UNC Football: Leroy Jackson: Can Year Two Be a Strike?
Every college football program would love to have more players like Leroy Jackson.
The UNC defensive lineman enters the 2026 season with the kind of foundation coaches hope to build around: production, maturity and the willingness to put in the work when nobody is watching. Jackson already showed flashes of what he can become during the 2025 season, earning recognition on multiple Freshman All-American teams. Now, the question is whether that promising freshman campaign was simply an introduction or the beginning of something much bigger.
For Jackson, the 2026 season could be the year the potential turns into production.
The interior of the Tar Heel defensive line has been an area where UNC needs players to establish themselves, and Jackson has an opportunity to become one of the most important pieces of that unit. A year in the offseason program under Moses Cabrera and the experience of learning in a program led by Bill Belichick should provide Jackson with an entirely different perspective entering his second season. The biggest advantage may be that Jackson no longer has to figure out what college football is all about.
He has been through the practices. He has experienced the physical demands. He has played against ACC competition. He knows what game day feels like. More importantly, he has spent an entire offseason learning what the coaching staff expects from him and what it takes to play at a high level consistently. That experience matters.
The Tar Heels don't necessarily need Jackson to become a household name overnight. They need him to become disruptive. They need him to occupy blockers, collapse running lanes, create negative plays and make opposing offenses think twice about running directly through the middle of the defense. And every so often, they need him to make a quarterback's afternoon considerably more uncomfortable.
There is also something fitting about Jackson's favorite way to spend his free time: knocking down pins at the bowling alley. The goal for a defensive lineman isn't all that different. Find the target. Hit it with force. Keep moving. Jackson now gets the opportunity to do that against opposing offensive linemen and ball carriers.
The question isn't whether he has the talent. His freshman season suggested he does. The question is how much that talent develops after another year in the weight room, another offseason of preparation and another season of learning from some of the most experienced football minds in the country.
If Jackson can take that next step, he could become a critical piece of an improved Tar Heel defense. And perhaps that's where the bowling analogy becomes more than just a clever headline. Last year, Jackson showed that he could knock down some pins. In 2026, North Carolina needs him knocking down opposing runners. And, if the opportunity presents itself, a few quarterbacks wouldn't hurt either.
For a Tar Heel defense looking to make a significant jump, Leroy Jackson may be one of the players capable of helping make that happen. The freshman season put his name on the radar. Year two will tell us whether he is ready to become one of the players UNC can't afford to play without.
