CHAPEL HILL — UNC football enters the Bill Belichick era with questions at quarterback.
Following the departure of Drake Maye, the Tar Heels had five players take snaps under center in Mack Brown’s final season.
Three of those QBs — Jacolby Criswell, Conner Harrell and Michael Merdinger — entered the transfer portal. The other, Max Johnson, is a senior coming off a right-leg injury that required season-ending surgery after the season opener.
Entering spring practice, which began Tuesday under Belichick, the Tar Heels have six quarterbacks on their 2025 roster: Johnson, freshman Bryce Baker, Purdue transfer Ryan Browne, sophomore DJ Mazzone, sophomore Andres Miyares Jr. and sophomore Hudson Wilharm.
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Baker and Browne figure to be in the mix to get most of the snaps during UNC’s 15 spring practices, with the final session scheduled for April 12 at Kenan Stadium.
Could Belichick snag another QB from the transfer portal when the spring window opens on April 16?
“Right now we’re focused on players that are here,” Belichick said Wednesday during a 16-minute press conference at the Kenan Football Center.
“And then whatever happens with the players coming in and portal players, we’ll deal with all that later.”
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Following Belichick’s presser, media members were allowed to watch 15 minutes of the Tar Heels’ second spring practice. After stretching as a team, players split up and participated in drills with their position groups.
Johnson was stationary while throwing passes during Wednesday’s practice and had a navy blue sleeve on his right leg. Baker, a four-star recruit from East Forsyth High School in Kernersville, was working with the offensive line during sled drills, standing behind the center to simulate a game situation.
Brown and the other QBs participated in a drop-back drill to work on their footwork before firing passes toward a vertical target net, but Johnson remained on the sideline during that portion of practice.
“Max has worked hard. Max is making a lot of progress. He’s still limited, but he’s definitely getting better. And he’s taking it day by day. Nobody’s put in more work than he has,” Belichick said of Johnson.
“We’ll see where that takes him, but he’s definitely making progress. So again, just the day-by-day process, if he has a good day, then he could do a little bit more next day. And if he has a good day, do a little bit more the day after that. And say it doesn’t move on quite as quickly, then we’ll slow it down until we can progress.”
But there’s still a long way to go for Belichick and the Tar Heels as it relates to QB and the rest of the roster before the season opener against TCU on Sept. 1 (7:30 p.m., ESPN) in Chapel Hill.
“We got a lot of work to do, a long way to go. … But as far as evaluations and things like that, there’s a long way to go. We’ll take a look at everybody and see how things shape up, and just take it day by day,” Belichick said.
“No big expectations here other than to go out and get better every day, improve on the things that we didn’t do as well yesterday. Add in some new things today, and just keep stacking those days together over a consistent period of time, basically all spring, and I’ll see where we are at that point.”
Rodd Baxley covers Duke, North Carolina and N.C. State for The Fayetteville Observer as part of the USA TODAY Network. Follow his ACC coverage on X/Twitter or Bluesky: @RoddBaxley. Got questions regarding those teams? Send them to rbaxley@fayobserver.com.
This article originally appeared on The Fayetteville Observer: Bill Belichick discusses Bryce Baker, Max Johnson, UNC football QBs
