Tar Heels nearly back to full strength after suspenions

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — North Carolina is nearly back at full strength for its game at No. 16 Miami with the return of several players who were suspended for selling team-issued shoes.

Seven players — including quarterback Chazz Surratt and receiver Beau Corrales — are eligible to make their season debut Thursday against the Hurricanes. And after being down as many as 11 players in the opener against California, UNC will be down just one — starting defensive end Tomon Fox — for the shoe issue this week.

“I’m looking forward to seeing them all, because we need every single one of them,” UNC coach Larry Fedora said. “There’s a lot of guys that give us some depth at some positions where we’ve been really thin and it’s been really shaky at this point. But now we’ve got some guys that can get back into the fray, start competing.”

UNC (1-2, 1-0 Atlantic Coast Conference) announced in August that 13 players would miss time for the NCAA secondary violations, with nine set to miss four games. Most of those players were due back this week from the start, though the duration of some suspensions changed once Hurricane Florence forced the cancellation of UNC’s Sept. 15 home game against No. 13 UCF.

The penalties were based on a formula that required the involved players to sit 30 percent of the regular-season schedule. Once UNC was at 11 games, the four-game suspensions fell to three games — though they would return to four if UNC adds a replacement game later in the season.

The NCAA had approved a school request to stagger the suspensions with three defensive ends affected. So Fox is starting his three-game suspension, then he’ll play against Virginia Tech on Oct. 13 before sitting the following two games.

That approval also allowed Malik Carney — another starter who played the opener then sat the past two games — to play against Miami, then conclude his suspension against the Hokies.