CHAPEL HILL – The first college spring practice in legendary football coach Bill Belichick’s career is underway, as the new North Carolina head man and his team got underway Tuesday.

On Wednesday, he met with the media for the first time since his introductory press conference on December 11. Belichick took questions for 16 minutes.

Below is a transcript of what he had to say:

Note: Video is posted belown the transcript.

Opening statement

BELICHICK: “First of all, thanks for coming out. It’s kind of interesting to be starting football here in March, especially when we get the pads. Exciting to get going. I appreciate the turnout. We’ve got a lot of work to do just kind of getting to know the team here.

“We did a lot of offseason conditioning, the team has responded well to that. So, we’ve been able to work through our first practice pretty cleanly but we’ll see how it goes here as we start stacking them together. But as far as evaluations like that (we have) a long way to go and we’ll take a look at everybody and see how things shape up and take it day by day.

“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 over a consistent period of time basically all spring and we’ll see where we are at that point.”

Q: You’ve been around college-aged kids with rookies and draftees, now that you have a full team of them, what is that message to about what you’re trying to build here, and what has been the response?

BELICHICK: “The response has been great. It’s similar to what a rookie minicamp would be and time with the rookies. Granted, those kids are a little bit older but they’re coming from all different programs and different situations.

“It’s starting to put everything together. Here’s how we do things, here’s what our expectations are, this is what you need to do to be successful, and they’ve embraced that. They’ve tried to do it. Again, we have a long way to go, we haven’t accomplished anything but we’re a lot further along than we were five weeks ago and the players are ready to practice, ready to learn, and ready to embrace a new program. It’s getting there.”

Q: How much can be schematically transferred from the NFL to the college game?

BELICHICK: “There’s a lot of carryover for sure. Fundamentals are fundamentals. Man coverage is man coverage. Double-team blocks are double-team blocks. So, there’s a lot there.

“But the hash marks are a big change and the overall skill level. The NFL were pretty elite players especially in the passing game. We’ll see what that looks like both offensively and defending it. But fundamentally it’s pretty close.

“There will definitely be some changes, but you know what, we’ll see what those are once I get a better feel for what our personnel is; what they can do. We want to play to the strength of our players and that’s what we’ll do. It’ll probably take a little while to figure that out. Nevertheless, we’ll run a pro system on both sides of the ball and in the kicking game. So, that’s what the foundation of it is.

“And all of the training films we show them on how to do things, how to do certain techniques, how to run certain things, are from NFL players, the guys who are great at it and did it better than anybody.”

Q: You have three scholarship quarterbacks this spring and one of them is Max Johnson, who had an awful injury last season. We were told there’s a chance maybe he might not be able to play football again. Where is he in his recovery process, how can he go this spring? And I know you have a fourth one coming in, but are you settled in the quarterback room or are you thinking you might have to go out find someone in the spring portal?

BELICHICK: “Right now, we’re focused on the players that are here and then whatever happens with the players coming in or portal players, we’ll deal with all that later. Max has worked hard. Max has made a lot of progress.

“He’s still limited but he’s definitely getting better, and (we’ll) take it day by day. But nobody’s put in more work than he has and we’ll see where that takes him. But he’s definitely making progress. Again, just a day-by-day process, and if her has a good day then he can do a little bit more the next day, and if he has a good day he can do a little bit more the day after that.

“If it doesn’t move along quite as quickly, then we’ll slow it down until we can get progress.”

Q: Is there a specific goal or date in mind for him?

BELICHICK: “No, no. That’s what I’m saying honestly. All injuries are kind of the same like that. If a player can progress, we’ll progress him. If he hits a little bit of a stalemate, work through that then then when he’s ready to go again then we’ll go again and move to higher ground.”

Q: It’s only been one practice, but other than the age and the size, what are the differences noticeable about guys on your team now and what you see in the NFL? And, do you have to treat players differently than in the NFL?

BELICHICK: “Well, we’ll see. I don’t think so. But as you said, we’ve only had one practice so it’s a long journey, lot of work to be done. There’ll be a lot of practices, a lot of meetings, and a lot of hard work put it and we’ll see how all of that goes.

“But players have responded well. They seem generally excited and enthused to be playing football, which anybody would be after you’ve put in several weeks of training. It’s time to get out there and finally play. We’ll see how it goes.

“I’d say the biggest difference is just the opportunity to put on pads in the spring. As I said, when I was at Washington (Huskies where his sone coached), the amount of progress and improvement that those players made was I thought remarkable. We just couldn’t do that in the National Football League because we never got the pads, especially for the big guys, route running and things like that. Skill players can do skill stuff. For the offensive and defensive linemen, pass rushers, pass protectors, some of the contact positions, which is very limited in the NFL in the spring. It’s almost, there isn’t any.

“You can work on those things. You can work on the running game. It’s really hard to work on the running game in the National Football League when you’re in shorts.

“I think those players that we had last year that I worked with last year at Washington made a lot of progress and hopefully we can do the same thing here.”

Q: You talked about using the time you’ve had so far to try to get to know the team and the players. How good of a feel do you think you have for personnel that you have right now? Do you expect, by the end of spring, maybe a bunch of people leave because ‘hey, this wasn’t for me,’ How do you anticipate roster management?

BELICHICK: “I really don’t have any expectations. We’ll see, I don’t know. We’ll go out there and do what we do and see what happens, see how it goes. I think what you’re saying could or could not happen. That’ll be up to each individual and just how things go. I know we have a good plan. I know we can do the right things to help the players improve, help the team improve, [and] put a good product on the field. Everybody that can help us and buys into it and wants to be part of it, will be part of it that’s here. If they don’t, then that’s their decision.”

Q: You’re not new to the world, but you’re new to us. Can you explain how you get the staff ready for practice in terms of meetings and what do you actually do during practice?

BELICHICK: “Spring practice is a little bit different than practice in the fall, but let’s talk about spring practice. We have a general outline of what we want to try to do over the spring so that the offense and the defense can work together, so the things that the offense is working on the defense is ready for and vice-versa. The most important thing for us right now is just to evaluate the players, other than Freddie (Kitchens) being here last year, none of us really have any familiarity with the players, what they can do, what their skills are. We certainly might be able to take advantage of those so we want to put in the foundations of all the fundamentals that we use that will carry us through the year and that’s the main thing, and then to evaluate the players. Each practice is structured so that we can work productively together on offense and defense and at the same time we can build up our conditioning and stamina and then we have to see how it goes. Sometimes you move a little faster than you think. Sometimes you maybe move a little slower than you think and you have to adjust your pace on that. Once you put a building block down and can build on it then you do. If that block’s not solid, you can’t build on it, then you have to go back and kind of reinforce it.”

Q: Do you observe during practice and walk around?

BELICHICK: “That’s the great thing about being a head coach, I can coach anybody I want. I can coach the lines, I can yell at the tight ends, yell at the DBs, yell at the kickers. I can go to any group I want and coach them and honestly, that’s the fun part. You see something that you want to address and talk to a player about, you can go in there and talk to them. I’ve been very fortunate. I’ve had the opportunity to coach every position on the field on offense, on defense, on special teams. If I can help a player, I’m here to help them. That’s my job. I want to help them get better.”

Q: You guys have campaigned that this will be like the 33rd NFL team, to be very pro-oriented. Former UNC players, who are currently in the pros or have been pros, what level of involvement do you plan on having with those players who also played here and wore these jerseys, but to come and have relationships with these guys to help along the process of showing how to become a pro?

BELICHICK: “We welcome that. We want all of our alumni to come back, both football players and non-football players, other people who are part of the program and supporters of the program. We welcome all those people back. I’m sure you’ll see a lot of former UNC players around here. Some are on the staff [like] Natrone (Means) for example. Some are in other capacities in the organization or at the university and some will be here visiting. I won’t give away any names or anything, but you guys do some good detective work, maybe you’ll be able to spot the couple.”

Q: Just wondering from your vantage point, what the response from your players has been to the not having numbers on their jerseys in practice and how have you gone about explaining what the method is there that you all are doing by not having numbers?

BELICHICK: “It hasn’t been a lot of explanation, that’s just what we do, we got out there and we earn it. The numbers and what color gloves we wear and all that’s not as important as doing your job and being responsible and accountable to your teammates and being a good teammate. Our focus is on the team and we’re all just out there working, practicing, trying to get better. It’s coaches, players, all of us. It’s not all about individual notoriety right now, it’s about trying to put together a team. We did that at New England. We did it for years and years and then of course they changed the rule and forced us to put jersey numbers on the players and so we did. I don’t think that’s important this time of year. I think it’s more important to just go out there practice well and improve every day. That’s what we emphasize.”

Q: What characteristics were you looking for as you put together a coaching staff? How important was it to have your sons on the staff with you?

BELICHICK: “It starts with the coordinators, Steve (Belichick), Freddie (Kitchens), and Mike (Priefer) have a ton of experience. They’ve performed well in multiple situations. Steve coached our defense [in New England] for a long time whatever his years as a coach were, he was involved way before that. Mike’s done a tremendous job on special teams and has a great background. His father is one of the great special teams coaches in the National Football League, Coach Priefer, so that goes in the family. Freddie’s got great experience. He was in Arizona for a decade, head coach at Cleveland, been with the Giants and so forth. [He] played major college football at Alabama [and] the same thing with Will (Friend). They have a lot of experience and we’re just trying to put together the best staff that we can. It’s a combination of pro experience, some of those coaches have a lot of college experience. Bill (Miller) was at IMG [Academy] last year, which is one of the top high school programs in the country, so he’s been a good addition. Garrick (McGee) from Louisville and Mondo (Hawkins) came in from Washington [and] has kind of a west coach background. It’s a little bit of a mix, but I feel like everybody here can add and has added to the overall quality of the coaching staff and in some cases bring a different perspective. Ty (Nichols) came over from Arizona and was part of Jedd’s staff there, but gives us another perspective. He certainly has a lot of familiarity with the Arizona {and] Washington programs. We just tried to put together the best group that we can. I love the guys that we’re working with. They work hard and we’re doing all we can to help our team improve and help the players play better and it’s our job. Moses (Cabrera), the strength and conditioning has been a big part of it so far because that’s really all we’ve been able to do up until yesterday.”