North Carolina kicks off fall football practice under Belichick

It’s been 111 days since the North Carolina football team officially practiced in full pads and jerseys. A lot has changed since April.

As the first day of practice since the spring ramped up Saturday morning with Kenny Chesney’s “Boys of Fall” blasting through the outdoor speakers, head coach Bill Belichick walked between position groups on the field of the Koman Practice Complex, observing and advising. Sometimes even joking.

“This is great — you can’t beat this weather,” he told a group of wide receivers as he gestured to the mix of rain and mist spraying down around them. He shared a few words of encouragement — to run full speed, to give it their all — before bounding down the field toward the next group.

Finally, the players he watched were a more complete picture of the team he’d been envisioning. There’s more to iron out in the next 30 days before TCU arrives, like team chemistry, communication, adjustments and scouting. But he was glad the days of recruiting could take a pause.

In a news conference before practice, he told gathered media it was challenging to adjust to evaluating several thousand high school players in addition to transfer portal players — that number of players was much greater than he was used to assessing during the NFL’s free agency or ahead of the draft.

UNC added over 40 new players in the spring window, after evaluations and movements in the second portal window saw 22 Tar Heels depart for other schools.

Part of that was intentional.

Belichick said he and his staff used the first transfer portal window to find players to fill out the team. Those athletes were given a chance to compete and show enough skill to earn their spot. The second window was focused on looking for specific talent and “good football players,” filling in any gaps and bringing the necessary skill to earn a starting role.

So, the first few days of fall practice will be “acclimations,” according to the first-year Tar Heel head coach. New and returning players will take this week to adjust back to playing on the field and full practice before the training camp Belichick envisions truly begins.

“There’s a little bit more of, especially for us, an unknown,” Belichick said. “Because even the guys that were here, they weren’t here with us. How exactly they’ll react in game situations and under pressure, how quickly and easily we’ll be able to adjust or not adjust and all that, we’re going to have to find out that on the run.”

The return of Max Johnson

After breaking his leg in the season opener against Minnesota last season, quarterback Max Johnson is finally ready to participate in full practice.

He joined the Tar Heels on the outdoor practice field Monday morning with no brace in sight, just a black compression sleeve around his right leg. He alternated taking snaps with transfer quarterback Gio Lopez as the offensive line pushed the blocking sled down the length of the field. He ran full speed in handoff drills. He took turns throwing with the other QBs.

Johnson was not available for spring practice. His injury saw a series of complications and further surgeries that pushed back his return.

But the day he’d been waiting for arrived on Saturday.

“I was just so joyful to be out there today,” Johnson said. “I couldn’t stop smiling.”

The 6-foot-5 senior from Athens, Georgia, said he is “fully recovered now, 100 percent healthy” and running exactly as he was before the gruesome injury.

This fall, he will have to fight for the starting QB spot.

Carolina added former South Alabama quarterback Lopez in mid-April, after Ryan Browne finished spring practice with the Tar Heels and decided to transfer back to Purdue. True freshman Bryce Baker, a four-star recruit, also provides depth in the quarterback room.

There’s no answer right now as to who will get the start under center for the Tar Heels against TCU. Belichick was coy about a target date for naming the starting quarterback during his pre-practice comments.

“The time will be when we’re sure,” he said. “My experience as a coach has been at that position, where you know you want to find who that is, what you generally don’t want to do is pick player A and then end up going to player B. Let them compete. Once you’re sure it’s player B, make it player B or your player A, whoever it is. 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 the player. If it’s not clear cut, maybe the competition will continue into the early part of the season.”

Increasing physicality

Belichick wants the Tar Heels to tackle in practice — all with the ultimate goal of improving physicality on both sides of the ball.

He credited offensive coordinator Freddie Kitchens for the pursuit of that vision. According to sophomore running back Caleb Hood, as soon as Kitchens took over, the Tar Heels were running hitting drills. Even mid-practice in the spring, Kitchens would blow his whistle, lead them to the middle of the field and run through blocking and ball-protection workouts.

“Freddie’s an aggressive coach who wants to have a physical team, physical running game [and] physical presence on offense,” Belichick said. “We just don’t want to run backward on every play. We want to be aggressive and we think we have the players to run that type of offense.”

On the other side of the ball, junior defensive back Marcus Allen said he knew the physicality would be different once he heard Belichick was coming to Chapel Hill. It’s a welcome change to practice.

“It’s good that we’re being really physical in practice so that we can take the physicality from the practice and bring it to the game,” Allen said. “Ultimately, football is about who wants it more, who’s going to go out there and lay it down on the other team, so the physical practice that we’re having now, the more tackling, it’s going to be really beneficial for us.”

This story was originally published August 2, 2025 at 3:16 PM.