UNC started spring practice March 24th. “What, spring practice is underway? I had no idea!” That seems to be just the way Belichick wants it.
The ritual of spring practice used to be a fan friendly event. Football-mad schools in the SEC would have competitions to see who could fill their stands with the most fans for a final scrimmage game. Attendance at some of these games exceeded 90,000 people, with free admission (but not free concessions). Reporters would fill column inches helping fans get to know
new players or players on the rise. Spring ball was an essential part of the sport’s calendar cadence.
Spring practice transparency took a huge blow when the NCAA, for a short period of time, included a second transfer portal window in late spring. Coaches realized that players could deduce their standing on a depth chart and hit the exits if they didn’t like it. Opposing teams with a hole in a position group would scout spring reps and try to lure players away. That portal window created enormous incentives to wrap spring practice in a protective shroud. Spring practice reports dwindled to speculative crumbs. Spring games disappeared.
That second portal window has been eliminated. However, the transparency hasn’t fully returned. Certainly not at UNC, where outside observers so far have been granted two observational windows, 15 minutes each at two separate practices. Some of those periods included things like stretching exercises. Access has been shrunk to a bare minimum. Fences around fields have been tarped. As of Friday afternoon, UNC still had no formal announcement of any concluding event, not even an open practice, much less a spring scrimmage.
Contrast that with Alabama, who will conclude their spring practice today with an actual scrimmage open to the public. While practices have not been open, Alabama’s allowed enough observational periods for the Alabama version of Tar Heel Blog to post a probable depth chart for that game and a position group summary. If Alabama football can protect its trade secrets while allowing fans to start connecting with its 2026 team, then UNC and Bill Belichick should be able to figure it out as well. This assumes Belichick and Lombardi care about fans and bother to invest any energy in promoting the program.
In the big picture, none of this matters if UNC wins a bunch of games next season. Conversely, more access during spring ball won’t save the staff from being fired if they deliver another 4-8 season. Belichick at this point has put all his eggs into winning, because nothing else about this program right now is fun or even interesting.
Here’s a Youtube video, courtesy of Inside Carolina, chronicling one of the observation periods. Exciting stuff.
