ACC and new North Carolina coach Bill Belichick head toward season after spring full of changes

It’s on to fall camp for the Atlantic Coast Conference and new North Carolina coach Bill Belichick.

Belichick was the buzziest offseason addition for the ACC when the six-time Super Bowl championship-winning head coach agreed to take over the Tar Heels - his first time as a college head coach.

Belichick has had plenty of personnel issues to handle. Two of North Carolina’s best pass rushing threats in defensive end Beau Atkinson and linebacker Amare Campbell entered the transfer portal. But Belichick landed South Alabama quarterback Gio Lopez, who threw for 2,599 yards and 18 touchdowns as a sophomore last season.

UNC hired Belichick in December in a sign of a stepped-up investment in football. The Tar Heels opened spring drills in early March and had a practice that media was permitted to observe for about 20 minutes, then closed last weekend with a public workout in Kenan Stadium. It was hard to pick up many specifics with players working out with no jersey numbers.

North Carolina general manager Michael Lombardi said long before spring practices that the goal was for Belichick to create an NFL team.

"We want to play to the strengths of our players and that's what we'll do," Belichick said in March. "That part takes a little while to figure that out, but nevertheless we'll run a pro system on both sides of the ball and the kicking game. That's where the foundation of it is.

"And all the training videos that we've shown them on how to do things, how to do certain techniques, how to run certain things are really from NFL players - the guys who are great at it, the guys who did it better than anybody. I think that's still a great way to teach, because our players are seeing some of the best guys who have played do what they do."

UNC's opener is a Monday night affair, with the Tar Heels hosting TCU on Labor Day to open Belichick's tenure.

Stanford went through spring drills after coach Troy Taylor was fired in late March amid a report by ESPN he had been investigated twice since taking over before the 2023 season after allegations of inappropriate behavior.

Cardinal general manager Andrew Luck, the school’s former star quarterback, hired Frank Reich as interim coach this season to take over for Taylor. Reich and his staff have done as much listening as teaching with players still processing the abrupt changes.

"The key for us is don’t overwhelm the players," Reich said. "Find the small pockets where we can make a significant difference."

Both ACC teams that made the College Football Playoff (league champion Clemson and runner-up SMU) believe they took steps forward after losing first-round playoff games.

The Tigers and Mustangs will have two of the leading quarterbacks in the ACC and perhaps the country in Cade Klubnik of Clemson and Kevin Jennings of SMU.

Klubnik threw for 3,639 yards and 36 touchdowns in leading the Tigers to their eighth league title in 10 seasons and his second in three years. Jennings led SMU to an 8-0 regular season and engineered a fourth-quarter comeback in the title game against the Tigers before Clemson’s dramatic, walk-off, 56-yard field goal gave them a 34-31 victory.

Clemson added former Indiana head coach and Penn State defensive coordinator in Tom Allen to lead the Tigers’ defense. Swinney liked how his defense did better in the red zone spring under Allen’s direction.

"That's an area that we have to be better at this year is red zone defense. When you win on red zone defense, you hold them to a field goal," he said.

Florida State is looking to get back on top after a disastrous 2-10 season that followed its first ACC title in nearly a decade in 2023. Seminoles coach Mike Norvell liked the fire he saw from his group, working to blend newcomers with returnees hopeful to make a mark this season.

"You felt the players trying to make that positive impact on each other and hold themselves to that standard that's necessary for us to continue to grow for what we all desire here this fall,” Norvell said.