Bill Belichick Q&A: ‘We’re Rolling Through Here’

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — North Carolina football is in its 10th practice of training camp, and now have begun the transition to practice sessions in full pads. This year serves as the debut season for coach Bill Belichick at UNC.

The Tar Heels open the new season on Sept. 1 against TCU, 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 in the college ranks.

Here are the key points from Belichick’s availability with the media inside the Bill Koman Practice Complex on Wednesday …

Opening Statement

“We’re rolling through here. We’re in practice 10, so about 40 percent of the way through camp before the opener. Really impressed with the way the players are working. They’re in good shape, they’re working hard. We’re slowly but surely bringing things together day by day. Definitely not there yet, but getting closer. This will be our second day in full pads. So we’ve got an opportunity to work on some things here today from a pads standpoint on our fundamentals, putting pads on and so forth that we can’t do in less gear. So excited about the week here that we have coming up, and the rest of it through the weekend. And then we’ll start to get into classes and a more regular season routine. As the players get on a little different schedule, not a training camp schedule, but their daily academic schedule, and that’s where we’ll be for the rest of the year. So that’s kind of where we are at this point.”

How long do you anticipate it taking to get a full evaluation of the players up front now that you all are in pads?

“(Some of) it we’ll figure it out as we go. Some things will clear up sooner than others. Others might take a while. Once we know, though, we’ll make that decision. But until we know, we’ll let the competition play out.”

What is your evaluation of the linebacker room up to this point?

“I’d say the evaluation is really for these players, all of them, is probably coming in the next 10 practices. Up to this point, there’s been a lot of learning, a lot of multiple groups where guys are in there with different people, so the timing is not always exactly right. Just to try to get a look at everybody now that everything’s other than some situations, our core stuff is in everything for offense, defense and special teams. Now we can get more consistent work on it, and a more consistent valuation of players that are improving, players that are leveling off, and maybe players that are not improving at the same rate as other guys are, So in other words, declining.”

What is the process of trying to replicate the production in the running back room that was left behind by Omarion Hampton?

“It’s hard to imagine any one player having the production that Hampton had. But collectively, we’ll see. It’s a good group, very competitive group. These guys are talented, but they have different skills, and part of our challenge is figuring out how to use their skills and still fit it within the entire offense. … It’s a pretty deep group, and we’ll see how it all plays out. But I definitely don’t think it’s all going to come from one person. I think this is going to be we have a number of guys that are talented, and we’ll just see how that plays out.

You mentioned that the core stuff has been installed up to this point. What are the differences between college and professional, in terms of how you approached the scheduling of those installations?

“I don’t think it’s college and pro. I think, honestly, it’s pads or no pads. You can install a lot of the passing game with no pads on. Guys can run around, there’s not a lot of contact, you can eliminate the contact part and get the timing part of the passing game and the coverages and so forth. The running game is a little different story. So today’s our second day in full pads, so we’re going to concentrate more on the running game, because this is our chance to concentrate on it. It’s not just knowing what to do, but it’s actually working on the fundamentals of doing it. The double team blocks, back blocks, the kick out blocks, the backs reading those blocks and so forth.

“So today, the emphasis will be more on that, because it’s our opportunity to do it. Tomorrow, when we won’t be in full pads, there’ll be more emphasis on the passing game, third down, passing red area, passing two minute drills, things like that. So we try a little bit based on what we’re wearing, emphasizing what we get the most out of. …  So as far as the plays go, I think when you want to try to go full speed, that’s not the day that you want to put in a lot of new plays. You want to have those in. So everybody knows what to do, and then you see if they go out there and do them. And so that’s kind of where we are now. Back in a day when we had pads on every day, that wasn’t a consideration. You just practice. Now you kind of have to, I would say, gauge your practices based on what drills you are actually able to do.”

On building the offensive and defensive lines through revenue sharing:

“I think that’s a little more of a long term question. Right now, we’re kind of in between the revenue, what it’s going to be next year is a little bit different than what it is now. We’re going to have a recruiting class come in that’s going to affect it more than with last year’s recruiting class, because we didn’t really have much of one. So I think the economics are going to change significantly from ‘25 to ‘26. And again, that’s really something that Mike (Lombardi) is more involved with than I am. Let’s just say, generally speaking, we want to try to get good players. I wouldn’t want to lose a good player over a few $1,000 because, say we’re over our budget. If he’s that good of a player, we give them a little bit of the extra money to get them and figure it out somewhere else. So it’s a very fluid situation, but to Mike’s point, I definitely agree. Mike and I are on the same page. Offensive and defensive lines are important, you’ve got to have that.”