UNC football coach Bill Belichick coy about Heels’ expectations at ACC Kickoff

With a little more than a month to go before a Bill Belichick-led North Carolina football team emerges for the first time to take on TCU, unknowns about what exactly this group will look like remain.

Even as the head coach previewed the upcoming season at ACC Kickoff on Thursday, he emphasized the newness of his team and a roster that continued to be turned over and rebuilt, even in the spring.

“We have a long way to go, got a lot of new players,” the Tar Heels’ coach said. “So we’ll see what happens when we get out there and start playing.”

Seventy new players, an entirely new coaching staff and new schemes have forced transition within the program.

Belichick and his staff added 21 players during the spring transfer portal window, with 23 departures, including veterans Beau Atkinson and Gavin Blackwell. A total of 41 players have joined UNC’s ranks out of the portal — the most in the ACC.

The quarterback UNC initially picked up in December, Ryan Browne, re-entered the portal and returned to Purdue following spring practice, leaving the position group with players like true freshman Bryce Baker and senior Max Johnson — who is still working his way back to the field from a leg injury last season.

Belichick did find a replacement for Browne, but redshirt sophomore Gio Lopez has yet to officially practice with the team. The former South Alabama quarterback committed to Carolina in mid-April and missed all of spring practice.

While no official announcement has come from the team on who will get the start against TCU in September, Lopez was the quarterback representative at ACC Kickoff. The 6-foot lefty threw for 2,559 yards and 18 touchdowns in 2024 with the Jaguars.

So there’s a lot of mystery. But there are also expectations.

UNC officials announced Wednesday that the school’s entire allotment of tickets sold out, marking the earliest sellout in program history. Carolina’s transfer class is ranked No. 9 nationally and No. 3 in the ACC, according to 247Sports.

“We’ve seen guys — just their speeds, their strength, their explosive numbers and the football skills — just improved dramatically,” Belichick said. “I was really amazed at how much the team has improved in 15 practices this spring.”

The former Patriots head coach said he has learned that player development at the college level differs greatly from at the professional level.

Throughout the 15 practices UNC had in the spring, he noticed his players making vast improvements in their fundamentals, footwork, tackling and physicality. Because of the youth of his players, his teachings didn’t have to compete with styles of play athletes may have utilized their entire career and are hesitant to change, unlike at the NFL level. College players are more receptive.

“The players are a little bit younger and less skilled [than the pros],” Belichick said. “Sometimes that’s an advantage. There are fewer bad habits to break.”

Even though he maintained a level of optimism about UNC’s player development, the head coach evaded questions about the future of the football program.

How Carolina will stack up against opponents and look under Belichick’s vision, and whether this is a permanent stop for the legendary NFL coach, will have to wait at least another month.

“Future right now for us is to start camp,” he said. “Then, the future after that will be the first week of camp and so forth. Short term, we got a lot of things we need to do, and we need to use our time efficiently.”

“I’m not going to get into where we’re going to be 10 years from now. I don’t know where we’re going to be 10 days from now.”

This story was originally published July 24, 2025 at 11:33 AM.