CHAPEL HILL – We’re down to the final days of college fall camps. Other than a handful of season openers on Saturday, teams shift into game-week preparation with kickoffs scheduled next week, August 28-31.
Ohio State named redshirt freshman Julian Sayin, a transfer from Alabama, as its starting quarterback this week to face Texas on August 30 in Columbus. Notre Dame announced sophomore C.J. Carr, the grandson of Michigan coach Lloyd Carr, as its starting quarterback for the opener August 31 at Miami.
What about North Carolina? When are the Tar Heels naming a starting quarterback?
“We’re getting ready to do that this afternoon,” said coach Bill Belichick Wednesday when he met with the media. “We’ll announce the starting lineups and play calls and how we’ll substitute and everything.
“Brandon (Faber, Belichick’s communications assistant) will get that to you as soon as we get done here. We want to make sure we get that out there right away.”
The comment was followed by chuckles from the media, not silence. And North Carolina Bill smiled as he said it. New England Bill would have said it acerbically with no facial emotion.
See, Bill? Football and the media can be fun.
Another reason Belichick isn’t ready to name a starter between South Alabama transfer Gio Lopez and returning senior Max Johnson, who is coming back from a season-long leg injury suffered in last year’s opener, is the Tar Heels have an added day until they face TCU Monday night, September 1 at Kenan Stadium. That means they opened camp later than other schools.
“We’re grinding through the last week of camp,” Belichick said. “We have some practice this week and then preparations for TCU. It’s our last chance to nail down our fundamentals and pillars that will take us through the season. Both individually the fundamentals the foundational things in the offensive, defensive and the kickoff game that will come up throughout the season.”
Belichick may have been in NFL coaching for 50 years, dating to his first job as a low-paid special assistant with the Baltimore Colts in 1975 and as a head coach of the Patriots for 24 seasons (200-2023), but certain aspects of college coaching are new to him. Teaching tackling to college players is more fundamental than with grizzled pros.
“We’ve done a lot more live work here than we did with any NFL team I’ve been on,” Belichick said. “The coaches here who have been on college staffs have talked about the necessity to do that. The competition has been good but at the same time we’ve taken into account safety. We’ve had very few injuries to deal with.”
But as far as the turnaround of the Monday night game to the second contest on Saturday at Charlotte against the 49ers at Jerry Richardson Stadium, quicks turnarounds are nothing new. Belichick coached NFL teams on a Sunday followed by a Thanksgiving Day game long before college weekeday games were common.
Another example of North Carolina Bill is his willingness to mention progress of a young athlete. Belichick is from the Bill Parcells school of parsimonious praise. Belichick was asked about redshirt freshman wide receiver Alex Taylor.
The 6-foot-2, 190-pounder played in four games as a freshman in 2024, with his first career reception a 15-yarder against James Madison. As a senior at Greensboro Grimsley, he caught 63 balls for 1,067 yards and 14 touchdowns.
“I’ve only seen him since the spring since I wasn’t here with last year,” said Belichick, starting out as New England Bill before shifting to North Carolina Bill. “He’s smart guy, very dependable who can play multiple positions. He’s been productive in multiple areas down the field as a route runner and making adjustment based on coverage.
“He’s one of the players the quarterbacks have a lot of confidence in and trust. He has earned that through multiple days and weeks and routes. Glad we have him. I really like the versatility he brings to us. That helps with formations.”
For now, that’s as close as he came to naming someone contending for a starting job.
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