The North Carolina Tar Heels are entering the 2025 season with a lot of buzz. This offseason, they made a massive move by hiring legendary NFL head coach and eight-time Super Bowl champion Bill Belichick to lead the program.
While excitement around the team is at an all-time high, the biggest question mark remains the quarterback position. Belichick recently spoke about who will win the starting job.
Bill Belichick Addresses North Carolina’s Quarterback Battle
North Carolina will begin fall camp in about a week, but the team still has not named a starting quarterback for the 2025 season. Two serious contenders are in the mix: Max Johnson and Gio Lopez.
Johnson began his college career at LSU in 2020, then transferred to Texas A&M in 2022, and eventually landed at North Carolina ahead of the 2024 season. He opened last year as the Tar Heels’ starter but suffered a broken leg in the first game of the season against Minnesota.
Now fully recovered, Johnson is a strong candidate to start in North Carolina’s 2025 season opener against TCU.
Lopez burst onto the scene as a redshirt freshman at South Alabama last season, throwing for 2,559 yards and 18 touchdowns while adding 465 rushing yards and seven more scores. He entered the transfer portal at the end of the season and committed to North Carolina. Like Johnson, he is a top contender for the starting job in Belichick’s debut.
In a recent interview on SportsCenter, Belichick was asked who would start at quarterback in Week One, and he responded in the most classic Belichick fashion.
“The player who plays the best,” Belichick said.
The Tar Heels’ head coach expanded on his answer, explaining that while he and his staff can support the quarterbacks, it ultimately falls on the players to determine who earns the starting job.
“I can’t control how players play,” Belichick said. “Never have, never will. Performance is up to the players, and we’ll do the best we can to coach all of them and help them be the best they can be, but ultimately, the players win the games, and players earn their playing time.”
It’s a strong approach, and Belichick has always coached with a mindset that everything is earned and nothing is given. Even if he had a Heisman winner competing against a true freshman, he would likely still start the freshman if he believed that player gave the team the best chance to win.
Lopez, Johnson, and the other quarterbacks on North Carolina’s roster will compete for the starting job throughout the preseason. By week one, it’s clear that Belichick will choose the player who has truly earned the role.
Belichick and the Tar Heels will take on TCU from Chapel Hill on Monday, September 1. They also have games scheduled against UCF, Clemson, California, Syracuse, and NC State, among others.
