Can 73-year-old Bill Belichick conquer a new frontier at North Carolina?

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — Moments after North Carolina opened fall camp on Saturday morning, Bill Belichick stuck a knee in the Koman Practice Complex turf.

As a light mist dampened the field, the coach wasn’t just going to explain what he was looking for in the first special teams drill. Belichick needed to show his players, too. Clad in Carolina blue shorts and a gray crewneck — sleeves intact — he stepped in for his field goal holder, took a knee, and practice continued with the 73-year-old orchestrating from the middle of the drill.

The six-time Super Bowl winning head coach was picking up right where he’d left off two years ago in Foxborough.

It’s a new frontier of college coaching, but Belichick has made it awfully familiar. He was flanked by his sons, Steve and Brian, and the practice playlist featured a Bon Jovi song that was released decades before the Tar Heel freshmen were born.

At a time when most his age are retired or winding their careers down, Belichick is speeding back up.

After 49 years in the National Football League, he’s gone back to school to attack a fresh challenge. In his 70s, Belichick is now navigating the world of NIL money, the transfer portal, and high school recruiting for North Carolina.

“It’s great,” Belichick said grinning on Saturday morning in the Kenan Football Center Hall of Honor.

Belichick and Michael Lombardi, his longtime confidant who is serving as UNC’s general manager, spent most of the offseason overhauling the Tar Heel roster. There are 70 new players in Chapel Hill. Belichick still doesn’t know who his quarterback will be when TCU arrives for a nationally-televised standalone season opener on Labor Day, but he’s eager to find out.

As camp began, things fell into a Belichick-ian rhythm. Settled into a new outpost with a new roster in place, he could focus on the thing he was born to do.

Coach.

“These guys are bought in,” Belichick said. “They’re working hard. It’s exciting to see what they’re going to be able to do on the field. So yeah, I’m very much looking forward to it.”

New team, same Belichick

Early August is a sleepy time of year in college towns.

Bar-laden Franklin Street will soon be flooded after wins, losses and bye weeks, but on a muggy weekend, the campus was empty.

At 7:30 on Friday night, the legendary watering hole “He’s Not Here” was aptly named, with fewer than a dozen patrons drinking out of their trademark blue cups. Nearby at Top of the Hill, few people at the half-full bar were paying particularly close attention to the Savannah Bananas on TV.

In the Saturday morning rain, there were cans of Coors and Natty Light strewn across a front yard at Fraternity Court on the road to Kenan Memorial Stadium. Harbingers of things to come perhaps, but Chapel Hill was quiet.

Nationally, expectations are tempered for Belichick’s first season. North Carolina was picked to finish eighth in the ACC Preseason Poll, trailing traditional powers Clemson and Miami, along with programs like Louisville and Duke.

Those lower expectations haven’t lowered interest in Belichick, however. A local reporter asked him about the increased scrutiny he and the Tar Heels have been under.

“Your presence has brought a lot of attention to this program,” the reporter began.

“Really?” Belichick interjected sarcastically with a smile after a summer of having his relationship with 24-year-old girlfriend, Jordon Hudson, analyzed everywhere.

As reporters laughed, the coach then pivoted to the stoicism that was a pillar of his persona while forging the Patriots dynasty.

“Honestly, for all of us, control what we can control,” Belichick said. “Whoever is here or isn’t here, that’s out of our control. We have a job to do. We have a lot of work to accomplish. We need to come together and build our team both on and off the field. Our chemistry. Our communication. Of course, our execution on the field. That’s our biggest challenge. What’s external is external. A lot of it is just noise. We’ve seen all the preseason rankings and this and that. It’s great, but that isn’t going to affect us.

“We’re going to compete on Sund—Saturdays or Mondays or whatever day it is,” Belichick said, catching himself. “That’ll determine what happens. Not some predictions or projections or anything else. We’re just going to ignore that and move on.”

In an 18-minute meeting with reporters, Belichick hammered the importance of the bottom of the roster, and sent a message to his players through the media: Nothing will be given to them here.

“We’ll give everybody an opportunity to compete,” Belichick said. “Through the course of my career, we’ve had many, many free agents, low-round draft choices who not only competed and earned playing time, but some became some of our best players. So players that want to come in and compete and have shown enough skill, we’ll take those guys. We’ve taken plenty of them. We’ll see how they do. But those are kind of the two things we’re looking for. Anybody who is walking in here feeling like ‘Well, I’m going to be the starting this or that. I’m entitled to this.’ That’s not really the way it’s going to work. They’re going to have to earn it.”

‘The reason why I stayed’

One of those competitors will be Max Johnson.

The senior quarterback suffered a gruesome injury in last year’s season opener. Against the Minnesota Golden Gophers, Johnson broke his right femur. The injury was so severe that he needed five surgeries and at one point feared he might lose his leg.

Fully cleared 11 months later, Johnson hasn’t been promised the starting job back. He’ll be competing with Gio Lopez, a sophomore transfer from South Alabama who may have the inside track, and freshman Bryce Baker.

But Johnson, who has already played at three colleges, didn’t want to transfer.

“I’ve talked with Coach Belichick, (offensive coordinator Freddie) Kitchens. The best man is going to play,” Johnson said. “Whoever that is, I know Coach Belichick is going to make the best decision. I’m just blessed to be here, to be able to compete. It just feels good to be able to do it again.”

Plus, he wanted to learn from a legend.

“What an honor to play for the best coach of all time,” Johnson said. “He’s won eight Super Bowls. Considered the best coach of all time and we’ve gotten to see that. That’s the reason why I stayed: Being able to play for the best of all time.”

Similarly, senior running back Caleb Hood put his name in the transfer portal following Mack Brown’s departure.

Buried on the depth chart, Hood only carried the ball 18 times last season, but Belichick convinced him to stay. The back took his name out of the portal and showed up 10 pounds lighter than a season ago.

“They were like, ‘Hey, you can really do something if you put your mind to it. If you change, work,’” Hood said. “Hearing that from the greatest, you can’t really turn that down. I just wanted to challenge myself. That was the biggest thing.”

‘Involved in every aspect’

There was one moment on Saturday morning when Belichick pushed back. Asked about Kitchens running North Carolina’s offense, Belichick offered a gentle reminder that this is going to be his show.

“As a head coach, I’ve always tried to be involved in every aspect of the game,” Belichick said. “Whether that’s offense, defense, special teams, our strength program, our conditioning program, our off-the-field education of the players and so forth. I think it’s important for me to be a part of all the things that we do and to add emphasis to the players and the coaches.”

When the Tar Heels took the field, Belichick was everywhere.

He began the session huddled with some of his assistants, practice script in hand, and then quickly put his knee in the turf for his brief stint as the holder.

Local reporters bemoaned the restricted access under Belichick — they were given free range to roam for full camp practices under Brown — but things have changed. The long-time NFL coach limited Saturday’s media window to 21 minutes and marooned reporters on a distant sideline, much like his time in Foxborough. Binoculars were a must.

For individual drills, he patrolled both of the complex’s practice fields, instructing as he saw fit. When rain began to intensify a bit, Belichick stopped for a pep talk with his wide receivers, then watched their routes and yelled directions from the line of scrimmage.

Though the Tar Heels have an indoor facility, practice remained outside. It rains on Sund—Saturdays or Mondays, too.

Even in New England winters, Belichick was averse to moving sessions into the bubble. He wanted his team to practice like it played.

‘An unknown’

With no preseason games, the first look at Belichick’s Tar Heels will come in that high-profile season opener. Ever-prepared, Belichick has spoken to other college coaches about readying his players without preseason games, but even he can’t predict what’s next.

“There’s a little bit more of — especially for us — a little bit more of an unknown,” Belichick said. “Because even the guys that were here, they weren’t here with us. And how exactly they’ll react in game situations and under pressure, and how quickly, easily we’ll be able to adjust or not adjust and all that. We’re going to have to find out that on the run.”

Belichick is part of the unknown, too.

These are uncharted waters he’s cannonballing into in his fifth decade of coaching. Will the principles of his program resonate with college players? Will his in-game strategies work in the ACC? In a rapidly changing collegiate landscape, can a coach revive his career at 73 years old?

Those answers, like the UNC students and the bustle on Franklin Street, will be here soon.

Labor Day is just four weeks away.