Unedited Bill Belichick interview: UNC head football coach talks to WRAL
Hi I'm Brian Murphy with WIL News
We're here at Amelia Island Florida at the ACC spring
meetings and we're talking with UNC football coach Bill Belichick
about the attention that his program has gotten since his
hire in December and how he plans to rebuild the
Tar Heel football program
The question that we didn't ask was about Jordan Hudson
his girlfriend and creative muse
UNC asked that we keep questions to football
Here is our full unedited interview with Bill Belichick
When you took this job that there would be so
much attention that you would bolster the profile of Carolina
football this much
Uh you know I wasn't really focused on that uh
Brian
It was more just to come in and you know
try to work with Michael Lombardi and our staff and
try to put together a good team and a good
program and represent the school well on the football field
and that's that's really what we're trying to do
So glad people are excited but really just focused more
on the product and delivering
Has it surprised you at all that that so many
people want to hear about Bill Belichick at Carolina so
much interest you guys are going to Ireland
Yeah
Well that's a long way off
We got a full season ahead of us before that
but yeah that'll be exciting
But no the sport's been amazing
The alumni Carolina fans and great response from the players
the people there that are on the football staff and
on the team how hard they worked and their commitment
to doing the best they can and try to put
a good team together
Can I ask you what motivates you to stay in
coaching You've accomplished probably more than anybody who's ever picked
up a whistle and now you're you're kind of starting
over in college
What what are you trying to prove What do you
have left to prove and maybe to who do you
have anything to prove Yeah I just love coaching
I love all the aspects of it
I love the team building
I love
The fundamentals working with players strategy game competition and just
the whole process
Football has been good to me
It's been good to my family
I grew up in a football family with my dad
and around Navy football and a lot of great players
and coaches
Interacted with the NFL
So um it's just it's fun to be a part
of a team
You mentioned your dad's connection to UNC when when you
got the job
Was was UNC like a sort of a specific school
that you would have come to or Pitt or Maryland
or Oklahoma State had called would you have entertained you
know more options than than just North Carolina UNC special
because of the brand
It's a great academic school
It's a great athletic tradition and the fact that there
were some roots there for me early in my life
that was coming full circles was a good feeling
What surprised you the most good or bad about being
the head coach at North Carolina Um I've just enjoyed
the process really enjoyed the people uh sport's been great
um it's a great opportunity and uh you know I
just appreciate every day at Carolina
You've uh you've turned your roster over through the transfer
portal including after spring ball
How difficult you know you're only gonna have a couple
of weeks of fall practice
How difficult will it be to build a cohesive team
a winning team with just a couple of weeks to
kind of pull all the pieces together
Well it's not dissimilar to the model that we had
in the NFL where after the draft and free agency
signing and all that you bring in about a third
of your team is brand new and so we'll be
somewhere in that range when we start fall camp but
we'll have a couple of months with them here in
the summer and we've had a good spring with a
lot of these guys as well so
It is what it is
I mean all schools have a similar situation maybe not
quite the same numbers but some degree of freshmen coming
in and transfer portals some more than others but we'll
take it as it comes and excited to have the
players that we have and work with them
I know you like to talk about you don't want
to set expectations
You just want to get better every day but what
does success look like for you at North Carolina Get
better every day coming in and having a good day
having a productive day and then rest recovery
And do another one tomorrow and keep stacking them on
top of each other
That's how he achieves success his consistency and the discipline
to do it repeatedly over and over
That that's what we're going to try to do
We'll let the process play out but it's important that
we develop a good solid routine
How important was it that you get to work with
people like Michael Lombardi your sons You have a lot
of I guess people call Belichick guys around you as
you embark on this on this adventure
Well we have a few Brian but we also have
you know well over 200 years of NFL experience on
the roster and various capacities from our chef to our
nutritionist strength training
Scouting operations and so forth
So it's really important that we provide the student athletes
with a great experience and everything they need to be
successful and then if they put in the work and
we do a good job developing then hopefully they can
achieve their individual goals and collectively we can achieve our
team goals
So that's what we're about
Two quick ones
You have a quarterback it looks like in Geo Lopez
How are you going to handle that quarterback battle when
it comes to the fall and who do you think
might even be in that competition Yeah well the competition
is always in the hands of the players
I can't control performance so we'll give everybody an opportunity
to let the players compete and we'll see how it
all turns out
We're excited to have a competition not only a quarterback
but really at most every position on the field and
again it will be up to the players to perform
and earn those spots
Everything will be earned and we're not handed anything out
It'll be competitive
The guys will get what they earn and they're all
competed hard they're working hard and so look forward to
seeing what that brings
You've certainly got a lot of attention here in the
last couple of months
What's it like to be with football guys talking football
I know you have some old friends in there Bill
O'Brien Frank Reich
What's it been like to be at these meetings and
and really getting into the season Oh yeah it's been
great you know it's been great to talk about some
of the things you know the ACC college football things
that you know all of us are involved in it's
a certainly a new model here for college football NIL
Revshare and other things that are being discussed with the
House settlement that are sort of in the air but
they're sort of coming together
Uh so just everybody's trying to figure it out and
um you know get ready for the season
Uh um how much are you talking in those meetings
Obviously you know you're a respected voice when it comes
to football but you know there are people who've been
coaching college football a lot longer so are you speaking
up or are you uh you sitting back and kind
of taking it all in Oh I'm listening to people
like that but we've had a lot of success and
I've been doing it a long time
Great
Thank you so much
I appreciate it
OK thank you
OK thanks