​On Friday afternoon, North Carolina took the stage at the conference’s annual preview event, ACC Kickoff, on the final day, along with several other teams.Head coach Bill Belichick, along with players Melkart Abou-Jaoude, Christo Kelly and Jordan Shipp, represented the Tar Heels as they answered questions about the 2026 season.UNC hopes to rebound after a disastrous 4-8 finish in Belichick’s debut season in college football. Three of those four wins came against teams with losing records: Charlotte (1-11), Stanford (4-8) and Syracuse (3-9). The other came against Richmond, an FCS opponent.Here is the full transcript from Abou-Jaoude’s main-stage news conference:You were an underrated recruit who ended up going to Delaware. I actually saw you at the Delaware Pro Days. You were an underrated player in your own right at the edge position. Can you talk about does that provide a chip on your shoulder at all? What goes into your mentality on each game?As you know, I walked on to the University of Delaware. I’ve had a chip on my shoulder, you know, even before that. Growing up as a kid, coming from hard times, I’ve always had a chip on my shoulder. And I carry that with me throughout. I’ve never lost it, and I never will lose it.You’ve become a leader within your team. What are you telling your incoming freshmen and your transfers to go into week zero against TCU?You know, we haven’t really talked much about TCU yet. I’m just more focused on them showing up on time, putting in work, you know, just being the best version of themselves. When TCU comes, that will take care of itself.Learning from a multi-time Super Bowl champion coach, what are some of the little things, little nuggets that he’s given you that stick out to you, maybe something in passing that you say, I need to keep that in my back pocket?Yeah, just the details of the game, you know, and the simplicity of it. Not trying to overcomplicate the game, but just playing what you see and what you feel sometimes is just as good as, you know, playing hard on the tendencies.Coming out of a small school recruit, you talked about walking on to Delaware. Can you just talk about the difficulties of that recruiting process as a teenager and navigating that?Yeah. So, you know, they found me at the bagel shop my senior year when I was just working trying to make some money. Yeah, you know, I love football, and football is all I know, so I was going to find a way regardless. I was either going to go JUCO, maybe go D3, but I was going to end up here regardless.I’m blessed that it happened through walking on at the University of Delaware, and I’m very happy for that.Your thoughts about playing in Ireland, is this one of your first overseas trips?I visited Lebanon, the country that I’m from, back when I was in seventh grade, but I haven’t left since. So, yeah, I’m excited to go to Ireland.Melkart, you are the leading sack man in terms of returners in the ACC, and you are between A