Bill Belichick has plenty of reasons to be upbeat about his second season at the helm of North Carolina, including 40 true freshmen entering the program, a new offensive coordinator in Bobby Petrino and a new starting quarterback.

Following a 4-8 campaign last year that featured 70 newcomers, including 40 portal players, this year’s squad has just 20 players from the portal.

Speaking to the media on Friday at ACC media days in Charlotte, Belichick said the difference between this year’s squad and last year’s is “night and day.”

“Overall as a football team, our culture, our program, our ability to operate as a team is much higher than it was a year ago,” he told ESPN, “and our talent level is higher.”

Belichick was not hired until Dec. 11, 2024, making it extremely difficult to recruit high school players for the 2025 season. This year, of the 40 incoming freshmen, 31 enrolled early.

After the spring portal last year, players moved around and it was much more difficult for programs to develop chemistry. The spring portal has since been eliminated by an NCAA vote.

“We had so many new players coming in that had never even been in spring ball,” Belichick said. “At least most of our players now have been in spring ball. … So we’re way ahead.”

“We’ve had the same team the whole year,” receiver Jordan Shipp said. “We didn’t get 40 guys in December. All of them leaving and get another 50 in May. So I mean, just being able to have the same team for the whole offseason … that’s what’s going to really separate us from last year, being able to build that chemistry.”

For the second straight season, North Carolina will open against TCU, which handed Belichick and the Tar Heels a 48-14 loss to kick off his tenure on a sour note. This year the game will be in Ireland in Week 0 and will give UNC a strong idea where it stands in 2026.

“It’ll definitely be a challenge for us,” Belichick said. “They do a good job. It’s the overall team competitiveness and toughness that TCU has. That’s really what you got to be ready for.”

–Pitt’s Narduzzi accuses Miami of tampering with Heintschel

Along with revealing that he reached out to Duke head coach Manny Diaz before Miami’s pursuit of All-ACC quarterback Darian Mensah, Pitt head coach Pat Narduzzi said the Hurricanes tried to tamper with his star freshman QB Mason Heintschel.

“Miami tried to get Mason (Heintschel) Thursday before (the portal closed the following day), and we were able to hang on to him and shut them down,” Narduzzi told The Athletic. “Shoot, I talked to Manny that Thursday afternoon and said, ‘Hey, watch out. I hear he’s going for your guy next.’ And sure enough, they stole him.”

Diaz, on the other hand, was not as accusatory regarding Miami’s pursuit of Mensah.

“It’s an unanswerable question because ultimately what it came down to, and this is why it was never an issue for us, is you can only say what you can prove,” Diaz said. “So to me it doesn’t matter. And that’s why our issue was never with any other school. The school was very consistent.”

–Diaz: Duke deserved CFP bid in 2025

Duke head coach Manny Diaz had some choice words for those who did not believe the Blue Devils should have been in the ACC title game last year.

“I heard we made the news. I heard we got a rule named after us,” Diaz said regarding the new conference tiebreaker system the ACC unveiled this week. “It’s pretty cool, right? The Duke tiebreaker rule.

“I just want to start my remarks by addressing our thoughts on that. Inherent in the narrative of changing a tiebreaker for the conference championship game is the assertion that last year’s team was undeserved of being in the championship game. You hear that word, that now there will be more deserved teams in the championship game.

“I want to push back against that narrative. I think it’s not just false, I think it’s insulting.”

Miami, which made it all the way to the national championship game before losing to undefeated Indiana, was left out of the ACC title game, which saw Duke beat Virginia for its first conference championship.

Regarding the ACC’s new tiebreaker formula for its title game, a team’s “body of work” and head-to-head results will determine which teams will play for the crown. That “body of work” will be determined by the Team Success Ranking from SportSource Analytics, which the CFP also uses.

–SMU’s Lashlee feels Duke belonged in CFP

Along with congratulating Duke on its ACC conference championship, SMU head coach Rhett Lashlee said Friday that the Blue Devils deserved to make last year’s College Football Playoff over James Madison.

James Madison, which won the Sun Belt championship and was ranked No. 24, joined No. 20 Tulane (which won the American Conference championship) in the CFP. In the previous CFP formula, the five highest-rated conference champs received automatic berths, so Duke — which had five losses and was not ranked in the CFP standings — was left on the outside looking in.

“When you win the ACC the way they did, and who they beat, they should have been in instead of a team from the Sun Belt,” Lashlee said of Duke. “Hopefully, things get learned, and that doesn’t happen again. We should have been a two-bid league.”

This season, the champions of four power conferences (ACC, Big Ten, SEC and Big 12) will receive automatic berths, along with the highest-rated team from a Group of 6 conference (American, MAC, Pac-12, Mountain West, Sun Belt and Conference USA).

–Field Level Media

Major League Baseball determined the Philadelphia Phillies and New York Mets could play through the haze caused by the wildfires on Thursday night.

Mother Nature may make the decision for everyone Saturday afternoon, when heavy thunderstorms are in the forecast around the time the Phillies are slated to host the Mets in the second game of the three-game series between the National League East rivals.

If the game is played, All-Star Jesus Luzardo (8-4, 3.51 ERA) is slated to start for the Phillies against fellow left-hander Sean Manaea (2-4, 4.56).

The Mets and Phillies were off Friday after opening the post-break schedule Thursday, when Francisco Alvarez hit two homers to help New York to a 4-1 win.

The first pitch Thursday was moved up an hour to 6:10 p.m. ET because of the smoke from Canadian wildfires drifting across the northeast United States. The air quality index (AQI) was listed as unhealthy throughout the game, but a MLB spokesperson told Newsday that “…(t)here’s not an AQI that automatically triggers postponement.”

The standalone second-half opener was broadcast on ESPN.

“Not the greatest idea, I guess, to come out here and play in this type of weather,” Phillies first baseman Bryce Harper said during an in-game interview with ESPN. “But we’re doing it.”

Alvarez, the Mets’ catcher, said it was difficult to catch and see. Starting pitcher Christian Scott, who earned the win with 5 2/3 scoreless innings, said it “…felt like I was breathing some metal out there.”

Another potential concern for the last-place Mets was eased after the game, when interim manager Andy Green said All-Star left fielder Juan Soto should be fine after exiting in the eighth due to a sore left calf. Soto missed more than two weeks in April with a strained left calf.

“Just given that he played the All-Star Game, came through a lot of activity the last few days, it made sense just to get him off his feet,” Green said. “I think our expectation is he’s playing this weekend.”

The loss continued an inconsistent stretch for the Phillies, who are 8-8 since June 27, a span in which they’ve neither won nor lost more than two straight games. Philadelphia entered Friday as the second wild card in the National League, 1 1/2 games ahead of the Miami Marlins.

“The weather was a bit different tonight but it played no part in the final result,” Phillies center fielder Brandon Marsh said. “We just didn’t play as good as we should have.”

Luzardo and Manaea each earned the win in their most recent starts on July 9.

Luzardo allowed two hits and struck out 11 over seven scoreless innings as the Phillies edged the Cincinnati Reds 1-0. The 28-year-old made his first All-Star Game appearance Tuesday, when he tossed a perfect fourth inning for the National League in a 4-0 loss to the American League.

Manaea also went seven innings July 9, giving up three runs (two earned) as the Mets beat the Kansas City Royals 7-3.

Against the Mets, Luzardo is 6-2 with a 3.16 ERA in 12 career starts. Manaea is 2-3 with a 5.05 ERA in nine games (seven starts) against the Phillies.

–Field Level Media

Tamara Zidansek converted 6 of 10 break points while sweeping second-seeded Petra Marcinko of Croatia 6-3, 7-5 on Friday to reach the semifinals of the UniCredit Iasi Open in Romania.

Zidandek won the final two games of the second set to seal the match. The Slovenian will next face Spain’s Paul Badosa, who knocked off No. 5 Panna Udvardy of Hungary 6-4, 7-6 (2).

No. 3 Oleksandra Oliynykova beat France’s Clara Burel 6-4, 7-5, while Egypt’s Mayar Sherif outlasted No. 9 Yulia Putintseva of Russia 6-2, 3-6, 7-6 (5).

Athens Open

No. 1 seed Clara Tauson of Denmark won 69.7% of her first-serve points (23 of 33) during a 6-2, 6-3 quarterfinal victory over fifth-seeded Czech Sara Bejlek.

Tauson next faces No. 3 seed Barbora Krejcikova of Czechia, who committed 32 unforced errors and six double faults and still managed to post a 6-4, 6-4 victory over Qinwen Zheng of China. Zheng had a 25-11 edge in winners but committed 41 unforced errors and seven double faults.

No. 4 Maria Sakkari, playing in her hometown, notched a 6-4, 6-3 victory over Alycia Parks. Russia’s Alina Korneeva beat No. 7 Tereza Valentova 7-5, 6-3 of the Czech Republic.

–Field Level Media