UNC Football: Don Chapman Enters the NCAA Transfer Portal

There are two times of the year when you expect action to pick up around the transfer portal in football: after the season is done, and after a team’s spring game. Carolina had their spring game on Saturday, and sure enough, the transfer portal welcomed another entrant.

Don Chapman has submitted his name for the portal, according to sources at Inside Carolina.

Chapman has one year remaining, his COVID year, and he’ll join his new team as a graduate transfer.

Chapman played in 43 games throughout his Carolina career, showing up in games every season since he walked on campus in 2019. Stats-wise, he started off strong and then backed off in the last two seasons. He had a career with six tackles for loss, totaling 30 yards, but he only recored ¹⁄₂ a tackle for loss in the last two seasons, in 2021. All of his three interceptions came in his first two seasons as well. He was, however, a steady presence in the defensive backfield, accumulating 138 over his career.

More importantly it was thought that with all of the departures in the backfield, having someone with the experience of a Chapman back there would have been extremely helpful.

Coach Mack Brown has said on several occasions leading up to the Spring Game that it wouldn’t be a surprise to have players put their names into the portal, as the practices would lead to frank discussions with each player about where they stand. Clearly, after this set of practices and the game, Chapman felt that the team wasn’t going to utilize him in the way he thought he could be used.

Chapman likely won’t be the last player Carolina will lose after this past weekend, but as the portal taketh away, it also gives. The first day of the portal’s reopening on Sunday saw 90 players put their name in, and that number is rising. With Mack Brown now knowing he has at least one hole to fill, no doubt the staff is about to sift through the names and see who would be a good fit for the current staff.

Chapman was a three star recruit who was part of Mack Brown’s first recruiting class at Carolina. To go from a three star recruit that was a quick add for a new coaching staff to a four-year player is a pretty good success story. He originally came to Carolina once Jay Bateman was hired on, but stayed on with the defensive coaching staff changes last season.

We’ll see who joins Chapman in the portal, as well as who might decide to join for the ride.