UNC running backs have supplied six 1,000-yard rushing seasons across the last six years, with Michael Carter and Javonte Williams doubling up in 2020. Omarion Hampton delivered the last two of those 1,000-yard campaigns, while piling up the second- and third-highest season outputs in Carolina’s football history (1,660 rushing yards in 2024 after 1,504 rushing yards in 2023). Anything resembling that level of high-quality production would require a quantum leap from the runners who make up the Tar Heels’ backfield stable for the approaching 2025 season.
Davion Gause, the sophomore nicknamed “Bullet,” averaged 4.9 yards per carry on 67 attempts last season as Hampton’s true freshman backup, including 3.6 yards per carry after contact. He responded against Charlotte in Hampton’s early season absence due to a bruised thigh, running for 105 yards and a touchdown. Later, Gause added a 54-yard rushing game at Florida State, chipping in as Hampton steamrolled the Seminoles with 265 yards from scrimmage and five total touchdowns.
Michigan transfer Benjamin Hall, who weighs 235 pounds, brings the most bulk among the running backs at UNC’s disposal this season. He spent the last two seasons in the Michigan program, and took a redshirt in 2023 when the then-unbeaten Wolverines claimed the College Football Playoff national championship. Hall averaged 2.5 yards per carry on 29 attempts last season, numbers that don’t jump off the page. He was Michigan’s second-leading rusher (with 28 yards on 16 carries) in the Wolverines’ defeat of Alabama in the ReliaQuest Bowl. The season prior in 2023, Hall played in three games as a true freshman, including his career-best effort of 58 rushing yards on nine carries during Michigan’s mauling of Indiana.
The often-injured Caleb Hood, once a starter at UNC, is entering his fifth season with the Tar Heels. He had just seven carries and three catches in four regular-season games last year, before running for 78 yards as a surprise wildcat quarterback in the Fenway Bowl, when Carolina lost to Connecticut. Hood had 15 carries in seven games during the 2023 season. In 2022, he was UNC’s starter at running back in ACC victories against Virginia Tech, Miami, Duke and Pittsburgh. He generated 109 all-purpose yards in the Tar Heels’ shootout win at Appalachian State. Four games later, he ran for 74 yards on 13 carries and added five catches for 50 yards, as Carolina won at Miami. Hood missed the final six games of that season due to injury.
Charleston French broke away for a 45-yard touchdown burst in the closing minute of UNC’s rout of NC Central last season. But he logged just two carries the rest of the way, over the course of the next 10 games. French is entering his second season with the Tar Heels, after arriving from Itawamba Community College in Mississippi. At 5-foot-9, he probably has the most wiggle among Carolina’s returning running backs.
Demon June, Jaylen McGill, Jaylon Nichols and JoJo Troupe are true freshmen and new additions at running back this season. McGill, a recruit in the high school Class of 2026, committed to UNC three months ago and since has reclassified to 2025 to join the Tar Heels a year early.