UNC Football: 2023 Positional Preview: Linebackers

Our 2023 UNC football position previews continue with the unit that is returning the best player on the defensive side of the ball from a year ago.

The linebacker unit for UNC football is returning the two leading tacklers from last year’s 2022 defensive unit. Granted, we all know the entire defensive side of the ball was a huge weakness and needs significant improvement heading into 2023.

So how does the second level of defense play into that improvement?

What We Know

The Tar Heels are heading into year two under defensive coordinator Gene Chizik, and players have openly said how much of an adjustment year one was learning a new scheme and system. Now that the team has spent an entire offseason with Chizik, the hope is that there is a significant jump in improvement for the entire defense, especially among the second level with the linebackers who were arguably the best unit on the defensive of the ball last year.

As mentioned in our defensive line preview, Ted Monachino is new to the coaching staff as a Senior Defensive Analyst this year, and he is mainly focused on the linebackers and defensive line groups. How will Monachino impact the defense in 2023 and create different looks among the front seven?

The Key Players

Everyone knows about Cedric Gray and how important he is to this unit, along with the entire defense. He has been named to several 2023 preseason award watch lists and led all power five players with the most tackles last season with 145. Gray was able to cover sideline to sideline extremely well for the Tar Heels last year.

Gray’s counterpart, Power Echols, is the other key player among the linebackers. Echols recorded 103 tackles last season, second on the team, including five that were tackles for losses. Both guys started all 14 games for UNC football last year and are expected to have a similar impact in 2023.

The unknown revolves around true freshman Amare Campbell who enrolled early in January as a true freshman. Campbell was a three-star recruit out of high school and ranked as the 141st recruit in the country by 247Sports. It is expected that he will see some playing time, but as a freshman, we aren’t sure what that may look like yet.

Campbell has seemed to impress during his early time with the UNC football program and could be in line to play a huge role for the linebacker unit not only this season but moving forward as well.

Sebastian Cheeks is a rising redshirt freshman who recorded three tackles in three games last year before suffering a season-ending injury and could be another important player behind the dominant force of Echols and Gray.

Outlook

While it was great seeing Gray and Echols rack up all the tackles last year for the defense, that doesn’t need to be the case in 2023. Part of the reason they led in tackles was that the front four wasn’t able to create pressure in the pass or run game leading to plenty of check downs and running backs getting to the second level. Luckily for the Tar Heels in 2022, Gray and Echols made those tackles.

UNC football fans hope that the front four will be creating pressure and making tackles of their own this year so that Gray and Echols don’t have to necessarily carry the entire workload. There have also reportedly been changes made to Chizik’s defense during the offseason with plenty of talk about “removing the gray area,” and that includes more communication and a better scheme to fill the gaps that we saw last season.

Depth Chart

Starters: Cedric Gray and Power Echols

Backups: Amare Campbell and Sebastian Cheeks

Reserves: Deuce Caldwell, Jalen Brooks

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