UNC took the field in Chapel Hill Thursday morning to open its fall training camp. Despite prognostications of doom and a gamut of negative press, it appears the Tar Heels will, in fact, play football in 2026.
The bizarre headlines trickling out of the Kenan Football Center had no doubt cast a pall over things: a paid administrative leave for Michael Lombardi, reportedly due to an HR complaint; as well as a reported investigation by the College Sports Commission, which administers NCAA and NIL rules across the country. And then there’s the fact that writers have predicted UNC will finish 15th out of 17 teams in the ACC, ahead of only Boston College and Stanford.
Nevertheless, all the trappings of a late July football practice were there: the blocking sleds, the agility drills, the loudspeakers blaring music. Carolina was preparing for 2026, general manager be damned.
Head coach Bill Belichick presented an unusually vivacious image as he strode to the podium before heading out to the field.
“How we doing? Ready for some football?” he asked the sleepy assembled media. “It’s football season!”
Belichick and the rest of his program’s representatives have used the offseason to emphasize how far ahead the team is compared to this time last year, the head coach’s first in college football. A major reason for this is the abolition of a second transfer portal window after spring practice, one which forced the Tar Heels to scramble for a starting quarterback in 2025. In a move emblematic of where college sports are today, that quarterback – Gio Lopez – has since exited Chapel Hill via the transfer portal.
“We’re way ahead of where we were,” Belichick said. “Just the fact that nearly everybody was here this year through the spring, through the summer. We’re not starting from scratch.”
While Lopez was practically assured of the starting role once he committed to UNC last summer, the quarterback competition this year is far from settled. In the room are Billy Edwards, a Big Ten veteran with experience at both Maryland and Wisconsin; Au’Tori Newkirk, who played sparingly as UNC’s third-stringer last fall; Miles O’Neill, a Texas A&M transfer who Belichick describes as “one of the best athletes on the team;” and freshman Travis Burgess, a promising prospect who suffered an injury during his senior year of high school and was limited in the spring.
“They have a little different… I won’t say necessarily strengths and weaknesses, but they just come from different places,” Belichick said of his quarterbacks. “And we’ll have to see how it all comes together.”
All of those quarterbacks, easily spotted in their red non-contact jerseys, took their turns establishing basics: throwing on the run to a group of receivers which mixes an interesting array of returning talent and fascinating new additions. Veterans Jordan Shipp, Nathan Leacock and Madrid Tucker are joined by transfers Trech Kekahuna (Wisconsin) and Mason Humphrey (Lehigh).
The running back room could be the strongest on the offensive side of the ball for UNC, as standout freshman Demon June returns to the fold. He’s joined by veterans Benjamin Hall and Jaylen McGill, while transfer Kaleb Jackson from LSU figures to play a role. Petrino has made no secret of his desire to establish a dominant running game, and after Day 1, he’s encouraged by what he’s seen.
“I’ve been impressed with the running backs,” Petrino said. “Sometimes when you’re rotating guys in spring football, it’s a difference… I’ve felt like this crew is pretty even. I didn’t see any drop offs like that.”
“Overall, we’ve got a good room,” Hall said. “A good group of guys who want to help the team in all facets.”
(A note for devoted fans of the program: Hall is one of several UNC players who have switched numbers this year, going from No. 28 to No. 7. June has also abandoned his former No. 12 jersey in favor of No. 0, and Leacock is wearing No. 11 instead of No. 82).
But the quarterback is the face of the offense, and right now that face is still a mystery. The program is keeping this decision close to the chest as the season approaches.
“The pressure’s immediately on all of them, and I think that’s a good thing,” said offensive coordinator Bobby Petrino. “I think it showed their preparation for the practice, showed how they called the plays in the huddle, how they understood what their progressions were. They’ve been working hard all June and July on the understanding that one of us is gonna come out there and run out there the first play of the game.”
That game, which kicks off exactly 30 days after UNC opened fall camp, sees the Tar Heels travel across the Atlantic Ocean to face TCU in Dublin, Ireland as part of the Aer Lingus College Football Classic. It was the Horned Frogs who brought Carolina back to earth last September, blowing out the Tar Heels 48-14 in Belichick’s debut college game. UNC has brought in 60 new players to fill out its 2026 roster, but the returners no doubt remember the sting and embarrassment of that night.
Belichick deferred when asked about the season opening game.
“We’ll get to TCU when we get to TCU,” he said. “Right now, the most important thing for us is the building blocks of our foundation.”
“We haven’t really focused on the future,” said defensive lineman Leroy Jackson. “We’re focused on what we’ve got going on now.”
In a reminder of what the university as a whole has got going on now, several reporters amid the scrum at the Kenan Football Center had to hustle away to the Rizzo Center to catch the media availability at that day’s meeting of the UNC Board of Trustees, hoping to ask chancellor Lee Roberts about Lombardi’s leave. They made it back just in time to hear Petrino’s post-practice comments at approximately 11 a.m.
That is the reality for anybody covering the UNC football program in 2026: there are as many off-the-field stories as those from on it. This fall, the Tar Heels are hoping their on-the-field play will provide a pleasant distraction from the circus, as opposed to what it was in 2025.
Featured image via UNC Athletic Communications/Jeffrey A. Camarati
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