CHAPEL HILL - North Carolina got a new face in the starting lineup Saturday, and Nyqir Helton didn’t land there by accident.
The 5-foot-11 true freshman known inside the program as “Boomer” made his first career start in UNC’s 31-30 overtime loss to Syracuse, stepping in as the Tar Heels’ third starting wide receiver in the seventh game of the season. He was on the field for a career-high 67 snaps, a jump from the 20 he played the week before at Duke.
UNC had rotated through the third receiver spot early in the season. Mason Humphrey and C.J.
Sadler each started there during the first six games, with Humphrey injured against Pittsburgh and Sadler benched last weekend. But the coaching staff said Helton’s opportunity came down to what he had been doing behind the scenes.
“Boomer has been playing really well in practice,” Bill Belichick said Monday during his weekly press conference. “He deserved to play.”
Belichick said he leans heavily on what players show during the week.
“In my experience, that's usually a good indicator of how it would go in the game,” Belichick said of players' practice sessions. “I think it's going pretty well early. I don't see any reason to make a change, so we didn't.”
Helton’s rise didn’t begin against Syracuse, or even the week before at Duke. His first game action came in UNC’s blowout win over East Tennessee State, but the program had been tracking his progress for a while. The Tar Heels have also used Sunday Night Football, a developmental game held the day after games, to give reserves a chance to compete in an organized setting and put film on tape.
“We always knew he was tough and was really fast, but there were a lot of things he had to learn,” wide receivers coach Garrick McGee said Monday. “A lot of details, and based on the Sunday Night Football and all the basic practices that we have with him, we've just started to see him the last few weeks come on strong.”
“He was on exchange, working against our defense with the scout squad, and he was making plays, playing tough, taking the right angles; it seems like it's starting to come to life for him.”
McGee said Helton kept showing enough to move into the regular offense a few weeks ago.
“He spends a lot of time in the meeting room; you can tell this is really important to him and he's done a really good job,” McGee said. “He earned himself 60[-plus] reps in the game the other night.”
It’s not yet clear whether Helton will stay in that starting role, but after turning weeks of practice work into his first start, he’s made a strong push to keep it.
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