Bryce Baker's next landing spot keeps him within the Atlantic Coast Conference

Another ACC program is set to take advantage of North Carolina's inability to keep this highly-touted quarterback prospect in town.

After not playing as a true freshman, it was believed that Baker intended on redshirting, having four additional seasons of eligibility to work with in Chapel Hill. However, while the intent was probably for him to stay with the UNC football program for the long haul, plans quickly changed when he entered his name into the transfer portal.

Of course, Baker's next landing spot keeps him within the ACC, as he is set to join James Franklin and the Virginia Tech Hokies.

Regarded as a consensus top-10 quarterback in his recruiting class, the hope was that Baker would end up continuing a strong line of quarterbacks who have led the Tar Heels' offensive attack. However, his lone season in Chapel Hill gave us one memory of him, and it didn't even occur on the football field.

When Bill Belichick took over the program, Baker joined the Tar Heels' head coach at mid-court during a UNC basketball game at the Dean Smith Center last winter. At the time, UNC football fans believed this was destined to be their college version of what Belichick accomplished with Tom Brady in the NFL, but those hopes and dreams were simply a set of false hope.

Even though the rumored plan was for Baker to sit this season out, it's actually mind-boggling that Baker, given the horrible quarterback play we witnessed throughout the 2025 season, didn't at least see some game action. Remember: student-athletes can still redshirt if they play under a certain number of games.

Especially late in the season, why wouldn't they at least see what he's capable of doing.

Did Baker refuse to play?
Did the UNC football staff believe he might not be as good as he was hyped up to be (which could play in the decision to have him listed as the fourth quarterback on the depth chart)?

There are so many unanswered questions that we likely won't ever know the true answer for. What we can say is this: Bryce Baker's tenure with the UNC football program is one that started with high hopes and ended with a ton of questions regarding what went wrong.