As explosive as the UNC football team is offensively, that same team struggles significantly on the defensive side of the football.

The Tar Heels gave us fans life early in the season – sacking South Carolina quarterback Spencer Rattler nine times in Week 1, holding Syracuse to single-digits and limiting Minnesota QB Athas Kaliakmanis to a less-than 50% completion rate.

That excitement was short-lived, as a then-1-win UVA team torched UNC for 436 yards in a Cavaliers upset. The following week on Halloween Saturday, Georgia Tech exploded for 635 yards in a Yellow Jackets win.

Point being – Carolina needs all the defensive help it can get. With transfer portal season alive and well, the Tar Heels will need to attract defensive players.

It’s not a good sign when UNC is losing defensive players, which is exactly what happened on Tuesday afternoon.

Tayon Holloway, a redshirt-freshman starting cornerback, announced his decision to enter the transfer portal.

Holloway, a Virginia Beach native, appeared in every game but the Campbell and Duke ones. He totaled 19 tackles (16 solo, 1.5 for loss) and one pass breakup, with his best game coming in the opener against South Carolina (four solo tackles, one for loss).

Will Holloway go back to his home state of Virginia, play somewhere else in the ACC or head far away? Stay tuned in our transfer portal tracker.

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Story originally appeared on Tarheels Wire