Keeping It Heel
Fansided

Top UNC Football players for 2018: No. 22 JT Cauthen

By Brandon Griffin

SAN ANTONIO, TX - MARCH 23: The North Carolina Tar Heels mascot, Rameses, performs during the third round of the 2014 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament against the Iowa State Cyclones at the AT
SAN ANTONIO, TX - MARCH 23: The North Carolina Tar Heels mascot, Rameses, performs during the third round of the 2014 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament against the Iowa State Cyclones at the AT /
facebooktwitterreddit

Keeping It Heel continues its countdown of the top 25 football players on the North Carolina Tar Heels’ roster with player No. 22

#25 Dyami Brown | #24 Johnathon Sutton | #23 Matthew Flint

The college football season kicks off in about five months, and it will be here before we know it.

NFL teams are currently preparing for the NFL Draft which is only 9 days away and players are going through pre-draft interviews. With football on our minds, we decided to take a look at the upcoming season for the North Carolina Tar Heels.

Let’s take a look at player No. 22, a freshmen wide receiver who was redshirted last season but has a chance to make strides this season.

Position: Wide Receiver

Hometown: Waxhaw, North Carolina

High School: Cuthbertson

Last Season: Cauthen was redshirted by the coaching staff.

The year before that he set his high school’s record for career receptions and yards, with 104 and 2,645 respectively. He finished last season with 60 receptions for 981 yards and 12 touchdowns.

As the 44th overall wide receiver, according to ESPN, Cauthen graduated early and enrolled in UNC in the spring of 2017. However, despite the early enrollment he did not see the field as the coaching staff decided to redshirt him instead.

Why he might move up this list: At 6-foot-1 and 225-pounds, Cauthen is a big receiver who can use his size to go up and win the ball. He has the skills to really give the Tar Heels a big possession receiver that the team was missing last year.

Cauthen has the tools to be the Bug Howard/Qunishad Davis type receiver who can work the sidelines and be a reliable target in the red zone.

Why he might move down this list: Where does Cauthen rank on the depth chart? Last year I ranked him 14th and really expected him to be a valuable part of the team. However, despite all the injuries the team suffered at receiver, Fedora kept Cauthen on the sidelines.

Whatever the reason Cauthen will be fighting with several other young players on this list, including three freshmen receivers, all of which could keep Cauthen off the field.

Prediction: With the extra year, Cauthen should be much more familiar with the offense this season. Again, he posses the size and skills that have done well in Fedora’s system and there is no reason to believe that Cauthen won’t find similar success.

Cauthen finishes the season with in a breakout way with 40 catches for 600 yards and five touchdowns.

Home/UNC Football