Story by
Bill Belichick speaks to media on UNC's improvements during spring practices
- Story by
- Bill Belichick speaks to media on UNC's improvements during spring practices
The highly-anticipated, 2025 college football season will begin in just two months, with the North Carolina Tar Heels expected to continue attracting plenty of attention.
Hoping to escape a decade-long slump of mediocrity, UNC hired 8-time Super Bowl Champion Bill Belichick to be its next head football coach. Despite his endless success at the professional level, Belichick is a first-time college coach , so the questioning is understandable.
Advertisement
Belichick quickly proved he can thrive outside of the NFL, landing North Carolina numerous commitments in the transfer portal . If you have trouble identifying any of the Tar Heels ' 2025 starters, that's because they likely played college ball elsewhere last season.
With essentially a brand-new team, it's natural to expect growing pains. According to Belichick, though, his players showed improvement across the board during spring practices.
"(There was) better communication, better fundamentals, better understanding of what we're trying to do," Belichick said Tuesday at the Kenan Football Center. "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, strength coach, and our offensive and defensive systems and so forth. The players were able to respond to that and maintain not only good health, but a high quality performance. So 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."
"We're not going to stop," Belichick continued. "We don't think we're there yet. We're definitely not there. We know we've got a long way to go, but 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."
Advertisement
The first college football game of 2025 will be a 12 p.m. kickoff on Saturday, August 23 between Kansas State and Iowa State , when both programs play in Dublin, Ireland's Aer Lingus Classic. The Tar Heels will play their first game Monday, September 1 at 8 p.m. against TCU , making Belichick's first college game a primetime matchup under the Kenan Stadium lights.
Follow us @TarHeelsWire on X (formerly Twitter) and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of North Carolina Tar Heels news, notes and opinions.
This article originally appeared on Tar Heels Wire: Bill Belichick highlights best improvements for UNC football in spring
