Extra Points: New Looks

Two of the storylines from the five weeks when Carolina's football team convened for spring practice were a new look on offense with first-year coordinator Bobby Petrino and the continued physical overhaul of the players now 15 months into the strength and conditioning regimen of Moses Cabrera.

Petrino has four decades of experience coaching quarterbacks, running offenses and being a head coach in college football and the NFL. He's had two notable games against the Tar Heels, first as the Louisville head coach when the Cardinals raced past Carolina 69-14 in Papa John's Stadium in 2005 and then in 2017 in Kenan Stadium when QB Lamar Jackson accounted for 525 total yards as the Cardinals beat the Tar Heels 47-35.

Petrino's offenses routinely average north of 400 yards and 30 points a game—music to the ears of Tar Heel fans who suffered through a 2025 season with the Heels slogging to 19.25 points a game and 231 yards.

"I've always prided myself as a coach and a coach's son to continue to learn and get better," says Petrino, most recently the offensive coordinator and interim head coach at Arkansas. "I feel like I've learned a lot since I've been here. It's fun to work with someone like Bill Belichick who has knowledge of all three phrases and has input on all three phases."

Belichick and Petrino first talked on the phone in December, then Petrino visited Chapel Hill for an interview, and the hiring was announced in early January. One component was staff familiarity—Petrino has long established ties to wide receivers coach Garrick McGee and quarterbacks coach Matt Lombardi. Petrino coached McGee at Arizona State and has hired him twice as an assistant coach. Lombardi worked three years under Petrino at Louisville from 2014-16.

"The first thing we have to do is be perfect in the run game," Petrino says. "As a quarterback, one of the things that makes your job easier is to be really good in the run. Then make sure you understand the protections and make sure you can get yourself protected. Once you can do those two things, it comes down to using the skills that God gave you and the ability you have. All of our quarterbacks have done a good job at times and need improvement at other times. It's been a lot of fun."

The players that Petrino and defensive coordinator Steve Belichick have at their disposal entering the 2026 season are thought to be leaner where appropriate (skill position players), beefier where appropriate (linemen) and certainly stronger and having more stamina across the board. Cabrera was hired at Carolina in early 2025 after serving under Belichick as the New England Patriots' head strength and conditioning coach from 2016-2024 and helping the Patriots to Super Bowl berths following the 2016 through '18 seasons (with victories in two of them).

"Moses had a huge impact on my career and the teams that I've coached where he's been the head strength coach," Belichick says. "He's done a great job with training players and also getting them back on the field after they've had some type of medical setback.

"He understands football training. He trains them for football. He understands football strength. He's done a lot of research and knows what strength training combined with our food and nutrition, hydration, rest and recovery can do for a player. It's not just going out there and running and lifting weights. It's the whole package."

Cabrera got the Tar Heels' attention in his first few months at Carolina before they'd played their first game.

"We run like a cross-country team," defensive back Thaddeus Dixon said before the 2025 season. "Coach Moses is one of the best at what he does. He's been one of the best strength and conditioning coaches in the NFL. And as soon as he stepped foot on a college campus, he's definitely one of the best strength and conditioning coaches in college."

Now the Tar Heels have more than a year working under Cabrera and his staff and benefitting as well from the nutrition program of Amber Rinestine-Ressa and the dining hall acumen of chef Josh Grimes (the former a holdover from the previous staff and the latter a former Patriots team chef).

Among the many elements of Cabrera's regimen is the players on the first and second teams moving into the indoor practice facility after the conclusion of a standard two-hour practice for additional condition work while the younger players on the "development team" continue to scrimmage on the grass turf.

The linemen work on a flip-sled, a versatile training tool that combines the functions of a tire flip and weighted blocking sled into exercises that simulate real game situations. The skill-position players pull plates equal to their body weight for 20 yards across the artificial surface of the indoor practice facility. In addition to traditional sprints, linebackers at times run lateral shuffles, and defensive backs back-pedal to simulate game situations.

One by one, the players talk of how they will be better physically and mentally equipped come training camp in August.

"I've gotten a lot faster and a lot more explosive," wide receiver Jordan Shipp says. "I'm more flexible and have done a lot more stretching than ever before. I've stayed healthy and stayed loose. I had a lot of soft-tissue injuries last year but have not had any problems this spring. I want to be a loose and limber and lean as possible going into the season."

"Moses' program? Shoot, I don't know the word to describe it," says defensive back Kaleb Cost. "It's amazing. You see so many of the guys improving their speed and strength and body composition—that with proper nutrition. His program is a blessing. I am grateful to have Moses and his staff pushing us to the limits and making us a better team."

"Moses gets us in great shape," adds defensive lineman Melkart Abou Jaoude. "He definitely gets our legs stronger. We squat four days a week and we condition and sprint every single day. My legs are definitely stronger."

In short, 16 months of building the Belichick way, a few staff tweaks and consistency of focus and process leave the Tar Heels in a stronger place than May of 2025.

"My goal is to play my best football every game, every snap, with full effort, violence and intensity," says Abou Jaoude. "There were a lot of snaps last year I wish I could have back. This year I want to have none of those."

"I think last year we were caught up a little in all the hype, and this year we just are focused on getting better every day," adds Cost. "It's a lot different this spring. Everything we've done on the field and in conditioning is set up to help us make plays in the fourth quarter—when it counts the most."

Chapel Hill-based writer Lee Pace has written under the "Extra Points" banner since 1990 and is the author of "Football in a Forest—the Life and Times of Kenan Stadium." Contact him at leepace7@gmail.com and follow him @LeePaceTweet.

Scoreboard Slider

University of North Carolina Athletics

Related News

Players Mentioned

Melkart Abou Jaoude

Kaleb Cost

Thaddeus Dixon

Jordan Shipp

Related Videos