The North Carolina football team walked out of its last meeting of preseason training camp on Sunday night with many questions about the depth chart answered.
There are certainties about who will start at many positions. Even the offensive line, which lost four starters from last season, has named four of its five starters for the season. There is a question mark, however, about who will start at right guard.
First-year William Barnes and redshirt first-year Billy Ross are competing for that spot.
With the Tar Heels’ season opener against University of California, Berkeley on Sept. 1, head coach Larry Fedora says he needs to see more from both players to name one a starter.
“(With) the offensive line, any time you’re putting new guys out there, they’ve got to get as many reps as possible,” Fedora said Wednesday after practice. “Right now, both of them could play.”
Junior offensive lineman Nick Polino, the starting left guard, says that Barnes and Ross have made tremendous strides this offseason, but neither has separated himself from the other. Polino raved about the physical tools of the 6-foot-5, 320-pound Barnes.
“He’s physically way ahead of where I was coming in as a freshman, just strength-wise and size-wise,” Polino said. “If he ends up getting to play, I have no doubt that he’ll be able to physically keep up with it.”
Barnes was the 53rd-overall recruit and the fifth-best offensive tackle in the class of 2018, according to 247Sports. The four-star player from Apopka, Fla. is the highest rated recruit in the Tar Heels’ incoming class.
Ross was not as highly touted when he came in as a three-star recruit in the class of 2017. The 6-foot-5, 325-pound Huntington, W.Va., native was the 380th-overall recruit and the 40th-ranked offensive tackle in his class, according to 247Sports.