Bill Belichick and North Carolina general manager Michael Lombardi were impressed by what they saw from UConn defensive star Pryce Yates in the Fenway Bowl. They stole him from the Huskies through the transfer portal even though Jim Mora threatened to call them out for tampering.
It is an unfortunate reality of the current system that, in this case, will greatly benefit the Tar Heels as they look ahead to 2025.
Yates is a rising senior with one year of college football eligibility remaining. The 6-foot-4, 265-pound defensive lineman recorded 21 total tackles (12 solo) and 3.5 sacks in only seven games during the 2024 season. Six of those tackles and one of those sacks came against North Carolina on Dec. 28.
Even though Belichick did not attend the game in person because of a bogus excuse, he and Lombardi obviously saw what Yates did to the offense they inherited in Chapel Hill. They saw him finish as the Defensive MVP of the Fenway Bowl and wanted him to play for their team.
However, Pryce Yates was not in the transfer portal at the time.
“At the time” are the key words of that sentence. He actually entered the transfer portal on Dec. 13.
Officially in the Portal pic.twitter.com/iRLK0E03pV
— Pryce Yates (@PryceYates) December 13, 2024
However, Yates signed a new NIL deal to return to UConn shortly after a visit to North Carolina State.
The Huskies then played their bowl game on Dec. 28. Their defensive star re-entered the transfer portal on Dec. 30.
Mora threatened to expose all of the other college football programs that he knew were actively tampering with his program just a few hours before Yates announced his re-entry. Coincidence? Probably not.
We now know that Bill Belichick played a role in Pryce Yates’ transfer saga because the latter committed to play for the former on Tuesday. He stole UConn’s best player from right under Mora’s nose.