Extra Points: Game On

Outdoors. On grass. Under leaden skies, unseasonably cool temperatures and an intermittent drizzle, the head coach outfitted in a gray sweatshirt. It all had a very Belichickian look and feel Saturday morning when Carolina took the field for its first practice of fall training camp.

There was Bill Belichick, winner of eight Super Bowls, roaming the two outdoor practice fields on the Carolina campus during the two-hour session, his attention drawn to any number of coaching points.

With defensive players it's how to work your launch angle and hand technique in blocking a place kick or punt.

With running backs it's how to grip and cradle the football against your body in executing Belichick's No. 1 tenet of football that "there's nothing more important than ball security.

With cornerbacks it's how to avoid getting sloppy pass interference calls by simply "turning and finding the ball."

"That's the beauty of being a head coach—I can go work with any position I want to," Belichick says. "That's the fun part."

After eight months of a new coaching and support staff building organization, structure and personnel, Saturday marked day one of actually playing football. For the players, an offseason regimen of dawn conditioning in the winter and midday running in the July heat graduated to actually running football plays—blocking, throwing and catching. The tackling will be added this week in full pads after several days of NCAA mandated "acclimation."

"We're excited to see it start coming together," Belichick says. "We'll go through the acclimation period and get really into it next week. It's great to get back on the field. We have a lot of new people to get up to speed—more than 40 new players from spring and 70 total who were not on last year's team."

Adds QB Max Johnson, who's returning in 2025 after a year of leg rehab following a devasting injury at Minnesota in the 2024 season opener: "I was so joyful to be out there today, I couldn't stop smiling … It was exciting, everyone was excited to be back. It's been a long summer. We ran a lot this summer, worked out a bunch. The juice is there, it's great to be back in Carolina blue. There are a lot of new faces. I think we're jelling together and will have a great season."

With so many new players and a coaching staff with only two holdovers from the previous staff, it's impossible to predict what the Tar Heels might look like. Or how good they might be.

But a few benchmarks on which Carolina 2025 will be built include these:

* The roster is constructed first from the inside and works outside.

"There are always two elements in a game—who's in the lead and who's in control," says Michael Lombardi, a long-time Belichick associate now the program's general manager.

"The only way you can get in control is through the offensive and defensive lines. We are going to build a team from the inside-out."

* Practices will be structured to mirror the 12 games on the Tar Heels' schedule as much as possible—making limited use, if any of the indoor facility no matter the weather and include live tackling as much as is reasonable.

"When Coach Belichick came in, I could tell we were going to be physical in practice," says cornerback Marcus Allen. "That's good, we can take that to the game.

Football is about who wants it more, who's going to go out there and lay down on the other team. I think the more physical practices we have now with more tackling is going to benefit the team."

* And the Tar Heels are quite mindful of the wisdom and experience trickling down from Belichick, who's eager to be back running a team after a year away from football following his departure from New England in January 2024.

"What an honor to play for the best coach of all time," says Johnson. "He's won eight Super Bowls. That's one reason I stayed, to play for the best."

"Playing for the greatest? You really can't turn that down," adds tailback Caleb Hood, who considered transferring but ultimately stayed in Chapel Hill.

The 100-plus player roster is also diverse in a multitude of measures. There are holdovers like Allen and fellow defensive back Will Hardy, receivers Jordan Shipp and Kobe Paysour, offensive linemen Trevyon Green and Aidan Banfield, running backs Hood and Davion Gause.

There are three legacy players in Hood (his dad is Errol, a late 1990s cornerback), Reggie Love II (his dad is Reggie, a mid-1990s defensive back) and Deems May (his dad Deems was an early 1990s tight end).

The roster spans far and wide of the United States and beyond. There's a receiver from Alaska (Adrian Wilson) and nine players from California. There are two punters from Australia.

Over the next month, Belichick & Co. will work to mold all these pieces into a cohesive team that can make the big play in the fourth quarter, avoid pre-snap penalties, maintain its composure and take advantage of the rules and situations—and do it again and again and again. And above all, as Belichick is fond of saying, "Do not beat yourself. You cannot win until you keep from losing."

"It was real high energy, everyone is excited to be back," Allen says. "We love football, and having Coach Belichick as coach automatically means you'll have a lot of energy. We just take it day-by-day and work our craft. The main thing is to have fun. Today's a great day to have fun and compete."

"Our standard is being tough, smart, and dependable," linebacker Khmori House adds. "Let's just start there and win each day."

Lee Pace (Carolina '79) has written "Extra Points" since 1990 and has reported from the sidelines for the Tar Heel Sports Network since 2004. He is the author of "Football in a Forest—the Life and Times of Kenan Stadium." Write him at leepace7@gmail.com and follow him @LeePaceTweet.

Scoreboard Slider

University of North Carolina Athletics

Players Mentioned

Marcus Allen

Aidan Banfield

Davion Gause

Trevyon Green

Will Hardy

Caleb Hood

Khmori House

Max Johnson

Reggie Love II

Deems May

Kobe Paysour

Jordan Shipp

Adrian Wilson

Related Videos