Bill Belichick Q&A: Richmond Game Week Presser

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — North Carolina football rebounded from its season-opening drubbing by winning at Charlotte 20-3 on Saturday. It marked the first college win for coach Bill Belichick. It’s also the fewest points allowed by Carolina against an FBS opponent in 24 years, and the first time holding any opponent without a touchdown since the 2020 season opener. The Tar Heels now return home to host Richmond on Saturday (3:30 pm, ACCN).

Here are the key points from Belichick’s weekly availability with the media on Tuesday from the Kenan Football Center. Also, scroll down for the full video of the interview …

Opening Statement

“Spent time kind of getting back on a normal week here, playing Saturday to Saturday. So it’s good to be on a regular season kind of routine here. Hopefully that’ll make it a productive week for us all the way around, coaches, players, film, study, preparation, meetings, all the above. All looking forward to this week, and already started, it feels like we’re on a schedule here. Richmond’s impressive team to watch. You know, Coach (Russ) Huesman has done a good job there, and they have a very experienced staff on the offensive side of the ball.

“On defense, special teams they’re very sound. They haven’t given hardly any big plays defensively. Done a good job in the kicking game, made some plays. They’re a good return team. They tackle well, and offensively, they have a balanced running game between the quarterback and running backs, and then mix that in with some play action and getting the ball to receivers. … They’ve had a lot of success there, and I can see why they’re a team that when you watch them again, you see the discipline, the toughness, the consistency, down in and down out, over multiple games.”

Is there any update on Chris Culliver?

“Yeah, we’ll take it day by day. We didn’t practice yesterday, so we’ll go there today and see where he’s at and see what he can do.”

How concerned are you about the offense right now?

“I just think we need to do a better job all the way across the board and in every area, offense, defense, special teams. There’s a lot of room for improvement and just our fundamentals, our execution, some cases, our timing, we just keep working on that. I think it’s definitely getting better, but we’re certainly a long way from where we need to be. And offensively, when you have one negative play, it’s tough to get 10 yards in three downs, so that’s tough to get it in two or sometimes one. So, avoid those negative plays, staying out along the yardage and then converting the ones that we need to convert. All those need to be better. No doubt.”

On creating more explosive plays on offense:

“That’s always nice when you get in one play, but you know, to just throw it down there and turn the ball over, I don’t think that’s the answer. So you have to take those shots when they’re there and be able to convert, but when they’re not then there’s probably better options that we need to take advantage of. So a lot of times, you call plays, it just depends a little bit on how it matches up against a certain call, or if you get the match up you want, you can take advantage of it. But that doesn’t always happen. Defense is good. They got to do their job, too, and they don’t always make it easy for you, especially Richmond. Richmond hasn’t given up any big plays all year, so they play very, as I said, very sound, very fundamental football. They do a good job of tackling, and they make you earn every yard. We’ll take them however we can.

Where do you see the running back room as it stands right now, and how much more evaluation do you still have there?

“It’s a really competitive situation. Last year, none of those guys got a whole lot of carriers. When you have (Omarion) Hampton, you feed him and they did that, and that was obviously the right thing to do. It’s hard to evaluate backs until they get an opportunity to run against real competition and break tackles and can use their run skills. What it looks like in practice is not always the same as in the game when there’s live tackling. So we’ve got a feel for how that’s going, but it’s very competitive. I have confidence in all of them. They all have shown a lot of good things, and that’s why they’ve gotten playing time. We’ll see how it works itself out.”

Pryce Yates was an important addition for you guys this offseason. Has it been difficult to put a timetable on his return?

“It’s definitely been hard to put a timetable on it. I know that he’s working hard to be back, and I know that our medical staff is doing the same thing. And we’ll just have to kind of take it day by day and see how things progress. But when he’s ready, he’ll be ready, and I know he’s doing everything he can to be ready. But he just hasn’t been cleared yet.”

Richmond’s quarterback Kyle Wickersham (6-4, 260 pounds) seems to be a unique player. How do you go about scouting a player like that?

“It’s just kind of like a Ben Roethlisberger looking guy. He’s really big, and he’s strong, he’s a physical runner. He’s got a stiff arm, long arms, tough guy to tackle. And he’s a good downhill runner, so he doesn’t shy away from contact. You gotta bring him down. So that’ll be a big challenge for us, no doubt about it. But they have a lot of other explosive players too, and that keeps gives them a good balance where they can get the ball outside, their skill players, their running backs, and then he carries it. And I’d say the other thing is impressive about Richmond is their receivers, they do a great job of blocking, and so a lot of times you count on those secondary players to be able to come up and get involved in the run force. They make it really hard for you to do that. They do a great job of blocking again. The team is very well disciplined and tough. They’re physically tough, so that’ll be a big challenge for us.”