Full Contact Brings Defensive Line into Focus at UNC Training Camp

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — Now that North Carolina has progressed through the NCAA-mandated acclimation period that opens training camps across college football, coach Bill Belichick and his staff can begin to fully assess the Tar Heels’ development on the defensive line.

On paper, that position group represents perhaps the most significant question mark for this transformed UNC team ahead of the approaching 2025 season.

“We’re trying to evaluate, but we’re not really able to do that until full practices and tackling,” Belichick said two days ago. “For the big guys, those skills will really be evaluated much more closely once we’re actually able to do them, and also make sure that everybody knows what they’re doing.”

NCAA rules prohibit full-contact drills, including live tackling, until teams observe a five-day acclimation period to kick off preseason practices. After that portion of ramping up, teams are permitted to have as many as three days a week with live tackling, while at least three non-contact or minimal contact practices also should be held in any seven-day period, as per the NCAA rulebook.

The new-look Tar Heels started training camp last weekend on Aug. 2, and took their first day off from practicing on Wednesday. They’re working toward their Sept. 1 season opener against TCU.

Along the defensive line, UNC has returned no starters or backups and only one player — rangy rush end Tyler Thompson, a third-stringer — among the 12 players who were listed on the depth chart for the 2024 regular-season finale against NC State, former coach Mack Brown’s final game at Carolina.

New UNC defensive coordinator Steve Belichick said “I think the game really starts up front” earlier this week, while effectively reciting the company line that his father and new general manager Michael Lombardi regularly have used since Bill Belichick’s introductory press conference eight months ago.

But the Tar Heels are starting over on the defensive line now, after graduating Kaimon Rucker, Jahvaree Ritzie, Des Evans, Kevin Hester Jr., Joshua Harris Sr. and Jacolbe Cowan from last season’s group, and also losing the likes of Beau Atkinson (who departed for Ohio State), Travis Shaw (Texas), Joel Starlings (Maryland) and Rodney Lora (Central Florida) to transfer portal exits.

Carolina needs transfer additions CJ Mims (from East Carolina), Isaiah Johnson (Arizona) and D’Antre Robinson (Florida) to anchor the interior, and transfers Pryce Yates (Connecticut), Melkart Abou-Jaoude (Delaware), and Smith Vilbert (Penn State) to produce on the edge.

At 6-foot-6 and 282 pounds, Vilbert is built in a mold reminiscent of Evans’ impressive frame, and perhaps could toggle between outside and inside spots on the defensive line, as Inside Carolina analyst Jason Staples suggested in his recent evaluation of the Tar Heels. Yates delivered a monster effort against UNC to conclude last season, supplying six tackles and three stops for lost yardage, including a sack, as UConn rolled to a 27-14 victory at the Fenway Bowl.

“For those guys, the more energy and the more juice that they have, the harder they play, the harder it makes it on the offense,” Steve Belichick said two days ago, referring to defensive line play in general. “Everybody else is important, I’m not taking those (other) guys off the hook. But I think when those guys play well up front, it makes everybody’s job a lot easier. It puts a lot of stress on the offense.

“So it definitely starts up front. I’m a firm believer in that. I would say schematically and versatility-wise, the more you can do, the more value you bring to the defense. And the team, for that matter. There isn’t one certain style. No two players are the same. Everybody’s different. Everybody’s got their own skillset. But the more you can do, that definitely benefits everybody.”

UNC’s tandem of defensive coordinator Steve Belichick and defensive line coach Bob Diaco marks the Tar Heels’ third different combo in charge of those areas in three seasons, following Gene Chizik and Tim Cross (in 2023) and Geoff Collins and Ted Monachino (in 2024).

Last season, UNC’s defensive front achieved substantial improvements in metrics such as pressure rate, sack rate and havoc rate. But still, Carolina allowed at least 34 points in five of the seven losses the team suffered last season. And the Tar Heels finished outside the top 65 nationally in run defense across each of Brown’s last five seasons at the helm of the program, bottoming out at No. 93 in 2021 (when Jay Bateman was defensive coordinator), and Nos. 92 and 93 in 2022 and 2023 (when Chizik was defensive coordinator).

“With this new coaching staff, everybody’s just ready to learn,” UNC defensive lineman Leroy Jackson said this week. “Everybody’s just ready to compete. And just take it day-by-day and get better every day. … Every practice is going to be a hard practice. It’s going to make the games easier. The competition level is high, and you’ve got to stay at that level. You can’t go down. You’ve got to keep going higher and higher.”

Bill Belichick offered something of a mini-sermon on leverage and technique, positioning and pad level, when he was asked earlier this week about the difficulties of gaining precise assessments on defensive linemen during the early stages of training camp.

“These guys line up this far away from each other, and it all happens pretty quickly,” he said, holding his hands apart and motioning. “And without pads and without full contact, it’s kind of hard to see exactly how that’s going to go until you get to that point again. With the receivers, defensive backs, you don’t have those kinds of collisions. Power can neutralize speed. Speed can offset power. … So much of interior offensive and defensive line play is based on pad level and leverage. And until you actually are going (fully) it’s kind of hard to tell exactly how it’s going to turn out. Once everything is on, then it’s a lot easier to see.

“So the defensive line and the offensive line are hard positions to train in the offseason. You train strength, you train explosion. You learn the plays, you get in condition and all that. But you can’t actually do what you have to do against your opponent, in this case ourselves, until you get past the acclimation period in training camp or the (requisite number of) practices in spring ball. You can hit bags and you can hit sleds, and you can do all those kinds of things. It’s good teaching, and it prepares you for it. But it’s not the same thing.”