Shaped by country upbringing, UNC running back Ty Chandler ready to ride for final season
CHAPEL HILL — There’s a mixture of delight and gratitude and anticipation settling across running back Ty Chandler as he envisions what could unfold this football season for North Carolina, a new future at his fingertips to author with his new teammates.
The high-powered offense he has joined. The star quarterback to play alongside in Sam Howell. The abundant energy of coach Mack Brown guiding the reins of a group expected to contend in the Atlantic Coast Conference.
Chandler, the Tennessee graduate transfer, feels the fit he has found among the Tar Heels, senses the potential of a special season in the works, and sees the possibility for a storybook finish to the final year of his college career.
“I can honestly say I’m loving it,” he smiled and told the Burlington Times-News. “I love going to school here. I love the guys I’m in the locker room with. I love what we have a chance to build and do, and the type of team we have a chance to be. And that’s what I’m looking forward to. We’ve been working hard, man, and I’m looking forward to seeing it all pay off. I think it’s going to be a fun season. I’m just taking it all in and I’m enjoying this last ride I have.”
Time to saddle up now in pursuit of making it happen. No. 10 North Carolina opens Friday night at Virginia Tech, the Tar Heels debut for Chandler and effectively his introduction as the featured runner in a system that just churned out a pair of NFL backs in Javonte Williams and Michael Carter.
The 23-year-old Chandler arrives with the credentials of a proven producer in the Southeastern Conference — statistically, he’s one of the most versatile weapons in Tennessee program history — all the while shaped by the background of an upbringing in rural Mississippi, and a collection of moments experienced in his favorite cowboy boots that could seem taken from the pages of a novel.
Just consider the characters: His father, Chico. His grandfather, Too Tall. His prayerful grandmother, Alice. A horse named Trouble. And an army of uncles, cousins and family members living in close proximity with which to explore the never-ending countryside of Houston, Miss., a place in Chickasaw County, the northern part of the state.
Ty began participating in organized football in youth leagues for 9- and 10-year-olds. Even by that young age, he already had been riding horses, driving trucks, working on the nearby farm, and entertaining the idea of maybe becoming a rodeo clown.
“We grew up with horses,” Chico Chandler said. “We used to have like five or six horses at a time, and that’s what Ty done when he was little. When he was 6, he was able to go down there, saddle the horse up by himself, get on and go riding. And he’s been doing that ever since he was a kid.
“That’s what he loved doing. He used to love riding horses, all the time.”
Here’s Ty Chandler, from the Mississippi backcountry to the North Carolina backfield, ready to make hay this season on his final ride.
‘Them horses know how to come home’
Ty forever went trotting off on horses with his cousins as a youngster, traversing the vast acreage and trails and forests, where encountering coyotes, wild hogs and all sorts of creatures was a common occurrence.
The older they got, the later they might stay out. There were nights when preteen Ty still had yet to return from riding by 11 p.m., which tended to prompt increasing levels of concern from Chico, a firefighter and former Ole Miss running back during his playing days.
Shouldn’t they be in by now? They can’t even see.
“Them horses know how to come home,” Too Tall calmly would respond. And eventually the alert that the kids were close would sound from the barn, the other horses stirring and making noise in there, signaling they could smell the others approaching.
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Winston “Too Tall” Chandler, father to Chico and grandfather to Ty, earned his nickname by way of the obvious, his height. He’s either 6-foot-8 or 6-9, depending on who’s providing the measurement. Too Tall worked at Stevens Farm in nearby Montpelier, Miss., and Ty spent much of his childhood tagging along.
“I was with grandpa,” Ty said. “Whatever he was doing, wherever he went, I was trying to go. I was pretty much in his back pocket. And he was always outside. To this day, he’s still working. We can’t get him to sit down.”
They built fences together on the farm and rounded up cows by horseback, herding them off to get milked. Too Tall started his days at 6 a.m. on milking duty. Around age 7, per a rite of passage for children in the family, Ty learned how to operate an old truck with a manual transmission. He worked the stick shift and slowly drove the truck through the hay fields, while those older and stronger followed along loading up the bales.
“They put the truck in gear and taught you how to drive when you could barely reach the pedal,” Chico said, “because you’re not going fast. They just want you to keep it in between the two rows of hay, so as long as you can feel the steering wheel and guide it between the two rows. But once you got bigger, you move out and you start picking up the hay, and then they put somebody else young in the driver’s seat.”
When Ty turned 7, he was given a horse named Wendy as a birthday present. He took on the sole responsibility of breaking her, the demanding and delicate process of training a horse to be ridden. Ty enjoyed those challenges that required gaining the trust of a powerful bucking animal — getting it accustomed to a bridle and saddle, and then a rider on its back — and he didn’t shy away from breaking other horses, a way of proving to his cousins that he wasn’t afraid of the danger involved.
Ty wasn’t particularly fond of cleaning the horse stalls or picking peas with his grandma, Alice Chandler, with him explaining “if you weren’t beating the sun getting out there, it was going to beat you while you’re out there.”
But mostly, Ty found growing up in the open spaces of rural Mississippi during that period to be a blast. Too Tall has 13 brothers and sisters, and Alice has 13 brothers and sisters, too. Chico is one of four brothers. It was as if one adventure after another awaited, discovery upon discovery.
“I love being outside,” Ty said, “because that’s what we did. We lived in the country, so we didn’t have to worry about getting in trouble too much or seeing the police too much. We were outside riding four-wheelers or horses. Outside getting dirty. My grandma didn’t let us be in the house much, so she would always send us outside.
“All of our family lived around each other, so if it wasn’t my grandpa’s land it was somebody’s land my grandpa knew, and he didn’t mind us riding on it. We would just go out there and find new trails, water holes, ride through the mud. It was just a time for us to enjoy the day. And that’s how we enjoyed the days, going and riding horses. It was just a good time.”
No clowning around, no Trouble winning
Chico has worked for the Nashville Fire Department for 11 years since moving his family to Tennessee. There, Ty gained recognition as one of the nation’s top 100 high school recruits, shining at Montgomery Bell Academy. His 6,158 career rushing yards and 92 career touchdowns ranked seventh and third, respectively, in state history for private schools.
Before training for football occupied much of his time, Ty returned to the Mississippi family homestead during the summers. And well before he saw football as a possible professional endeavor, he was a youngster who relished attending rodeos and horse shows.
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That unmistakable adrenaline rush left him giving some consideration to perhaps attaining the job of rodeo clown one day. After all, he had an uncle, Larry Mosley, who was a professional bull rider.
“I thought I wanted to be a rodeo clown,” Ty said, “until I seen what those bulls can really do to people. They don’t mess around.”
On Sundays back then around Houston, Miss., and surrounding towns, horse shows served up family traditions. From age 8, Ty competed in a number of events atop the horse named Trouble, racing him around barrels and navigating poles. He won, too, picking up prize money or horse feed or a new saddle as a reward for victory.
“It was a community thing,” Ty said. “People bringing their horses out to race, to see who had the fastest time or see who had the prettiest horse. I would say it brought the whole community together.
“The name summed ‘Trouble’ up. He was kind of like a family horse passed down. But he was probably one of the best barrel horses, in Houston, at least. I won plenty of barrel races on him. He was real fast, well-trained. I could send him in the arena and he’d do the barrels by himself.”
No matter the boyhood activity, Ty took part in cowboy boots. He wore them to school, to play kickball or basketball, and everywhere else.
“I would take off in those boots,” Ty said, laughing. “I think those boots made me faster.”
Father and son, football renewed
Chico was 17 when Ty was born. Alice toted Ty the toddler to Chico’s games at Ole Miss, an era for the program highlighted by Deuce McAllister’s running back exploits, just before Eli Manning took over as quarterback.
A head-on car crash and neck injury ended Chico’s college football career prematurely. Twenty years later, describing the pride that bubbles up as Ty breaks off big runs is a somewhat indescribable proposition. Chico said Ty’s skills are superior to what he once wielded as a player, and he doesn’t detect inherited traits that might connect father and son.
“Oh, he has better moves,” Chico said. “I don’t see it, but my brothers always say when they’re watching the games, ‘That looks just like you out there running.’ That’s what they always tell me. It’s such a great feeling, but you don’t want to be where you’re bragging about it.”
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Ty played in 45 games and made 25 starts across the last four seasons at Tennessee, leading the Volunteers in rushing in 2018 and 2019, while compiling 3,245 all-purpose yards to rank fifth in school history in that category. He said as last season came to a close, he felt compelled to look for a new opportunity, and consulted with his parents about the decision to transfer.
“I think I found the best one,” Ty said of choosing Chapel Hill as his transfer destination. “Just being here, man, it’s been a great atmosphere. It’s been all love in the locker room and Coach Mack, he’s a great motivator and brings great enthusiasm. Then you’ve got Sam Howell, how he approaches everything and the knowledge he puts forth.
“So all around, it’s just been a great experience. And being able to see what Mike and Javonte were able to do in this offense, if that doesn’t make you excited, then I don’t know what will.”
It’s the second act and chance to write a fulfilling ending that Chico never got in football. He has noticed a new contentment from Ty, who, like Too Tall isn’t an overly talkative personality. Chico said Ty’s adding of 5 pounds to begin this season weighing 210 pounds is proof positive of his sunnier disposition.
“I can tell he’s happy because he’s gaining weight,” Chico said. “He’s been eating, but the weight hadn’t been sticking. And this year, the weight started sticking. I said, ‘What you doing different?’ He said, ‘I’m doing nothing different. I’m doing the exact same stuff.’ And I said, ‘Well, that’s how I know you’re happy, because you’re gaining weight.’
“How everything worked out, it was just a perfect fit. He’s a quiet kid, but I think his whole attitude changed. I think he’s really happy.”
Time to saddle up now. Here’s Ty Chandler, from the Mississippi backcountry to the North Carolina backfield, ready to make hay this season on his final ride.
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Adam Smith is a sports reporter for the Burlington Times-News and USA TODAY Network. You can reach him by email at asmith@thetimesnews.com or @adam_smithTN on Twitter.
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This article originally appeared on Times-News: UNC football: Ty Chandler ready to ride for final year after transfer
