Bill Belichick Q&A: Kicking Off Training Camp

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — The countdown to North Carolina’s football season is officially on, with UNC starting training camp on Saturday. The Tar Heels this year are under the direction of Bill Belichick, the longtime NFL coach who’s regarded as one of the greatest coaches in the sport.

Carolina opens the season on Sept. 1 against TCU, in a spotlight home contest on Labor Day. The 73-year-old Belichick, who won eight total Super Bowls across his storied NFL coaching career, never has coached in the college ranks. Belichick’s hiring ushered in a massive upheaval of Carolina’s roster, with over 70 total newcomers joining from the transfer portal or as freshmen this season. 

Here are the key points from Belichick’s meeting with the media at the Kenan Football Center on Saturday morning … 

Opening Statement

“It’s almost football season here. Very excited to get started. These guys have worked really hard, the staff and the players, in terms of the off season program, their conditioning and all that. So we’re, we’re excited to get out on the field. We’ve got a couple days here of acclimation, so it’ll not be our full training camp practices yet, but it’s just part of the process. It’ll give everybody a good opportunity to get acclimated, both on the field and with their teammates with communication, adjustments and things like that. We have a lot of new players, a little over 40 from the spring and 70 guys that weren’t on last year’s team. So it’s a lot of new people to get up to speed again in terms of communication, just kind of the way we practice techniques, things like that. But (we’ve) done a good job of closing that gap, and so I’m excited to get out on the field and see it start coming together. So that process will start today, and we’ll build through the acclimation period and then really get rolling into it next week.”

What have you seen from Max Johnson in how he’s attacked his recovery back?

“Max has done a great job, worked really hard. He’s made a tremendous amount of progress throughout the process. But really it’s that last, call it 20 percent between not being able to play and really being ready to play, ready to start training camp, which is where he is now. So he’s going to start out there, but he didn’t take any meaningful snaps in the spring. He worked out on his own, he threw some routes, but he wasn’t involved in any team drills. So it’s a big jump for him in terms of what he’s able to do, although I think the progression is very gradual. It’s 1 percent at a time, but at some point, he’s crossed that threshold and so he’ll be ready to participate out there with all the other players.”

On managing the 105 scholarship limit:

“It’s still a little bit of a work in progress. Our scholarships will be under 105, we do have the grandfather clause or rule in which the players that were walk-ons last year get grandfathered in. So us, like most every other college team will be actually over the 105 with those grandfathered players. We have some players who are not on scholarship, who would be under this call at the 105, and obviously most of them will be on scholarship. But there are some guys that are kind of in that gray area. Maybe they can earn a scholarship, depending on what their role is, and so forth. So from a numbers standpoint, we’re in good shape. We’re not going to have to release players to get to the 105, we already kind of did that in the spring, which was a difficult decision to make. I think most of those players ended up at other schools, and will be playing this fall. So I do think it kind of worked out for them, that they’re (not) in a situation without a chance to play. But we’re not really going to be restricted on the roster size this year. I think it’ll probably be something we’ll have to work on next year.”

You’ve been known as a defensive coach throughout your career. What has the collaboration and discussion been like with offensive coordinator Freddie Kitchens?

“I would just say throughout my career, certainly as defensive coordinator, that’s definitely been my role (defense). But as a head coach, I’ve always tried to be involved in every aspect of the game, whether that’s offense, defense, special teams, our strength program, our conditioning program, our off the field, education of players and so forth. It’s important for me to be a part of all the things that we do, and to add emphasis to the players and the coaches or whoever’s responsible for those areas. … In terms of Freddie, he’s a very aggressive coach, who wants to have a physical team, physical running game, physical presence on offense. We just don’t want to run backwards on every play, we want to be aggressive. And we think we have the players to run that type of offense. I’m sure we have to modify it a little bit. We have good depth at quarterback, and so we’ll see how it all plays out.”

What’s the timetable for naming the starting quarterback?

“We don’t have a specific date. I think the time will be when we’re sure. In my experience as a coach, at that position where you want to define who that is, and what you generally don’t want to do is pick Player A, and then end up going to Player B. Let them compete. And then once you’re sure it’s Player B, make it Player B or player A, whoever it goes. So I think once we’re once we’re confident that we know who has earned that spot, because that’s what it’ll be, it’s not us picking them, it’ll be that player earning it. Then we’ll decide on that if it’s clear cut, then that player will be a player. If it’s not clear cut, maybe the competition will continue into the early part of the season. And I’ve done that before, at more positions than quarterback, but it could also be a quarterback where we’ll see how it goes in the early part of the season, and if the performance again, whoever earns it is going to be who gets it.”

How was the spring portal window different from the winter period?

“I think the first portal, we’re just trying to find guys to fill the team. Second portal, we looked for good football players. And we felt like any position, if the player wanted to come in and compete and we thought it was a good player, then this is the right spot for him. We’ll give everybody an opportunity to compete. … Anybody who’s walking in here feeling like, ‘well, I’m going to be just starting this, or that I’m entitled to this.’ That’s not really the way it’s going to work. They’re going to have to earn it. If they want to come in and earn playing time and earn a roster spot and play at Carolina and play in the ACC, then we’ll give it to them and we’ll see what they can do.”