 Hampton with North Carolina in 2024 | |
| North Carolina Tar Heels–No. 28 | |
|---|---|
| Position | Running back |
| Class | Junior |
| Personal information | |
| Born: | March 16, 2003 Forest City, North Carolina, U.S. |
| Height | 6 ft 0 in (1.83 m) |
| Weight | 220 lb (100 kg) |
| Career history | |
| College | North Carolina (2022–present) |
| High school | Cleveland (Clayton) |
| Career highlights and awards | |
Omarion Hampton (born March 16, 2003) is an American football running back for the North Carolina Tar Heels.
Hampton was born on March 16, 2003, in Forest City, North Carolina and grew up in Clayton, North Carolina. [1] [2] He attended Cleveland High School in Clayton and played football as a running back from 2018 to 2021. [3] After rushing for 335 yards as a freshman, he had his best season as a sophomore in 2019, being one of the best running backs nationally as he totaled 2,402 rushing yards and 35 touchdowns; he ran for over 100 yards in all but one of their games. [4] [5]
Hampton ran for 685 yards and 13 touchdowns in the spring 2021 season as a junior, although he missed significant time due to an ankle injury. [4] [6] As a senior, he ran for 1,949 yards and 39 touchdowns (having scored a total of 43 touchdowns), averaging 162.4 rushing yards-per-game as he helped Cleveland reach the state playoffs with a record of 11–1. [7] He was named the Gatorade North Carolina Football Player of the Year and the winner of the state's Mr. Football award. [3] [8] Ranked a four-star recruit, he committed to play college football for the North Carolina Tar Heels. [9]
Hampton saw immediate playing time as a true freshman in 2022, recording 101 rushing yards and two touchdowns in his collegiate debut against the Florida A&M Rattlers, becoming the first true freshman for North Carolina to run for over 100 yards in a game since Charlie Justice in 1946. [10] Two games later, he ran for 110 yards and scored game-tying and go-ahead touchdowns against the Georgia State Panthers, being named Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) Rookie of the Week. [11] He finished the season having appeared in 13 games, four as a starter, and tallied 88 rush attempts for 401 yards and six touchdowns, in addition to six receptions for 40 yards and another score. [12]
In the second game of the 2023 season, Hampton ran 26 times for 234 yards and three touchdowns against Appalachian State, being named the Doak Walker National Running Back of the Week. [13] [14] He continued his strong performance throughout the season, finishing the season with 1,504 rushing yards and 15 touchdowns. For his performance, he earned first-team All-ACC honors, and was named a finalist for the Doak Walker Award. Hampton was also named to several All-America teams, being named a second team All-America by the AP and Sporting News, and first-team by the Walter Camp Football Foundation. In the Tar Heels' season-ending loss to West Virginia in the Duke's Mayo Bowl, he passed Elijah Hood for second-most rushing yards in a single Tar Heel season.
| North Carolina Tar Heels | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Season | Games | Rushing | Receiving | ||||||||||||
| GP | GS | Att | Yards | Avg | TD | Rec | Yards | Avg | TD | ||||||
| 2022 | 13 | 3 | 88 | 401 | 4.6 | 6 | 6 | 40 | 6.7 | 1 | |||||
| 2023 | 13 | 11 | 253 | 1,504 | 5.9 | 15 | 29 | 222 | 7.7 | 1 | |||||
| 2024 | 12 | 12 | 281 | 1,660 | 5.9 | 15 | 38 | 373 | 9.8 | 2 | |||||
| Career | 38 | 26 | 622 | 3,565 | 5.7 | 36 | 73 | 635 | 8.7 | 4 | |||||
William Mack Brown is an American former college football coach. Brown most recently coached at the University of North Carolina, where he had two stints, first from 1988 until 1997, and again from 2019 until his firing at the end of the 2024 season. During his second stint in Chapel Hill, Brown became Carolina's all-time winningest coach, passing Dick Crum for most wins in program history.
Kelvin Leroy Bryant is an American former professional football player who was a running back in the National Football League (NFL) and the United States Football League (USFL). He played college football for the North Carolina Tar Heels
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The North Carolina Tar Heels football team represents the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in the sport of American football or Gridiron Football. The Tar Heels play in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and are members of the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC).
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The 1980 North Carolina Tar Heels football team was an American football team that represented the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill as a member of the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) during the 1980 NCAA Division I-A football season. In their third year under head coach Dick Crum, the Tar Heels compiled an 11–1 record, kept six opponents from scoring a touchdown, and outscored all opponents by a total of 281 to 123. They won the ACC championship, were ranked No. 10 in the final AP poll, and defeated Texas in the Astro–Bluebonnet Bowl. The 11 wins tied a program record set during the 1972 season.
The 2011 North Carolina Tar Heels football team represented the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill as a member of Coastal Division of the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) during the 2011 NCAA Division I FBS football season. The team was led by interim head coach Everett Withers and played their home games at Kenan Memorial Stadium. The Tar Heels finished the season 7–6 overall and 3–5 in ACC play to tie for fourth in the Coastal Division. They were invited to the Independence Bowl, where they were defeated by Missouri, 24–41.
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The North Carolina–Wake Forest rivalry is a series of athletic contests between the University of North Carolina Tar Heels and the Wake Forest University Demon Deacons. The first football game between the two institutions was played in 1888. As a consequence of ACC expansion in the 21st century, the two schools do not play each other annually in football, as they were placed in separate divisions and assigned different opponents for their "protected" cross-division games. North Carolina got rival NC State as their cross-divisional opponent, while Wake Forest got Duke, which allowed the Duke-Wake Forest rivalry to continue.
Samuel Duke Howell is an American professional football quarterback for the Seattle Seahawks of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the North Carolina Tar Heels, setting school records for most touchdown passes in a single season (38) as well as career passing yards (10,283) and touchdown passes (92).
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