What Bill Belichick said before UNC's first practice
· Yahoo Sports
North Carolina head football coach Bill Belichick met with reporters Tuesday before the Tar Heels held their first practice of spring camp.
UNC opens a five-week spring practice schedule Tuesday afternoon, giving the first real glimpse at a dramatically retooled roster that includes 60 newcomers after last year’s 4-8, 2-6 ACC finish.
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Belichick’s full press conference from Tuesday is below. Scroll down for notable excerpts.
Q: With a full calendar year in college now, what are your biggest takeaways from last year and what have you learned?
BELICHICK: The biggest thing was being late on everything last year. We were behind on recruiting, behind on the first portal, and then had to make so many changes with the second portal that the team that went to training camp was a lot different from the team that finished spring practice.
There will be a couple of changes between the end of spring practice and the start of fall camp, probably, but for the most part I’d say 95 percent of our team is in place. We’ll get a few freshmen who enter in June, but most everybody is here. We’ll have a full year of working with them, and that’s way different than last year. I wish we could have started on time last year, but it was what it was, and we’re moving on.
Q: You kept a lot of freshmen and brought in a lot of new guys. What was the method behind roster construction with so much youth?
BELICHICK: The recruiting classes behind just didn’t have very many players in them, so we had a big recruiting class this year. We kept some of the holdovers from last year, but we have a recruiting class of about 40 coming in. Most of them are here, and a few more will enter.
That was to fill out the depth of the roster. We feel like we have a lot of good young players in that group. We’ll see how quickly they come along. It’s really two recruiting classes, because we really didn’t have one last year. There were a few commits who stayed when we got here that we didn’t recruit; they were already committed. This recruiting class is all players we spent a lot of time and effort on and built relationships with. It’s a whole different class coming in.
Q: Because the roster is so young, is this a development‑heavy spring versus a heavy-hitting spring?
BELICHICK: Every day is development — for coaches, players, and everybody else. Every part of the football program is development: offseason program, practice, walkthroughs, film sessions.
We’ll take it one day at a time. There’ll be contact in spring practice and days where there’s not as much contact. We’re not trying to get guys hurt or create injuries, but we do need to prepare the team to be ready to play, and that means some contact football. Everything is development. That’s what we do: develop players and develop the team.
Q: What stands out about the quarterbacks you brought in and what you like about them?
BELICHICK: They’re all a little bit different. (Taron) Dickebs isn’t here yet, so we’ll see what that is.
Miles (O’Neil) had an outstanding high school career at the Hun School, went to Texas A&M and didn’t get a lot of playing time there. He has an opportunity here. Billy Edwards has played a lot and had a really good year at Maryland in 2024. Similar to Max Johnson, he was hurt early last season, like Max was in 2024, and this is his extra year. He’s excited to start here and see what that brings.
Au’Tori (Newkirk), with a year under his belt after a good freshman season, didn’t get here until June last year, so he was a little behind. He’s worked hard, caught up, and he’ll be competitive as well. Travis is coming along and doing more each day. We’ll see how that all plays out.
Q: Why did you decide to bring in Bobby Petrino, and how much control will he have over the offense?
BELICHICK: Bobby will run it and call it.
Foundationally, a lot of what he did at Arkansas and Louisville is similar to what we did in New England. I’ve known Bobby for a long time, and several of our coaches have worked for him. There’s good chemistry on the staff. Our systems aren’t the same, but there are similarities in concepts, so we’ve had an easy time getting on the same page.
We just weren’t able to get there last year for a number of reasons. This year we’re much further ahead in that process. Bobby has a ton of experience and great production everywhere he’s been. He’s been great to work with. He has a great grasp of offensive football, his system, how to call it, and the adjustments he makes.
It’ll probably be similar to my relationship with Josh McDaniels as offensive coordinator. He’s calling it and running it, but there are certain things we’ll collaborate on.
Q: When you were hiring an offensive coordinator, what were you looking for and why Petrino?
BELICHICK: All of the above: experience in the college game, familiarity, scheme fit. In the end it’s best fit — a combination of all those things.
Bobby is very good in all of them. He’s had a lot of experience, production and success, and
Q: We’re getting Jordan Shipp today. He became a face of the team last season as a spokesman. What do you see in him?
BELICHICK: He was a redshirt sophomore last year and a captain of our team. That speaks to his leadership, the trust his teammates have in him, and the energy and performance he brings.
You have to be a good player, well‑respected, and show up every day and put in the work. He hardly played as a freshman. Last year was his first year playing, and he was a captain in his second year. I’ve had a few players like that — Logan Mankins, Tedy Bruschi, Devin McCourty — who were captains in their second or third year. That’s a big step, to bypass a lot of older, more experienced players. You earn that; nobody gives it to you.
He’s been a great representative of the program on and off the field and academically. He’s at the front of the line in whatever the line is — academics, training, football, anything we do as a team. He has great leadership.
Christo Kelly is another guy who came in new to the program and was elected a captain despite an injury in training camp. Guys who earn that respect that quickly are special. Those are team choices, not coach’s choices. You earn respect on and off the field — not just catching a pass or making a block, but showing up every day, encouraging teammates, being accountable, helping guys who are behind keep up, and setting the pace in work ethic and dependability.
Jordan played a lot of different positions last year, outside and inside. We moved him around a lot. That’s not easy. It takes time to study and learn assignments and techniques, and sometimes help the player who’s taking your spot make sure he knows what to do, especially with younger players like we had last year with Shanard (Clower) and Madrid (Tucker). All of that is earned. Nothing was given to him.
This article originally appeared on Tar Heels Wire: UNC Football: Belichick on UNC's new roster, Petrino's offense