Former Tar Heels George Pettaway and Dontae Balfour shined for JMU and Charlotte in a 30-7 49ers win.

In today’s college sports environment, it’s nearly impossible to hold on to all of your recruits. When playing time becomes scarce, it’s a lot easier to transfer and play right away, and why not? You only have four years to do this.

George Pettaway was an electric scatback recruit out of Suffolk, Virginia, but he came to Chapel Hill at the same time as a certain Omarion Hampton. There weren’t too many crumbs left when Hampton and British Brooks were done running. So he transferred to James Madison in search of opportunity.

Likewise, cornerback Dontae Balfour didn’t see much of the field at cornerback during his stay with the UNC football program and moved on to Charlotte to try his luck with the 49ers. It was the right move for the young man’s career. During his year at North Carolina, Balfour was on the field for 60 snaps. Last season, in his first year with the 49ers, he saw 707 snaps. He’s a preseason first-team All-AAC player and is on the Jim Thorpe Award watch list.

Against James Madison, he had a timely interception midway in the second quarter when Charlotte was still leading 7-3. You’d be forgiven for thinking the 49ers would go to the locker room with a halftime lead, but UNC Charlotte quarterback Max Brown threw two interceptions and gave the Dukes one last possession. With less than a minute to go, Alonza Barnett threw a 33-yard touchdown pass to George Pettaway:

Pettaway added a rushing touchdown late in the fourth quarter with the game decided to add to his impressive tally for the night.

Fans of the UNC football program will get a chance to see these two former Tar Heels at Kenan Stadium this year. Charlotte heads to Chapel Hill this Saturday (September 7, 3:30 pm EST), and James Madison visits on week four (September 21, time TBD). Hopefully both players have great success for the rest of the season… just not against the Heels.