UNC Football: With Gio Gone, It’s Renner’s Time To Take Full Control

Bryn Renner has been a very consistent quarterback for the Tar Heels. In his two years as a starter, Bryn has led the Heels to a respectable 15-10 record and two winning seasons. It’s very likely that Renner will go on to break tons of career passing records this season, both in yards and in touchdowns, for the university if he posts stats anywhere close to what he did a season ago.

Mandatory Credit: Bob Donnan-USA TODAY Sports

Renner only needs to throw for 2,922 yards to pass his direct predecessor TJ Yates and he only needs to throw 15 more touchdown passes this season in order to eclipse Darian Durant’s record that has stood tall for close to a decade. Just to give you an idea, Renner threw for 3,356 yards and 28 touchdowns a season ago in his first season with the new spread offense installed by Coach Fedora. Now that he has a year of experience running the high potent attack and a pleather of explosive receivers out wide, he should have no trouble at all shattering both of those marks.

Even though Renner is quite capable of putting up massive numbers and will be remembered after this season as the greatest statistical quarterback in North Carolina history, his challenge will be to not just put up great numbers, but to win a lot of football games. The one problem for Renner this year is that he won’t have his security blanket in Gio Bernard behind him anymore to go out there and make big plays to bail his team out when they’re in a bind. No disrespect to AJ Blue and Romar Morris, who are both high quality backs, but when things get tight, it’s going to be on Renner to make the big play. Is he ready for that challenge?

I think he is. Renner is a very smart and mature quarterback that’s been around the game for a long time. He has a really good sense of where his guys are going to be on their routes when he throws them the football and he almost always puts it right on the money. His weapons that line up around him are, in my opinion, the best in the conference. You look at the explosive playmaking ability that sophomore stud Quinshad Davis possesses to go along with the physical specimen of Eric Ebron and the pure speed of Sean Tapley and TJ Thorpe there is just so much to like. And you can’t forget the talented pair of backs and the plethora of talent freshmen receivers that are more than capable of contributing. The talent on the offensive side of the ball for Carolina is second to none and when you have a senior like Renner to come in and bring it all together, then there is no reason to believe that he can’t get it done in tight situations.

Renner is going to have a record breaking season. We know that much. What we don’t know, is how this Tar Heel team will fare against a tough schedule with an entire season of game tape on the Carolina attack. Not having Gio is a big hole, but I feel more than comfortable banking on the Heels to get it done with the weapons they have as long as Bryn Renner is in the equation. There is no reason the Heels can’t win the Coastal again and make their way to the ACC title game and I fully expect them to be well in the mix all season long.