Mack Brown discusses freshman running back George Pettaway's physicality

North Carolina believes they’ve secured their running back of the future in early enrollee, four-star freshman George Pettaway. Tar Heels head coach Mack Brown was been excited to watch the budding star in action this spring.

“He’s a lot stronger than he looks,” Brown said of the 5-foot-11, 185-pound Pettaway. “Because he’s so quick, people think he’s slight. He’s got a really strong lower body and he’s run over some people this spring.”

Pettaway is certainly impressing his new head coach, but he’s still showing his freshman tendencies with schematic and fundamental errors that Brown is trying to condition all his backs not to do.

“The biggest problem with guys that are coming in as freshmen are pass protection and he’s really improving in that area, but the problem is you can’t play them in past protection,” Brown said. “You can’t play them in the game ’till they learn how to pass protect, because you never know when you’re going to have a check or something, so that’s what limits him.”

Aside from pass protection, Brown’s main concern with Pettaway, an early enrollee freshman at UNC and top-10 running back recruit in the 2022 class, is ball security. Brown noted that a lot of incoming high school prospects are lackadaisical when it comes to holding on to the ball no matter how many stars are next to their name. That, however, is a quick fix in his eyes.

Overall, Brown has been facing the daunting task of replacing multiple offensive stars to the NFL Draft after last season. Brown already has his eyes on who can step up in the running back room in 2022 after losing star running back Ty Chandler and his 1,092 rushing yards and 13 touchdowns to the 2022 NFL Draft, which hurts almost as much as losing quarterback Sam Howell.

“I think we know that British [Brooks] is good, we know that DJ Jones is good … We’ve been impressed with both Elijah Green and George Pettaway,” Brown said of his running back room. “The spring [Pettaway] has made a huge run in every scrimmage. Today is the first time he really didn’t have a breakaway, we’ve just got to make sure that he protects the ball.”

Brown looks to be focused on a four-man consistent running back rotation with Brooks and Jones carrying most of the load with Green and Pettaway falling in when needed heading into 2022.