CHAPEL HILL — Among the biggest job battles this fall for Bill Belichick’s North Carolina football team is the one to replace All-America running back Omarion Hampton, a first-round pick by the NFL’s Los Angeles Chargers.
Hampton rushed for 1,660 yards and had 17 total touchdowns last season, a worthy encore to his 1,504-yard, 16-touchdown performance in 2023. That’s a big chunk of the Tar Heels’ offensive output gone as UNC begins the Belichick era.
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“It’s hard to imagine any one player having the production that Hampton had, but collectively, we’ll see,” Belichick said Wednesday. “It’s a good group, very competitive group. These guys are talented, but they have different skills. Part of our challenge is figuring out how to use their skills and still fit it within the entire offense.”
The backs behind Hampton didn’t get many chances last season. Davion Gause was the team’s second-leading rusher last year with 343 yards, the only other running back to reach triple digits. Sophomore Charleston French had 88 yards on 10 carries, and senior Caleb Hood had 81 yards on 18 carries.
Hood has played 26 games across his four seasons in Chapel Hill, rushing for 471 yards. Hood, from Rockingham, suffered a season-ending injury in 2022 after becoming the starter.
He briefly entered the transfer portal in the offseason seeking more playing time and a chance to prove to himself that he could be a starter. But after talking to Belichick, offensive coordinator Freddie Kitchens and general manager Michael Lombardi, Hood opted to return.
“Carolina’s always been my dream school,” Hood said.
He added: “They just gave me a shot. They saw some potential in me. They weren’t like, ‘Oh, you’re the best, you got to come back.’ They were like you can really do something if you put your mind to it and work. Hearing that from the greatest, you can’t really turn that down. I just wanted to challenge myself.”
Hood is the only upperclassman among UNC running backs. The Tar Heels have three sophomores (French, Gause and Benjamin Hall) and four freshmen backs (Demon June, Jaylen McGill, Jaylon Nichols and Jo Jo Troupe). The team’s lone fullback (Henry Martello) is also a freshman.
Unlike the Tar Heels’ reliance on Hampton the past two seasons, Belichick expects a larger group to play a role in the backfield.
“It’s a pretty deep group, and we’ll see how it all plays out,” Belichick said. “But I definitely don’t think it’s all going to come from one person.”
ACC Network on site
Under Belichick, North Carolina football practices have become a stop for celebrities of all sorts.
Tuesday, it was former major league manager Tony La Russa, who won three World Series titles in his 35-year career.
Wednesday, it was UNC Chancellor Lee Roberts, athletics director Bubba Cunningham and crews from the ACC Network.
Previously, rapper Lil Wayne and a slew of former NFL players have passed through Tar Heel practices.
Making progress
Wednesday was the 10th overall practice and the second in full pads for the Tar Heels, who open the season – and the Belichick era – on Sept. 1 against TCU.
“We’re slowly but surely bringing things together day by day,” Belichick said. “Definitely not there yet, but getting closer.”
The Tar Heels have 70 players who weren’t on last year’s team. And 40 that didn’t participate in spring practice, so Belichick and his coaching staff are still seeing how everything fits.
“The biggest improvement has just come as a team, embracing the program that we're installing, which is consistency, dependability, physical and mental toughness,” he said. “Just being productive every day."
Belichick continued: “We're making a lot less mistakes than we made earlier, not just because we've done it more but because I would say we care more about making sure that the little things are done right. So if we can do that, that'll bode well for us in the future. If we don't, eventually, those little things will keep the big things from happening the way we want them to."