5 Important Things Bill Belichick Addressed Ahead of Clemson

North Carolina head coach Bill Belichick met with the press ahead of its upcoming matchup with Clemson on Saturday at noon at Kenan Stadium.

On what he has seen with Gio Lopez along with health update...

Sep 20, 2025; Orlando, Florida, USA; North Carolina Tar Heels quarterback Gio Lopez (7) warms up before the game against the UCF Knights at the Bounce House Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Mike Watters-Imagn Images | Mike Watters-Imagn Images

We'll see what he's able to do today. He didn't do much last week, but he's been in here every day working hard getting treatment, and I'll see where he's at today.

I'd say related to that specifically, for each player, it's all going to be kind of about the same. There are things that the guys are doing well and need to be more consistent at. There are certainly things that we all can do better. Coaches, players, head coach, coordinators play callers, everybody. So we've taken a good look at where we're at, what we need to improve in.

UNC — Sep 20, 2025; Orlando, Florida, USA; North Carolina Tar Heels quarterback Gio Lopez (7) warms up before the game against the UCF Knights at the Bounce House Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Mike Watters-Imagn Images | Mike Watters-Imagn Images

What will help us the most? There's a lot of things we need to improve on, and we've dedicated time, energy and practice time to those things to try to improve them, and in some cases, change them. In some cases, throw them out, and move to something that we feel like will be a little bit more productive that maybe isn't working out well for us.

It's a little bit of all of those, but, for any specific player, after four games, there are certainly things that guys are doing well. We're doing things better than we did four weeks ago. There's certainly still a lot of room for improvement. And that's what we want to try to focus on from last week and then carry that over to this week.

His views on the bye week going into ACC play …

UNC entering Kenan Stadium through smoke before its game against TCU on Sept. 1, 2025. | Jackson McCurdy, North Carolina Tar Heels On SI

We can only worry about one game at a time. So our focus is on Clemson. We'll deal with the rest of the schedule when we come to it, but, again, it's a little bit of a reset. The end of training camp was one time.

And now, we've had four games, all out-of-conference games. [We] played a couple away, a couple at home; we've had a multitude of experiences. We've kind of recalibrated on that, and, as I said, reset a little bit on things that we need to do more of, things we need to do less of and things we need to improve.

It's kind of what I've always done with this kind of break. But after a third of the season, it's probably at the right time for all those things.

On quarterback situation with Gio Lopez and Max Johnson …

UNC — Sep 13, 2025; Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA; North Carolina Tar Heels quarterback Max Johnson (14) passes before the game at Kenan Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Bob Donnan-Imagn Images | Bob Donnan-Imagn Images

I don't know what I'm gonna see from Gio, so, that's a tough question to answer. Max is getting reps. All three quarterbacks are. We'll see how all that plays out, and we'll see what Gio's availability is as we go through the week.

We had a situational practice on Thursday. We haven't really practiced since Wednesday. So from Wednesday to Tuesday, a lot of time has elapsed here, and we'll see where Gio is today.

The areas where they improved on the most ...

UNC — North Carolina running back Demon June (Sept. 15, 2025) | Jackson McCurdy, North Carolina Tar Heels On SI

A lot of fundamental areas; really all of them. Whether it's man coverage, zone coverage, pass blocking, pass rush, double team blocks, crack blocks, perimeter force, you name it. We addressed all the things that are foundational to, not just one play, but maybe carry over into segments of plays or calls and worked on those.

Same thing in the kicking game. [We] addressed each area and kind of recalibrated on punts, punt returns, kickoffs, kickoff returns. [We] addressed some areas that haven't been as good as we want it to be and looked at other areas that are, I think, going pretty good.

[Looked at] parts of certain plays and said, okay, we need to do those, continue to do those well and improve in the areas that we are still not really executing as well as we need to. Made some changes in some of those, made some adjustments in some of the things we were doing, so we'll see how all that comes together. But it's a combination of all of those things, not just one thing.

The evaluation of the O-Line ...

UNC — North Carolina offensive lineman Chad Lindbergh (Sept. 15, 2025) | Jackson McCurdy, North Carolina Tar Heels On SI

Unfortunately, we've had a lot of moving parts on the offensive line. We took a player who had never played center and essentially moved him into center. Chad [Lindberg]'s been a center since the middle of training camp. That was a new position for him.

"Work[ing] through the tackle situation with several players: [Eidan] Buchanan, to [William] Boone, to [Austin] Blaske and so forth. We have settled in on more consistency with who is getting the reps, and it's more consistent to those players.

"It's not just the individual player, it's who you play next to and how you work in conjunction with that player or even the adjacent player after him. The center, guard and tackle a lot of times are working together in three man combinations of some sort. It's not just the guard and the tackle or the center and guard, it can be more than that.

UNC — Jackson McCurdy, North Carolina Tar Heels On SI

Again, we're getting better at all that. But unfortunately, the players we had in the spring on the offensive line aren't the same players we had in the fall. And then in training camp, we had a little bit of juggling there too. But I mean, it is what it is. And I think Chad's done a good job of taking advantage of the opportunity to play center.

And he's actually played pretty competitively in there for somebody who hasn't done it. That's been an opportunity for him and he took advantage of it.

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