Tar Heels Insider Podcast: UNC-BYU Schedule Exhibition Game Analysis

North Carolina announced that it will travel to play BYU in an exhibition game at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City on Oct. 24. Tar Heels On SI beat writer Grant Chachere breaks the game down and discusses why this will be the norm not only in basketball but it could help schools in regards to gaining more money for NIL and revenue sharing

The video is below:

Here is a partial transcript from Bill Belichick's press conference from June 10:

On quarterback Max Johnson’s progress:

Max is doing very well. His rehab has been long, and I have a lot of admiration for him. A tough injury, but nobody’s worked harder than he has. He certainly is able to do a lot more than he was last spring, so we’ll see exactly where he is when things start, but it’s a whole lot closer. And you know, we certainly expect to see him out there. So it’s been very encouraging.

On quarterback Gio Lopez:

He was really productive at South Alabama. He’s a dual-threat quarterback. He’s had plenty of production yardage, both the running-game and passing-game experience. Tough kid. Played well against some good competition, teams like LSU. It looks like he’s definitely ready for this level. Excited to work with him, as we are with everybody else. We’ve got some freshmen. We’ve got Max, got some experience and Gio. We’ll see how it all plays out. Honestly, none of them — with the exception of Max, for a handful of plays last year — have taken any snaps here. So it’ll be good to see how all that plays out.

On how the roster has been built:

I think [General Manager] 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.

We’ve had an addition of some players this spring who I think will be a factor and and the ’26 recruiting classes, it’s gotten off to a good start. We have a long way to go on that, but we’ve seen a lot of good players, and there’s a lot of interest from those kids in coming here. We have some commits, but, again, those commits don’t really count until signing day. I think that’s a sign that we are on the right track. From the quarterback position to the skill positions, the offensive line, and the defensive front-seven players, as well as some players in the secondary, and a place-kicker. We’re off to a good start. We’ll see how it goes.

On the strengths of his team:

I think we’re just going to have to evaluate that as we go. We’ll have a lot better idea in training camp. There were several players that left the team after spring ball, and then we have a lot of new ones, a lot of new faces — both incoming freshmen and players who came from transfers. We’ll just have to see how all that plays out. I think, where we were then and, honestly, where we are even today, we’re at a different spot. It will be interesting to see how it all comes together. We’ve got a lot of work to do, but it’s certainly trending in the right direction. 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. We’ve had really good results from our physical training and the team-building as well. A long way to go, but feel like we’re on the right track.

On how spring practice shaped his impression of the team and influenced what he needed to do in the portal:

These are great kids to work with. They really are. We’ve had great buy in. There have been really no problems at all. All 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. They’ve made a ton of improvement. And these guys are a lot better than they were when we started in January on on every level.

It’s exciting to see where that’s going to take us. I don’t know. Maybe we’re close to the peak, or maybe we’re only a quarter of the way up the hill. I don’t know, but we’ll see. But the improvement has been very good, and I think the players — based on the improvement that we made from January to April — I’ll let them speak for it. I don’t want to speak for them, but I would say that based on the improvement that we made during that time frame, that’s generated some momentum, [so] if we keep working like this, we’re going to we’re going to continue to get better. These guys have dreams and aspirations beyond North Carolina, and I think that’s realistic for a lot of players. They’re working really hard to not only get the most out out of their selves, but they’re great teammates. That’s where we’re trending.

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