CHAPEL HILL — North Carolina opens spring practice for the second year under NFL coaching legend Bill Belichick on Tuesday afternoon with a new offensive coordinator, an overhauled quarterback room and a very young roster looking to improve on last year’s disastrous 4-8 season.
“The big difference between this year and last year for me is just that we have our team now,” said Belichick, who took questions from local media for the first time since last year’s regular-season finale, a loss at NC State. “This is going to be a big percentage of it. Last year, we were obviously late coming in on the recruiting end, late coming on the portal end, and, then at the end of spring ball, we had a lot of changes between the end of spring ball and start of fall camp.”
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There isn’t a second transfer portal window at the end of spring practice this year, giving Belichick and the Tar Heels more time to build continuity.
In the offseason, Belichick — who won six Super Bowls as head coach of the NFL’s New England Patriots — hired veteran coach Bobby Petrino to run the Tar Heels’ offense. Petrino, whose offenses have put up prolific numbers at nearly all of his stops, is charged with turning around an offense that ranked 16th in the 17-team ACC in points per game (19.3) and passing yards per game (183.9) and last in total yards (289.2 per game).
The anemic offense cost UNC several games and dulled the enthusiasm that surrounded the program after Belichick’s hire led to record ticket sales.
“We just weren't able to really get there last year for a number of reasons,” Belichick said.
Belichick said he’s known Petrino for a long time. He said the Tar Heels will likely run a similar offense to the one he ran in New England — and that the head coach-offensive coordinator relationship will be similar, too.
“I'd say it's probably going to be similar to the relationship I had with Josh McDaniels as an offensive coordinator, where they're calling it, they're running it, but there are certain things that you know we're going to collaborate on,” Belichick said.
Petrino will have a new crop of quarterbacks to work with in his first season in Chapel Hill.
Gone are starter Gio Lopez (transferred to Wake Forest), backup Max Johnson (transferred to Georgia Southern) and touted recruit Bryce Baker (transferred to Virginia Tech). In are transfers Billy Edwards Jr. (a graduate student from Wisconsin), Myles O’Neill (from Texas A&M) and Taron Dickens (from Western Carolina), along with touted recruit Travis Burgess.
Edwards Jr. was injured in the season opener last year, Dickens won’t be with the Tar Heels for spring practice, and Burgess was injured in August and missed the rest of his senior season.
At a time when many college football programs are looking to get older and take veteran players through the transfer portal, the Tar Heels have gone against the grain, signing nearly 40 freshmen in December.
“They will be the foundation for our program,” Belichick said at the time.
On the spring roster, UNC lists 17 redshirt freshmen and 31 true freshmen. The spring roster includes four graduate students, five redshirt seniors and three true seniors. UNC has 16 redshirt juniors, six juniors, 16 redshirt sophomores and five sophomores on its roster.
“Freshmen are going to be out there,” junior wide receiver Jordan Shipp said. “If you can play, you can play, no matter what's going on. It just comes with a level of maturity, just having that level of maturity.”
The Tar Heels open the season in Dublin, Ireland, against TCU, which battered UNC 48-14 in Belichick’s debut last season. Eleven of UNC’s 12 opponents finished the 2025 season with winning records, including home games against Notre Dame, Syracuse, Miami, Louisville and NC State.
Belichick was snubbed by voters for induction in his first year of eligibility for the Pro Football Hall of Fame in the offseason. But he said that isn’t his focus.
“I'm focused on coaching this team and focused on getting Carolina football to the highest level I can,” Belichick said. “I focus about what I can do, and things that are out of my control, I don't worry about."
