69.2 pass-blocking grade and was second at 60.4 in run-blocking grade behind guard Aidan Banfield (60.7). All of those grades are in the average range, but performances to build on.
Kelly said the physical nature of practice under offensive line coach Cedric Friend and offensive assistant Corey Gaynor set the tone for how the group handled TCU’s looks up front.
“I’d say that most of our practices are probably harder than what we were doing out there,” Kelly said when asked if all five offensive linemen playing every down against TCU presented fatigue issues. “It really starts at the top with Coach Friend and Coach Corey Gaynor. They’ve done a great job with that, and it speaks to the preparation with them, and then the same thing in the strength and conditioning in the weight room.”
Hall credited the extra work UNC put in during the offseason on ball security in poor conditions, from soaked footballs to backed-up field position drills, a point of emphasis he said paid off directly against TCU. It could also be a factor Saturday with rain in the forecast.
“Coach is always one step ahead with those kinds of things, in terms of putting us in adverse situations to make the games easier,” Hall said. “There was nothing that came up in that game that we hadn’t prepared for, whether that’s playing defense backed up, defending the red zone, running the ball into the conditions.”
Kelly, who missed extended time with an injury last season, said simply being back on the field carried its own weight regardless of the final score.
“It was really kind of the first time that I’d felt good out there since basically 2024,” Kelly said. “You train for the whole season, but you’re really training for that first game. To be able to go out there, and especially coming away with the win, it was awesome.”
He pointed to Edwards as being a steadying presence up front, crediting the maturity and communication he brought to the huddle after most of last season at Wisconsin.
“The confidence in the huddle, everybody on the same page, the leadership that he has, it’s huge for our team,” Kelly said. “He’s fun to block for, and I look forward to keeping that thing going.”
Both Hall and Kelly pointed to the week off since the Ireland trip as a helpful factor as the offensive line gels.
“The greatest improvement for a team is from week one to week two, and for us we kind of had two weeks, so being able to attack the bye week was big for us,” Kelly said. “It was probably some of the harder practices that we had, but we’re just focused on getting better each and every day.”
It all should come easier against ETSU ahead of a much tougher challenge a week later at Clemson.
Photos courtesy of UNC-Chapel Hill
