By R.L. Bynum
CHARLOTTE — North Carolina’s offensive line rarely trotted out the same five linemen from game to game a year ago, causing a lack of continuity that left the unit searching for stability throughout the season.
Center Christo Kelly experienced that instability from an unusual vantage point. The Holy Cross transfer arrived in Chapel Hill expecting to be a fixture up front, only to be limited to two games because of an injury that sidelined him.
“Obviously it’s tough,” said Kelly, who leaned on his faith to get through it. “The biggest thing is you want to go out there for your teammates. It’s the guys that you are going to war with, and when something like that happens, it’s tough. It sucks.”
Kelly said his faith played a significant role in helping him process the frustration of missing most of last season, pointing to the parable of the prodigal son as a passage that resonated with him during that stretch.
“This idea of taking ownership of my faith, being able to really take some of the pressure off myself,” Kelly said. “Jesus Christ died for our sins, and he paid the ultimate price. Put your faith in the Lord, everything just kind of gets lifted. It’s not necessarily that I turned my back on my faith, but I really wasn’t in the forefront. Being able to go through something like that, I’m going to take ownership of that; it’s been a tremendous blessing.”
Kelly said it would have been easy to feel beaten down, complain and wallow about it, but he instead stayed positive.
“I think the biggest thing for me was seeing that it’s a little bit of adversity; it’s an opportunity,” he said. “How am I going to get better? Maybe leadership’s a little different when you’re hurt, when you’re not playing. So how can I make an impact on this team?”
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Kelly said the experience of watching from the sideline reshaped how he viewed the sport altogether. He appreciated the game much more because he could only watch.
“When something gets taken away, you understand more the passion of it,” he said. “Getting to go out there with the guys, that’s what it’s all about. Just trying to position that offensive line where it’s just a bunch of big dudes who like eating food, like pushing people around. It’s a blessing.”
Now healthy, Kelly said the line’s biggest advantage heading into this season isn’t scheme or personnel, but simply time spent together. With no spring transfer portal window to pull players in and out of the room as in 2025, the group that started winter workouts in January is largely the same group building toward the fall.
“The focus for us is day in, day out, how are we going to get better?” Kelly said, crediting offensive line coach Will Friend and offensive assistant coach Corey Gaynor for their guidance.
“We’ve got such a great room, such a tight-knit room,” he said. “We’ve got so many young guys that are in the room as well, but you have a lot more continuity from last year, more guys that know each other, have played together before.”
That continuity, Kelly said, extends beyond the offensive line room and has become a theme across the entire roster as the Tar Heels try to close the gap between last year’s four-win season and where they believe the program should be.
“This has been a common theme, the continuity, especially having guys that have played for Coach [Bill] Belichick before, gone through the system, know how everything’s going to work, know how practices are going to work,” Kelly said. “Being able to have those guys who can then influence other people, other transfers, especially our freshmen.”
Kelly also credited first-year offensive coordinator Bobby Petrino with putting the line in position to succeed, particularly in the running game. In this area, Petrino’s system leans more heavily on rushing yards than former offensive coordinator Freddie Kitchens.
“Coach Belichick talked about this a little bit,” Kelly said. “There’s a little bit more of what the Patriots were doing in terms of some of the similarities and some of the pass protections in the run game.
“Petrino does a tremendous job getting us in good situations,” he said. “We can basically call anything at any time. Being able to have a coach like him, I describe him as a good old-fashioned ball coach. He loves football, breathes it through and through. He loves teaching the game to everybody else, and to have a guy like that, it’s a lot of fun. I’m excited for everything that’s to come.”
Last season’s struggles up front played out against a backdrop of intense outside scrutiny, with every loss and lineup shuffle scrutinized nationally because of Belichick’s arrival. Kelly said opposing teams were aware of that spotlight, too.
“If you’re an opposing team, opposing coach, you’re going up against the greatest coach of all time, there is probably something to it,” Kelly said. “But the cool thing is, a guy like Coach Belichick sets the tone for how to approach all of that, just blocking out the outside noise.
“For him, he’s so dialed in. He sets the tone for the rest of us, where you don’t pay attention to good or bad, because you look at the good stuff, you put stake into it, you’re going to do the same thing when it’s bad stuff,” he said. “But, ultimately, all we’re really concerned about is inside that building, what we’re doing day in and day out.”
Kelly said he doesn’t expect that attention to fade simply because the Tar Heels finished 4-8 a year ago. Much of that locker room resilience, Kelly said, came from an ability to laugh off outside noise rather than let it fracture the group.
“We see all this stuff, but so much of it being untrue, we just laugh about it in the locker room,” Kelly said. “[They] said that Coach Belichick wasn’t there during the bye week, and you’re reading this as you’re standing next to him, and it’s almost laughable. So, if anything, it actually kind of brought us together.”
With a healthier roster and a full offseason to build chemistry, Kelly said the difference in the building compared to a year ago has been obvious to anyone connected with the program.
Photo courtesy of the ACC
