It’s been 13 days since UNC got TCU to jump offsides, Christo Kelly tapped a Horned Frog defender on the helmet and Bill Belichick vigorously signaled for a first down, sealing the Tar Heels’ 15-10 win in Ireland.
The messaging after that game was mostly positive. Some pundits who had picked TCU to win believed the Tar Heels could be better than many thought before the season. Others stayed in wait-and-see mode — after all, who knows how good TCU actually is?
The point being, the UNC headlines, for once, were all football related. But that pleasant break didn’t even last a week, as last Thursday suspended general manager Michael Lombardi resigned and WRAL published a bombshell report about the program’s internal investigation. Belichick’s press conference Monday turned surreal as reporters grilled the curmudgeonly coach about whether his program truly is compliant with NCAA rules.
Belichick is no stranger to controversy and wasn’t budging on his pledge to not discuss details of the probe, only saying he had addressed it honestly with the team. Meanwhile, he insisted his full focus was on Saturday’s game against East Tennessee State.
“My expectations are to do the best I can for the team every day and get our team to perform well, coaching staff and players,” Belichick told reporters. “That’ll never change. It’s a day-to-day process. Today, we’re in our process of game planning for this game Saturday. Tomorrow we’ll go out and practice. We’ll practice the next day on third down and two-minute [drills]. We’ll practice the next day on red area and goal line. We’ll review everything and we’ll go out and play on Saturday. We do what we do.”
For the Tar Heels, doing what they do requires heavy insulation against the kinds of questions Belichick answered – or didn’t answer – Monday. But after a chaotic first year which some pundits believed Belichick wouldn’t even finish, the veterans have become used to playing football in a vacuum chamber. Those veterans include Kelly, the talkative offensive lineman who has often served as the team’s de facto spokesman in times of trouble.
“The greatest change or improvement in a team is from Week 1 to Week 2,” Kelly said, holding court at the microphone. “For us, we had two weeks. Being able to attack the bye week was big for us. It was probably some of the harder practices that we had. But really, we’re just focused on getting better each and every day. And it’s been fun getting to do that with these guys. We’re looking forward to keeping it going.”
Belichick was asked several questions about his team’s culture, something which has been under the microscope from the time the legendary coach first stepped on campus. The latest report from WRAL was not the first to implicate Belichick and his players as being non-compliant with either NCAA rules or the rule of law. Linebacker Derek McDonald, a transfer from Syracuse who arrived this past offseason, defended that culture.
“If you look at the guys we brought in, the guys that are on the roster from last year, we have a lot of guys that really want to work and want to get better and want to win games,” said McDonald, who earned ACC Linebacker of the Week honors for his performance against TCU. “I think we have a really strong culture and we’ve done a lot of work this offseason… The way you grow closer as a team is by putting in that work and suffering together. We definitely did plenty of that in the offseason, so it made us a lot closer.”
Then there’s Ben Hall, the running back who shows as much patience at the podium as he does in the backfield. When Hall was asked if he was frustrated his team’s success against TCU was being overshadowed, he paused to think. Then, a smile crept to his face as he delivered his answer.
“I’m gonna be honest with you,” Hall said. “No one in this building is losing any sleep over that.”
Featured image via UNC-Chapel Hill
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