Two-sport Tar Heel: How UNC’s Kaleb Cost juggles playing college football and baseball

As a high school senior in Atlanta, Kaleb Cost was determined to play both football and baseball in college, and had no shortage of schools willing to let him try.

Deciding on North Carolina, Cost made Mack Brown and Scott Forbes two happy coaches. Brown was able to add a defensive back to his football roster with super hand/eye coordination and the kind of explosive speed that helped Cost steal 84 bases — a Georgia single-season baseball record — as a senior. Forbes picked up an outfielder who was all-state. hit .545 as a senior and, well, had the speed to steal 84 bases.

It was up to Cost to make it work.

“It’s definitely a lot,” Cost said this week. “It’s a lot of juggling.”

The NCAA allows college athletes 20 hours a week to devote to their sport. But what about a two-sport athlete? Double that time?

“Still 20 hours,” Cost said.

As a freshman at UNC last year, Cost said his spring days required stringent time management, handling his classwork and his two–sport requirements. He said an average day often began with attending 6:30 a.m. football team meetings and then watching spring practice.

“If I had a baseball game, I’d get my mental game here in football, then go over and play a game over there,” he said during a media interview at the Koman Practice Complex.

“Over there” being Boshamer Stadium, the Tar Heels’ baseball park across the street.

Cost said eight colleges offered the 5-foot-10, 195-pounder the chance to play both sports, including Florida State. At UNC, he was joining a football program led by a Hall of Fame coach and a baseball program with a tradition of winning ACC titles and making College World Series appearances.

‘He’s fun to coach’

Football came first. Cost was used on special teams in the regular season last fall as the Heels went 8-5. Then came a bigger chance: He started the 2023 Duke’s Mayo Bowl against West Virginia at the star position, replacing an injured Alijah Huzzie.

Cost had five tackles and broke up a pair of passes in the bowl game in Charlotte, albeit in 30-10 loss.

“It gave me a new perspective on playing the star position and a lot of confidence,” Cost said.

With Huzzie now moving back to cornerback, Cost is in position to get a lot of snaps this season at star, the hybrid of slot corner and linebacker so vital to making a defense click. Huzzie, Cost noted, was adept at making “crunch-time plays” at star and he wants to do the same.

“There’s so much that position has to do from a mentality standpoint, from a schematic standpoint and having to cover a lot of people in long parts of the field,” defensive coordinator Geoff Collins said. “Kaleb has a presence. I know he’s only been here a year, but he has a maturity about him. He’s fun to coach.”

And fun to play with, said safety Antavious “Stick” Lane.

“He’s going to be a big player for our defense at the position, flying around,” Lane said this week. “He’s very physical and he can blitz off the edge. He’s a great blitzer.

“And he can cover, which is the most important thing. He can cover and shut slot guys down. I see a lot of big things coming from him.”

It was that way for Cost at Sandy Creek High in Atlanta. He was a two-way football star, catching 45 passes while also anchoring the defense at corner — his interception sealed the victory in the Georgia AAA championship game as a senior.

‘I love ‘em both’

Then, of course, there was baseball.

In Little League, one of his outfield throws nailed the runner at home and was the ESPN SportsCenter top play of the day. That was an early thrill.

Cost, with a smile, said he has been asked “a million times” which sport he likes most and has a predictable, if diplomatic answer.

“I love ‘em both,” he said

“I think I’m equally talented,” he added. “I plan to do both four years of school and hopefully have the opportunity to choose between football and baseball. I’ve always been set on playing dual sports until the wheels fall off.”

Others at UNC have combined football and baseball. Long-time fans remember versatile Danny Talbott, the 1965 ACC football player of the year and a member of UNC’s 1966 College World Series team. In the late-1990s, Tyrell Godwin was a special-teams standout in football and outstanding outfielder, and Derrick DePriest a kicker and an All-ACC closer on the mound.

Timmy Lawson, a 6-4 freshman from Florida, will play tight end this fall and will pitch for the Tar Heels.

“It’s hard, man, and it takes someone who is ultra-committed,” Forbes said Wednesday. “Very few can do it.”

One of Cost’s “wheels” did wear out last year. Cost said he had been bothered in high school by a stress situation in a foot — an “overwork” kind of injury, he called it. It’s something he dealt with until he couldn’t.

Cost said he suddenly felt “excruciating” pain in his foot one day in the spring before a UNC baseball practice and that there was a lot of swelling. That was that, he said.

“I told myself to get ready for football season,” Cost said. “I did what I needed to do to get well.”

Cost’s baseball season was over. He appeared in nine games, primarily as a pinch-runner, on a team that finished first in the ACC in the regular season and reached the 2024 College World Series after some amazing late-game rallies and walk-off wins in the NCAA tournament.

“Kaleb is a joy to be around and brings a lot of energy,” Forbes said, calling Cost’s injury a “bummer.”

“I can see him having a more significant role this year. What’s more significant for him is the outfield is wide open. We did bring in a couple of transfers we really like, but Kaleb has been in the program and has skills. He’s just going to have to catch up. with his live at-bats.”

Which leads to a football vs baseball question for Cost: if he had his druthers, would he prefer to have a game-winning pick-6 in football or a walkoff home run?

Cost whistled, stumped for a sec, asking, “What’s the situation?”

OK, what about a game-ending interception to beat N.C. State or game-winning home run against someone like, say, LSU in the NCAA tournament? Those were his choices.

“Walkoff home run.” he said. “I won’t lie. Baseball is different. It’s a harder sport, hitting wise and fielding wise. There’s more stress.”

And one other thing, Cost said. He has talked to Forbes and has something planned for any home run he might hit for the Heels.: Rounding third base, he’ll have both arms in front of him, as if securing a football.

Got to give some props to the sport that’s paying his way for this two-sport thing, yes?

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