Heel Tough Blog: Bill Belichick Press Conference Takeaways- 6/10

Inside Carolina

For the first time in three months, Tar Heel head football coach Bill Belichick talked to the media on Tuesday as he discussed everything from the current state of his roster to the House v. NCAA. Here are our biggest takeaways from what he had to say in the midst of the summer downtime.

Focus is Not on What’s Being Said About His Relationship With Jordon Hudson

As expected, Belichick was asked a few different questions about the focus that the national media had on his relationship with girlfriend Jordon Hudson and he simply shrugged them off. “Look, I'm really focused on doing my job here at Carolina, to help our football team, and just to get better every day,  to stack those days together, training days, preparation days, days out on the field. And we've done that. And our staff's, again, done a great job of working hard to do that. So that's my big focus. I mean, is there noise out there? We've always dealt with that. Really our job is to build the football team also build their individual career. So that's really where we're at." It seems like we have the answer to our question of whether he can separate his personal life from what goes on on the football field and that seems to be a resounding yes.

Quarterback Battle Seems to Still Be On

This was one of the few position groups that Belichick was asked about and he made one thing clear: there is a battle here. Gio Lopez is the guy that most fans thought would take over the job when the team brought him in from the transfer portal, but his lack of experience at the P4 level seems to be a big deal to this staff. At this point, Belichick is talking about a five man battle, not trying to give anyone an edge, but this is likely more of a two-man battle at this point between Lopez and true freshman Bryce Baker. With no one being given the advantage right now, it feels like this is a legitimate battle that we will be keeping tabs on during fall camp.

Belichick Likes Where the Roster Is At

One of the biggest question marks that we have had this offseason is whether or not this roster has actually improved from last year’s roster, but Belichick is not questioning where it is at. "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. And then we've had an addition of some players this spring who I think will be a factor.” It’s hard to feel like Belichick would say anything else, but it is comforting to hear it come from the head coach’s mouth.

Leadership Is In a Good Spot

Belichick was very complimentary of the leadership that he is seeing from the guys on the roster so far. "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, and we've had really good results from our physical training and the team building as well.” Amongst those leaders is Thad Dixon, a guy who also spoke Tuesday, and was raved about by Belichick when he was asked about him. The legendary NFL coach pointed to how his work ethic has really shown through and how impactful he has been with recruits when they have visited campus. Others who seem to be stepping into those leadership roles are Will Hardy, Jordan Shipp and Christo Kelly, all of which spoke with the media following their head coach’s availability. Seeing these leaders emerge early is encouraging, especially with how much roster turnover there was this offseason and it’s even better that some of those transfers are the ones doing so.

The Buy-In and Improvement Have Been Where It Needs to Be

We wondered when Belichick came in and took over how the players would respond to his demands and, as we heard back in the spring availability, they have taken to it well. "These are great kids to work with -- they really are, we've had great buy in there. There have been really no problems at all. And 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.” Belichick was also raving about the strides that this team has made since the new staff came in back in January. “They've made a ton of improvement. And these guys are a lot better than they were when we started in January, on every level.” Again, you wouldn’t expect him to say anything different, but it is good to hear that this seems to be a team that is responding to him well and progressing at the pace they need to be.

The Staff is Working to Understand the House Settlement

Like the rest of us, the Tar Heel football program was thrown the fastball that is revenue sharing and Belichick admitted that he and the staff are working to make sure that everything is done properly. "The House settlement, something that we've all kind of been waiting for, and now that that's been handed down, it's quite lengthy and technical, and 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 just want to make sure that we understand everything before we march too far forward. But 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. And again, what we can do and what we can't do. And as we identify that, and as it becomes clear, that'll just help us going forward.” Just as the rest of college football will have to do, Belichick and general manager Michael Lombardi will have to navigate the ins and outs of this new system that is in place, but it is good knowing that the new staff now has the money available that they were looking for when they took over.

Good Competition and Depth Along the Offensive Line

This position group was one that the staff came in with the goal of overhauling and they have done just that. The room welcomed seven new additions back in the spring and will bring in three more transfers and one offensive line to add even more competition starting in the fall. Just like at quarterback, it doesn’t seem like there are many clear answers here just yet as to who will be starting, but this room will have plenty of different options that they will be able to rotate at every position, something that Mack Brown and his staff just weren’t able to despite making it a focus each and every offseason.