Bill Belichick Q&A: 'Grinding Through the Last Week of Camp'

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — North Carolina football kicks off the new season in 12 days, and the anticipation for this year continues to build. It’s the debut season for coach Bill Belichick at UNC, the longtime NFL coach who now finds himself coaching the college ranks.

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The Tar Heels open this season against TCU on Sept. 1, in a spotlight home contest on Labor Day. The 73-year-old Belichick, who collected eight total Super Bowls across his storied NFL coaching career, never has coached college football.

Here are the key points from Belichick’s availability with the media inside the Kenan Football Center on Wednesday. Also scroll down for the full video of the press conference …

Opening Statement

“We’re kind of grinding through the last week of camp here. We’ve got some practices this week, and then obviously preparations for TCU (begin). So it’s kind of our last chance to really nail down the fundamentals and some of the pillars that would take us through the season, both individually and individual fundamentals and some foundational things offensively, defensively and in the kicking game that will come up probably in every game, or elements will in every game. So hopefully, getting a little bit of heat this week looks like starting to warm up. That’s good. This last week of training camp here will merge into game preparations starting next week. But we’re just kind of getting through the final stages of our training camp, the preparations for the season.”

Have you started to sort out things along the offensive line?

“It’s very much a work in progress, but we know a lot more than we did. A lot more, but we still have a long way to go. And players are improving, and we’ll just see what the rates of improvement are. Some guys are maybe improving at this kind of rate and other guys are here. Then there’s a talent level, and then it’s how players work together. It’s not necessarily, you know, these five players individually, it’s what five players collectively function together the best, and some of that involves communication and adjustments and so forth and so again. We’re just trying to find not only the best players, but ultimately the best offensive line combination that works. We’ve also moved some players around a little bit so that centers and guards, a little bit of guard and tackle, swing tackles again, just to try to make sure that we give everybody an opportunity, but at the same time, not make it too confusing or too much mental gymnastics. Want to play aggressively, but the flexibility would help them both in their career and also in their understanding of what other players are doing on the same play, which will hopefully help them play better.”

What have you seen out of Alex Taylor, and how has he improved in training camp?

“Well, I’ve only seen him since the spring. I wasn’t here with him last year, but he’s a smart guy, very dependable, can play multiple positions, has been productive in multiple areas down the field, as a route runner and making adjustments in the passing game based on roll coverage, off coverage, press coverage, things like that. So he’s one of the players that the quarterbacks have a lot of confidence and trust in, that he’s earned through making good decisions and being dependable over multiple days and weeks. So we have them, but really like the versatility he brings. You can line him up in a couple different spots for us and that helps you formationally.”

How have you gone about building cohesion along the offensive line? Are there adjustments to whether there’s a left- or right-handed quarterback?

“I think the lefty, righty thing has a little bit involved with play calling, especially play-action passes. When you have to turn your back on the defense and the footwork. … Fundamentally, it’s the same, but there are some nuances that are a little bit different. The thing with the offensive line, again, as I mentioned, was just the individual and personal development for each player, but also collectively how they work together as a unit. Sometimes if you have to make an adjustment, if a player’s out, do you move the player behind him ahead or do you move somebody else from another position over and move somebody up at that position where there may be a little more depth.

“Maybe it’s a combination of both, but those are the kind of things that sure it’s the five guys that are out there, but I know from experience that very rarely does any team play with the same five offensive lineman through the entire season. It just statistically doesn’t happen very often. It’s great when it does, but usually that’s not the case. … We have to be ready for it. You have to be ready to put your best guys out there in the best positions. But also stuff happens, and then you have to be ready to adjust.

How would you describe the physicality you’ve seen so far in live pads? Has it lived up to your standard?

“We’ve done a lot more live work here than we ever did in the NFL, at any team I was ever on. So that part of it’s been actually an interesting thing to see. Some of the coaches that are on our staff that have had a lot of college experience have talked about the necessity to do that again, obviously, without pre season games. We do need to do it and we’ve done it. And so it’s been good. The intensity has been good, the competitiveness has been good. I think we’ve really emphasized trying to practice, learn how to practice, and practice very competitively, but at the same time, taking safety into account knowing that we’ve got to take care of our teammates and the players. Done a really good job adapting to that. We really haven’t had too many issues, very few injuries to deal with, and even though we’ve had quite a bit of contact in our padded days. So I think that part’s been really good. The amount of contact that we’ve had with the very few guys  losing any playing time, at all, because of it has been good.”