Bobby Petrino Enjoying Revamping UNC's Offense During Spring Practice: Q&A

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — For the first time since being announced as the offensive coordinator in early January, Bobby Petrino addressed the media inside the Kenan Football Center on Tuesday during North Carolina’s final week of spring practice.

The 65-year-old coach had his work cut out for him when he joined Bill Belichick’s staff in the offseason, inheriting a UNC offense that ranked at or near the bottom of the ACC by many metrics. The Tar Heels were last in the conference in total yards per game (289.2) and second-worst in passing yards (183.5) — including no single-game performance by a Tar Heel quarterback over 220 yards.

Now, with the transfer portal additions across the offense and in the QB room, Petrino spoke to the work he and the staff have done in building a better offense throughout the spring. Watch his interview in full below, and scroll to read noteworthy excerpts. 

Opening Statement: 

“It’s certainly something that I was looking forward to having the ability to come here and coach for Coach Belichick and get back together with a couple of guys I knew, and Garrick McGee and Matt Lombardi.

It’s fun to see the support by the alumni, and everybody in the Rams club, and everybody that I’ve been out and been able to meet so far, and then we’ve been battling it out at spring ball. So that’s been a good time.” 

When did you first hear from Bill Belichick, and what was your initial reaction to the offer to coach at UNC? 

“Sometime in December, we talked on the phone a couple times, went down and interviewed with him, and then had a little bit of a silent time where you’re thinking, I must not have done a very good job in the interview, but just going through his process, and then he offered me the job, and I accepted it. 

“We spent the entire day together. I guess we had lunch and talked a lot about football, and talked a lot about other things. Got to know each other. I feel like, as a coach, sometimes you know people just because of following them, trying to find out what they’re doing. I coached for Coach Coughlin at the Jacksonville Jaguars, and I think he and Coach Belichick were together with the Giants, and there seemed to be a lot of similarities and things they probably grew up doing together. So it’s been exciting for me.” 

You have several quarterbacks to choose from. What has been your impression of those guys so far and the offense as a whole? 

“We’re going to install the offense, and that’ll end up being four times, and then I feel like it’s our job to mold the offense around what the quarterback does best, and hide what he doesn’t do best, and how we use the different weapons that we have out there with the running backs, tight ends, receivers. So it’s been fun to watch them learn it and understand that the first thing they have to do is be perfect in the run game as a quarterback, one of the things that makes your job easier is to be really good in the run game and then understand the protections and make sure you get yourself protected.

“So we’ve been working really hard on knowing the run game, knowing the defenses, understanding protections, getting myself protected, and all of them have done a good job at times, and need improvement at other times, but it’s been a lot of fun.”

What has been the common thread within your offenses that has allowed them to be successful? 

“Being a good teacher. I think that’s one of the things, particularly when it’s so many new guys, in years past, you might have guys for two years, three years, four years in the same system. Now, you get them to come in in January, and they get in the lineup in August or the first of September and play a game. So you have to do a good job of teaching and being able to get them to understand the principles of offense.

“We’ve always been a power run team and been able to run the football well. I think you have to run the football. You have to run it when you want to run it, so that when it’s short yardage, goal line, four-minute offense to end the game… I feel like we’ve always been a very good explosive team, whether that’s off play action or quick game or drop back game. But I do think you have to have be able to generate chunk plays. And I think we have some really good weapons on our offense now that have shown that they can go out there and make explosive plays.”

Have you begun to figure out who is becoming the first team offense, and specifically in the quarterback race for the starting spot by this point in the spring? 

“We’re not really big on having a depth chart right now. I think one of the things that’s good about spring ball is there is a group that has to run out there when you say first offense up, and then the second group that runs out when you say next group up. Their job is to outperform the guy that’s out there in front of them, so the next day they can be on the first group up.

“I think quarterback-wise, we’ve had, like basically four guys out there taking reps and working hard and improving and getting better. But there hasn’t really been the separation where we would say any thoughts of who’s starting, who’s not starting. I don’t think there should be. We get through spring ball a lot of times as a quarterback, you see growth in the summer, and who wants to take charge and who wants to be the leader and make sure everybody else is doing things right. So that’s big that plays into it.”