How North Carolina Replaces Chazz Surratt: Meet Eugene Asante

Tar Heel coaches have tried to find ways to get "best backup on the team" onto field

Much of the conversation leading up to the Orange Bowl has been around who won’t be there. Four of UNC’s top players—running backs Michael Carter and Javonte Williams, receiver Dyami Brown and linebacker Chazz Surratt—chose to opt out of the game to prepare for the NFL Draft.

As kickoff approaches, the focus shifts to who will be there—how does UNC replace these four players on the field?

Defensive coordinator Jay Bateman only has to replace one star, but Surratt was right in the middle of the North Carolina defense. Bateman feels that the Tar Heels have had the perfect candidate to replace Surratt all along in Eugene Asante. They just never found the opportunity to get him into games.

“We said all along we wanted to play him more,” Bateman said. “Well now’s his chance.”

Asante was, along with Sam Howell, one of Mack Brown’s first recruiting priorities when he took over as UNC head coach in late 2018.

“He was a kid I knew about,” Bateman said. “I thought he was a tremendous high school football player. I talked to Tommy (Thigpen, co defensive coordinator) about him. Tommy watched him, then got on a plane to go see him. We were positive about him. He was a little bit of a late bloomer. He played tailback most of his high school career and became a linebacker as a senior and began to blow up.”

At UNC, Asante found his path blocked by Surratt.

“Chazz is going to be a top 30, 40 pick in the NFL Draft,” Bateman said. “It was hard to take him off the field. Tommy and I would talk, ‘We should put Eugene in for this,’ but to pull Chazz out was really hard.”

The staff tried to find other roles for him.

“We played him against Virginia Tech—tried to play him at nickel a little bit. That was probably a little bit more defensive back skill than he had—not that he couldn’t do it. He just hadn’t practiced it,” Bateman said. “We tried to get him in on some third down stuff. He embraced his role. I think Eugene was quite aware of how good a player Chazz was.”

So Asante had to follow the classic backup mantra—prepare like the starter.

“He prepared every week knowing he’s an injury away from playing,” Bateman said. “Every time Chazz came out, we stuck him right in. … We told him, ‘You’re playing linebacker. You’re not playing kicker. Chazz could get hurt any minute now.’ … I promise you, I don’t know if there was a better backup on our team than Eugene Asante.”

Now Asante finally has a chance to start on the biggest stage UNC has seen since 1950.

“Eugene can really run,” Bateman said. “He’s really athletic. A lot of things Chazz does for us in coverage and in being the extra run defender, Eugene will do a good job with … Everybody on our defense is extremely confident in Eugene. I couldn’t not be more excited to watch him play. He’s going to make a bunch of plays and make a bunch of tackles.”