North Carolina LB Noah Taylor out for season, Mack Brown confirms

Senior linebacker Noah Taylor will not play for the remainder of this season for the North Carolina Tar Heels due to a right knee injury. According to Mack Brown, Taylor’s year and collegiate career are over on the football field.

Here was his initial comment on the Taylor news:

“I talked to him five minutes ago and he was just told by the doctors. He’s obviously disappointed. He’s going to have an operation and he’s done for the year. He doesn’t have another year. So he can’t come back.”

After breaking the sour news, Brown pivoted to a long talk about why Taylor was so important to this year’s team, and still will be as a leader the rest of the way.

“The Transfer Portal is good for a lot of things, and he has been wonderful for us. I just talked to him and he was just told. He’s being positive. He wanted me to tell you all because he’s got so many players worried about him and texting him and calling him. And he said let’s get it out there and let everybody know. So we’ve got to thank him for all he’s done. He’s a tremendous leader. He’s one of the reasons that the defense has improved so much.

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“And he’ll go to Charlottesville with us this weekend, or he’s planning on it, and see his buddies. But just, he came here to help us and he came here to be in the NFL. So now, what we’ve got to do is get him fixed and get him in a position to where he has a chance to make an NFL team. “

Brown also revealed that seeing young men put in bad situations like this is always tough on him.

“But when you’re a head coach, the three toughest things is when a young guy gets hurt and can’t play anymore, as hard as these guys work. It’s when a young guy gets in trouble and makes a poor decision. These are young people that make poor decisions at some points of their life and hate the consequences. You gotta hope that they will wake up and do better moving forward. And the third thing is, guys that don’t get to play that are working really hard, are talented, and have done everything right and don’t get to play. So those are the three hardest things for a head coach.”

Though break for North Carolina. Hopefully Taylor can remain part of the fold as a leadership voice.