By R.L. Bynum
CHAPEL HILL — UNC football coach Bill Belichick held a press conference at the Kenan Football Center on Tuesday, where he addressed many subjects, including the focus on his girlfriend Jordon Hudson. Here is a full transcript:
Opening statement:
It’s been a really exciting time here on the Chapel Hill campus over the last couple of weeks. We had the Super Regionals. Great year by the baseball team. We’ve had camps. We’ve had over a thousand kids here at camp, and we’ve got several more coming up in the coming weeks. We’ve had a lot of official visits. Our players are working out as well. Big soccer match here tonight. So really, a lot of activity on campus; exciting place to be. And, you know, looking forward to the next couple weeks here, especially as we move forward on the football end of it.
A lot of new faces since the end of last season. It’s been a lot of turnover, almost two-thirds of the roster from where it was in January after those players whose eligibility expired, or like Omarion [Hampton] went in the draft. A lot of new faces, but definitely coming together, and the training has been good. We made a lot of improvement. It’s good team chemistry, a lot of individual improvement. Obviously, we’ve got a long way to go, but we’re working hard and making progress, and so we’re excited about that. Looking forward to rounding out the summer training time, and then, of course, when camp starts in August, obviously, that’ll be a big, big month for us. too. But just want to connect with everybody here before we we rolled into the summer.
On quarterback Max Johnson’s progress:
Max is doing very well. His rehab has been long, and I have a lot of admiration for him. A tough injury, but nobody’s worked harder than he has. He certainly is able to do a lot more than he was last spring, so we’ll see exactly where he is when things start, but it’s a whole lot closer. And you know, we certainly expect to see him out there. So it’s been very encouraging.
On quarterback Gio Lopez:
He was really productive at South Alabama. He’s a dual-threat quarterback. He’s had plenty of production yardage, both the running-game and passing-game experience. Tough kid. Played well against some good competition, teams like LSU. It looks like he’s definitely ready for this level. Excited to work with him, as we are with everybody else. We’ve got some freshmen. We’ve got Max, got some experience and Gio. We’ll see how it all plays out. Honestly, none of them — with the exception of Max, for a handful of plays last year — have taken any snaps here. So it’ll be good to see how all that plays out.
On how the roster has been built:
I think [General Manager] Mike Lombardi and the scouting staff have done a great job. We came in late, and so that was a little bit of a challenge on the recruiting end because it was after signing day. We were active in the portal, but kind of late on that too, because a lot of those relationships have been previously established with some of those portal players. But, that being said, I thought we still were able to improve the roster.
We’ve had an addition of some players this spring who I think will be a factor and and the ’26 recruiting classes, it’s gotten off to a good start. We have a long way to go on that, but we’ve seen a lot of good players, and there’s a lot of interest from those kids in coming here. We have some commits, but, again, those commits don’t really count until signing day. I think that’s a sign that we are on the right track. From the quarterback position to the skill positions, the offensive line, and the defensive front-seven players, as well as some players in the secondary, and a place-kicker. We’re off to a good start. We’ll see how it goes.
On the strengths of his team:
I think we’re just going to have to evaluate that as we go. We’ll have a lot better idea in training camp. There were several players that left the team after spring ball, and then we have a lot of new ones, a lot of new faces — both incoming freshmen and players who came from transfers. We’ll just have to see how all that plays out. I think, where we were then and, honestly, where we are even today, we’re at a different spot. It will be interesting to see how it all comes together. We’ve got a lot of work to do, but it’s certainly trending in the right direction. We’ve had good leadership from some of the guys that have come in here, some of the people that you’ll hear from later on — those guys have done a great job of setting the pace and encouraging the guys to come along and put in the work. We’ve had really good results from our physical training and the team-building as well. A long way to go, but feel like we’re on the right track.
On how spring practice shaped his impression of the team and influenced what he needed to do in the portal:
These are great kids to work with. They really are. We’ve had great buy in. There have been really no problems at all. All these guys are on time. They’re early. They work hard. They put in the work in the weight room, out on the field. They spend time on their own, whether it’s doing extra training or coming over and watching film and that type of thing. They’ve made a ton of improvement. And these guys are a lot better than they were when we started in January on on every level.
It’s exciting to see where that’s going to take us. I don’t know. Maybe we’re close to the peak, or maybe we’re only a quarter of the way up the hill. I don’t know, but we’ll see. But the improvement has been very good, and I think the players — based on the improvement that we made from January to April — I’ll let them speak for it. I don’t want to speak for them, but I would say that based on the improvement that we made during that time frame, that’s generated some momentum, [so] if we keep working like this, we’re going to we’re going to continue to get better. These guys have dreams and aspirations beyond North Carolina, and I think that’s realistic for a lot of players. They’re working really hard to not only get the most out out of their selves, but they’re great teammates. That’s where we’re trending.
On biggest challenges of the transfer portal:
It’s an area that Mike [Lombardi] and I have been very familiar with. We spent a lot of time in that free-agency space over the course of our careers the NFL. So the biggest difference in college is just the volume. There are just so many players. The college portal — we’re in the thousands. And then you’re looking at a ’26 recruiting class, and then a ’27 recruiting class that we’re starting to build relationships with some ’28s. And so, the volume of players between a recruiting class of, again several thousand kids, a portal class, similar number, and then another class. It’s a lot of names to keep track of. It’s not just the player; you’re also dealing with the recruiting part of it. So, you have families and coaches and agents and people like that. In a lot of cases, you’re looking at four, five, six, seven people, whatever it is, that are connected with that player in addition to actually recruiting him. You’re recruiting a family. And so I just say the volume of people is a little bit more than what we’ve had, but we’re adjusting to it.
We have a great staff. Our scouting staff has done a really good job of sorting those things out, and putting Mike and I and our respective staffs in position to be competitive, in terms of making sure that those players understand what we have to offer. What we’re selling is to be a pro — to be a pro on the field, to be a pro off the field, in terms of life, learning and, of course, the academics here are outstanding. We’ll get players ready to go to the next level, whether that’s training, scheme, fundamentals, preparation, film, situation football, all those things, that’s what we do, and that’s what we’re selling. Most kids are interested in that. They really are. So we’ve had great buy-in.
On former Washington transfer defensive back Thad Dixon:
I like a lot of what he did. Let’s start with just the person: great leadership, first one on the field, works hard, very good in preparation. Had some individual meetings with Thad, got to spend some quality time with him. He’s been great with our recruits. Probably one of the best that we have in terms of helping the kids that we recruit come in here and understand what the program is about and how it can be beneficial to them. But he’s got good skills, probably to play any position in the secondary. We’ll see how all that goes. He’s got a great skill set, a good work, work ethic, and he had an excellent spring. Excited to see it come together for him in the fall.
On the interest in his personal life:
I’m really focused on doing my job here at Carolina, to help our football team, and that’s just to get better every day, stack those days together, training days, preparation days, days out on the field. And we’ve done that. Our staffs have done a great job of working hard to do that. That’s my big focus. Is there noise out there? We’ve always dealt with that. Really, our job is to build the football team and help build the team and also build their individual career. So that’s really where we’re at.
On if the focus on his personal life takes away from his experience:
Some of the noise is out there, and the book and stuff like that. It is what it is. That’s a personal venture that I entered into when I wasn’t in coaching last year, and hopefully that’ll be a big purchase on Father’s Day.
On how he’s had to make roster decisions based on the House settlement and roster caps and roster limits.
The House settlement is something that we’ve all been waiting for, and now that that’s been handed down, it’s quite lengthy and technical. We have people on our staff, and lawyers and so forth, that are looking at it. So, we have a full understanding of exactly what we’re doing. We did that over the weekend, and Michael Lombardi and I will be meeting with those people that are advising us on what exactly it means, what we can do, how we need to configure things a little bit differently than maybe we’ve done in the past couple of months.
A lot of this was anticipated, but now that it’s more formalized, we’ll have to make sure that we’re compliant with every part of it, from roster size to payments and fair-market value or reasonable market value, terms like that, the Deloitte part of it. There’s a number of things that are interconnected. We just want to make sure that we understand everything before we march too far forward. I’m glad that it’s out. I’m glad it’s that we have rules and policies and so forth that we can work with. I think now it’s just understanding exactly how the mechanics of some of those will work — what we can do and what we can’t do.
As we identify that, as it becomes clear, that’ll just help us going forward. I would just say, I would expect that over the next year, there’ll be a lot of things that’ll come up, and — probably a year from now — some modifications will be made. Who knows what they are? But I think that as you get all these schools, all these athletes and so many different [aspects] outside NIL, let’s call them deals, we’ll see how all that plays out, what the boundaries are or aren’t going forward.
On juggling the experience and newcomers on the offensive line:
I would say in my experience in the NFL, and certainly looking from the NFL at the college landscape, it’s really hard to go through a season with the same five offensive linemen for the entire year. It’s unusual for that to happen. And certainly, we’ve been in situations, and you’ve seen many teams lose multiple players in the same position, for a game or two or a period. So, depth is important at every position. You just never know when you’re going to need it, right? It’s good competition. Competition will bring out the best to everybody. And I think that we have a very competitive group. Those guys embrace competition, and it makes all of us better. So I know, for me, coaching against guys like Andy Reid and Kyle Shanahan, Sean McVeigh, Sean Payton, guys like that, that’s what made me better. It was really hard to coach against those guys. So, that’s what sharpens your game. And I think, as an athlete, that good competition, both on your side of the ball and on the other side of the ball, is important. [With] the amount of veteran players we have, competition will be great. I think their experience will be very helpful. But I think that’s also very important that Michael and I have talked about the ’26 class, that we need to be ready to have some players in there for the guys that you know won’t be returning next year. There’s some real team-building that we need to address in the future. But again, for right now, we’ll let the competition play out. But I think it’s very good, very healthy. It’s a lot more than what I think we had back in the spring. The best players will play.
On if his players are distracted by the focus on his personal life, and if his girlfriend will be on the sideline:
No, she doesn’t have any role in the UNC football program. But again, there’s been noise out there about a lot of different things. Our focus is day to day, getting better, stacking good days together, having good rest, recovery, and training moving forward the next day. For the coaching staff to focus on how do we help our team get better? That’s my job. That’s our staff’s job, to put a good plan in place. If they do the work, they’ll see the improvement. That’s what our job is.
On what the offensive philosophy will be and how the quarterback options might change that:
We have five players there at quarterback, including the two freshmen who are coming in. Bryce [Baker] is the only one that was here in the spring. Max [Johnson] was here, but wasn’t able to participate much. And, of course, Gio [Lopez] is new. As we see the offensive evolve, [it will be] somewhat reflective of how those quarterbacks do and how that position shapes up. I think we have good competition there, and our offense is our offense, and we’ll be able to adapt to whoever it is. We certainly had a lot of quarterbacks through the years with different skill sets, and were able to work with all of them. But we’ll see how it all plays out. Right now, that position is one that we just don’t have a lot of on-field experience with. Even though Max was here, he just wasn’t able to participate in a lot of the team drill or in any of the team drills.
On areas his team has improved since spring practice:
Always working to continue to improve. As we hit our targets, then we just keep raising the bar on those targets and see where it goes. But I think the improvement really was across the board: better communication, better fundamentals, better understanding of what we’re trying to do. Certainly the conditioning was much better. We practiced at a very high level, similar to what we have done in the past with Moses Cabrera, our strength coach, and our offensive and defensive systems and so forth, and the players were able to respond to that and maintain not only good health, but a high-quality performance. We didn’t run out of gas. We were able to sustain the workload of those practices from our offseason training that started back in January. All those were great signs of growth again. How far can we go? How much can we improve? And how will it all come together collectively? We’ll just have to see. We’re not going to stop. We don’t think we’re there yet. We’re definitely not there. We know we’ve got a long way to go. I think these guys have a really good future in front of them, individually and collectively, and it’s exciting to see the progress they’ve made. Just look forward to working with them every day. It’s really a great group to work with, a great opportunity for me and our staff to see the satisfaction and the growth that they’ve had, individually and collectively as a group. We have some new players coming in; it’s exciting to work with them. We’ll see how that all works out, too.
| Month/ date | Score/ time | Opponent | Record/ TV |
|---|---|---|---|
| September | |||
| 1 | L, 48–14 | vs. TCU | 0–1 |
| 6 | W, 20–3 | at Charlotte | 1–1 |
| 13 | W, 41–6 | vs. Richmond | 2–1 |
| 20 | L, 34–9 | at UCF | 2–2 |
| October | |||
| 4 | L, 38–10 | vs. Clemson | 2–3, 0–1 ACC |
| 17 (Fri.) | L, 21–18 | at California | 2–4, 0–2 |
| 25 | L, 17–16, OT | vs. No. 16 Virginia | 2–5, 0–3 |
| 31 (Fri.) | W, 27–10 | at Syracuse | 3–5, 1–3 |
| November | |||
| 8 | W, 20–15 | vs. Stanford | 4–5, 2–3 |
| 15 | L, 28–12 | at Wake Forest | 4–6, 2–4 |
| 22 | L, 32–25 | vs. Duke | 4–7, 2–5 |
| 29 | L, 42–19 | at N.C. State | 4–8, 2–6 |
Photo via @UNCFootball
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