CHAPEL HILL, N.C. --- North Carolina starting senior cornerback Patrice Rene is out for the season, UNC announced on Monday morning before head coach Mack Brown's press conference. Rene suffered a torn right ACL in the first half of Saturday's win over Miami.

A 6-foot-2 native of Canada, Rene will have the opportunity to come back for the 2020 season because he has not used his redshirt season.

“As excited as we are about the win, we’re disappointed for Patrice Rene," Brown said on Monday. "He’s worked so hard and he played so well for us at corner and he’s out for the year. He does have another year because he did not redshirt. He’ll have a decision to make whether he wants to rehab and come back for his fifth year or he’ll graduate in December and he could go ahead and try to get drafted or apply to the NFL or he could go out in the business world. We do want him back if he wants to come back."

A leader for the UNC defense, Rene started all 11 games in 2018 and tallied 31 tackles, two interceptions, five pass breakups, and a fumble recovery. He entered the 2019 season as the Tar Heels's No. 1 cornerback and a key piece of the Carolina defense.

In 2017, Rene appeared in 11 games and made three starts at cornerback. As a freshman in 2016, Rene appeared in 11 games and made five starts

With Rene out, North Carolina will turn to junior Greg Ross, who played extensively against South Carolina and Miami with Rene out for portions of both games. Ross will join sophomore Trey Morrison as UNC's two starting cornerbacks. True freshman Storm Duck is the Tar Heels' likely No. 3 cornerback.

“Greg Ross has played really well. He has played a lot of games here," UNC defensive coordinator Jay Bateman said on Monday. "I think Storm Duck is a really talented young kid who got thrown in the fire the first game and did really well. It sucks for Patrice, he is a great kid — a really, really great kid. I am rooting for him to have a chance to keep playing football.”

Bateman added that true freshman Obi Egbuna is UNC’s No. 4 corner. "We have a lot of confidence in Obi," Bateman said.

Rene committed to North Carolina as a 247Sports Composite four-star prospect out of Episcopal High School in Alexandria, Va. He was ranked as the No. 41 cornerback and No. 420 overall prospect.

Brown detailed how Rene got hurt. “I think it was (Miami wide receiver K.J.) Osborne," Brown said. "They had a slant on the goal line and actually (Myles) Wolfolk is coming in and Patrice is on the outside and he’s diving and Wolfolk comes in and hits his knee from the outside. I was hoping it wasn’t bad, but he didn’t play anymore after that. But it was the slant for the touchdown.”

Additional Injury News:

Senior starting center Nick Polino is out indefinitely following an injury suffered in the Miami game. He was seen wearing a walking boot after the game. UNC sophomore Brian Anderson is expected to start on Friday at Wake Forest. True freshman Ty Murray is now UNC's back-up center.

Both Anderson and Murray got reps in preseason camp at center as the Tar Heels worked to figure out the best player for the position and the best five offensive linemen.

"It's funny. We just got Nick where we wanted Nick," UNC offensive coordinator Phil Longo said on Monday. "The good thing is we didn't have an answer at center yet from the spring. So we went into the August camp looking for a center, so we had two or three guys who were snapping a lot that got a lot of reps at center. When you are working three guys in with the blues and the whites or the ones and the twos, you have to share maybe more reps than you wanted to, kind of like we did a quarterback when we had three of them. So the benefit to that right now is that there were three guys getting reps.

"Now that Nick is not going to be with us for a while, we have two other guys who have gotten a lot of reps and a lot of snaps and a lot of work at the position. It is just next man up and Brian came in two weeks ago for the two 90-yard drives, so we did that with our backup center at the time. He played three-plus quarters Saturday against Miami, I think one of the more physical teams we'll see this year. So right now, we are just prepping the two and three. We move up and we move on. And that is not a disrespect to Nick, he did a phenomenal job and he is a leader on our football team and we'll miss him. But in the meantime, we've got to move on to the next guy."

There is no timetable on when Polino could return.

"Hopefully Nick will be back before the end of the year," Brown said. "But you lose two seniors and you hate it for them more than anything else, but you also hate it for us and what we’ll have to do now is work really hard to continue to create depth.”