UNC Football: Five Offensive Players Who Must Step Up This Season
By Matt Hamm
The North Carolina Tar Heels are not eligible for postseason play this upcoming season, they have a new head coach who is installing a completely new system on both sides of the ball, a roster in transition, Larry Fedora needs these players to step up the most on the offensive side of the football.
Bryn Renner: Renner has never ran a spread offense, ever. He had a very good season last year and is one of the up and coming QBs in the country, and now everything is changing for him. Fedora needs Renner to continue improving his poise while learning a new offense, two things that are not easy to do at the same time.
Renner is not your typical spread type of QB, but he is athletic enough to get the job done. Fedoras version of the spread still runs the football enough and the coaching staff is smart enough to tailor some of the things they do around the strengths of their play caller. Renner must not only be the same type of QB he was last season, he must be better. Carolina is thin at wide receiver and will call on their QB to make more things happen than he’s been asked in the past.
Eric Ebron: The sophomore tight end moves into the starting position this season and I think he’s poised for a big year. TEs aren’t usually that big of a highlight in spread offensive systems, but Fedoras uses them quite well. Ebron will be asked to learn multiple positions as the TEs move around a lot in this system, his grasp of the offense will be challenged and the team needs him to come through in a big way.
With the WR position thin and the team using star RB Giovanni Bernard as a punt returner, Ebron will be counted on to make some plays in this offense.
Erik Highsmith: The senior Highsmith is the de facto #1 guy in a rather thin group of wideouts. With Dwight Jones gone and an injury to T.J. Thorpe who was expected to have a nice year, all eyes are on Highsmith. He more than doubled his reception totals as a junior going from 25 as a sophomore to 51 receptions for 726 yards and five touchdowns. Pretty good stats, but the Heels need a more than that from the guy they need to step up right now and play like a top receiver.
Quinshad Davis: The freshman has impressed coaches by being a quick study and demonstrating the ability to get on the field early as a freshman despite an injury that kept him out of camp. A tall, play making receiver, the team needs Davis to step up and be apart of it’s WR rotation immediately as a freshman.
Giovanni Bernard: Bernard is the Heels top play maker and with the lack of depth at the receiver position he will be counted on immensely in Fedoras new offensive system. Bernard racked up over 1,000 yards as a freshman and as even been mentioned as an outside Heisman candidate. While that’s a far stretch, Bernard is one of the nations up and coming backs and has a great shot at an NFL future.
Gio will be pulling double duty at least to start the season as the teams punt returner. He will be heavily involved in the teams running and passing game, the pressure will be on Bernard to handle the load and stay healthy while building on a wildly successful freshman campaign.
In Part II I’ll take a look at who needs to step up on the defensive side of the ball. Who else do you think needs to come up big for the Heels this season on offense? Who do you think should be in the spotlight on defense?