UNC defensive back Kaleb Cost re-signs with Tar Heels

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In a defense that has been thinned out due to players graduating along with some entering the transfer portal, North Carolina needed to keep key members to maintain continuity.

Continuity will come in the form of defensive back Kaleb Cost, who will return to UNC next season, the school announced. Cost, who started at nickelback last season, is a two-year starter with 1,388 career snaps. He has racked up 114 tackles, 4.5 tackles for loss, three interceptions and 14 pass breakups throughout his career.

Last season, he had 45 tackles, two tackles for loss, an interception and six pass breakups. In coverage, he was targeted 43 times and allowed 29 receptions for 253 yards. Opponents averaged a 7.0-yard depth of target and gained 170 yards after the catch. He gave up one touchdown, made one interception and forced five incompletions. 

Cost is the lone returning starter from last season’s secondary. Marcus Allen, Thaddeus Dixon, Gavin Gibson and Will Hardy have all exhausted their eligibility. The only other key member of the secondary who has confirmed he will be back next season is defensive back Jaiden Patterson, who played both cornerback and safety. Patterson started at cornerback for a significant stretch of the season after Dixon suffered a lower-body injury midway through the year.

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This article originally appeared on Tar Heels Wire: UNC Football: Kaleb Cost re-signs with North Carolina

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