Looking at UNC and TCU fall camps amid Belichick’s information blackout
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UNC football fall camp continues, with an intrasquad scrimmage held on Sunday. What can we say about that scrimmage? Nothing, really. No one outside the program was allowed to watch it. No anonymous sources even care to talk much about it, apparently. And if and when anonymous sources do open up about it, could we even trust the information? No one last season, either on record or behind the shield of anonymity, even hinted at the impending catastrophe that Tar Heel fans and a national audience witnessed on opening day.
Meanwhile, Sonny Dykes at TCU continues to serve his fans with open access. Dykes allows this transperency even as his program works through installing a new offense with transfer QB Jaden Craig, under the direction of new coordinator Gordon Sammis (pictured above). Moving forward, TCU will close practices after 30 minutes as it begins preparations specific to their opener against UNC in Dublin on August 29. However, up to this point, Sonny Dykes has enough confidence in himself in a coach and enough respect for TCU’s fans to allow almost complete transparency. Here’s a sampling of reports available from local press, just from Saturday’s scrimmage and the following open practice:
TCU’s first fall camp scrimmage
Meanwhile, this was the News and Observer’s UNC page as of Tuesday afternoon:
An article on Freddie Kitchens loving his new life working for Clemson (free to Clemson, because he’s still being paid by UNC). Yet another article on Melkart Abou Jaoude working in a bagel shop. An updated article from Bobby Petrino’s press conference and 15 minutes of open practice last Thursday.
You can get some information about fall camp if you’re willing to shell out over $100 a year for subscription-based “insider” web sites. Even those, however, tend to be light on inside information, simply analyzing to death the once-a-week 15-minute viewing periods or a couple of generic, anonymously sourced quotes.
It’s not surprising the coach responsible for Spygate would be paranoid about any practice viewing potentially being a vulnerability. However, after going 4-8 last season, on top of numerous embarrassing off-field incidents, the program’s general manager being on paid administrative leave, and the defensive coordinator being on a medical leave of unspecified length, letting fans inside the bubble a bit would return some focus to actual football and generate some badly-needed goodwill.
At this point, it’s clear Belichick will lean entirely on results to create favor with fans. And towards that end, we move on to what we know so far about TCU from their fall practices.
Sonny Dykes brought Gordon Sammis from UConn to Fort Worth to keep the best parts of the Air Raid system Dykes is known for, while eliminating the negative plays that have held the Horned Frogs back season after season. UConn’s Tony Fagnano last season threw a single interception on 413 attempts, while also throwing for 28 touchdowns and 3,448 yards. UConn lost one fumble on the year. All told, the UConn offense last season produced two total turnovers, while finishing 12th nationally in yards per play. It was an aggressive yet wildly mistake-free offense.
That goal seems to remain in the distance for TCU, as their last open scrimmage produced four interceptions, two each by Jaden Craig, presumed starting QB, and Adam Schobel, presumed back-up. Craig’s accuracy on deep balls has been a touch long, overthrowing open receivers downfield, while demonstrating much more accuracy in the intermediate field. Dozie Ezunkanma, Jeremy Scott, and Ed Small are competing for the second receiver spot, and all are getting open for big plays in scrimmage reps.
On defense, TCU went into camp looking to replace three players drafted by the NFL at safety and linebacker. Max Carroll has been making a lot of plays at linebacker during camp and earning the praise of his head coach. Preseason all-B12 safety Jamel Johnson has been as advertised. Redshirt freshman John Schobel took first-team reps at linebacker while presumed starter Zach Chapman remains out with injury. CB Kalen Carroll, a senior transfer from Central Michigan, continues to struggle with penalties, a tendency dating back to CMU that Petrino will likely attempt to exploit.
On special teams, punter John Hoyet Chance, transfer from Louisiana Tech, finished 4th nationally last season at 47.3 yards per and appears ready to continue launching field-flipping bombs. At field goal kicker, TCU returns Kyle Lemmerman, who missed most of 2025 with an injury, and Nate McCashland. McCashland struggled last season beyond 40 yards, making Lemmerman the more likely winner of that competition.
By the time the game ends in Dublin, fans will have moved on from fall camp news, no matter how thin or abundant. Still, with only 12 regular season games a year to watch and talk about, college football fans have developed a full calendar of talking seasons, making spring ball and fall camp nearly as anticipated as the games themselves. With so many new players on every team, and especially this team — 60 new players on UNC’s roster alone, which is almost two-thirds of the roster — fans who bleed Carolina blue want to do what fans do. Most programs make calculations that serve their fans while protecting competitive intelligence, and yes, those balances vary. UNC’s program at the moment doesn’t even appear to try to find a balance.
And that’s Bill’s right. Which doesn’t make it right.
So, how are you feeling about Carolina football and its opener at TCU so far? Let us know in the comments.
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