It's a good news/bad news situation for former UNC quarterback Jacolby Criswell. The former blue-chip prospect in the 2020 recruiting class started 10 games last yard and hit the transfer portal after the season, ending up at East Tennessee State.
And Criswell will play for the Buccaneers when they open their season next week against Murray State. But he'll be in a platoon with another veteran quarterback.
NEW: ETSU is set to play Iowa transfer QB Cade McNamara and North Carolina transfer QB Jacolby Criswell in Week 1, @PeteNakos_ reports👀https://t.co/tXLYcXLdbf pic.twitter.com/fRzW9FJZRu
— Transfer Portal (@TransferPortal_) August 20, 2025
Criswell and the well-traveled Cade McNamara will both get their shots against the Racers. If it sounds like McNamara has been around forever, he has been in college football since 2019! He led Michigan to the college football playoffs back in 2022, and somehow he's still around.
But back to Criswell, he was respectable as the Tar Heels starter last season after Max Johnson broke his leg in the season opener. He threw for 2,459 yards with 15 touchdowns and six interceptions in 10 starts. Criswell was a little below average with his completion percentages, but did a relatively good job of protecting the football. He also threw for 475 yards in that disastrous 70-50 loss to James Madison.
Criswell was one of the top quarterbacks in the 2020 class and spent three years with the Tar Heels before transferring to Arkansas, only to come back a year later.
Belichick still not tipping his hand
One of Bill Belichick's big recruiting victories upon his arrival was to retain in-state four-start prospect Bryce Baker. With Baker in the fold and Max Johnson returned, Belichick went into the portal and grabbed Gio Lopez from South Alabama.
Lopez accounted for over 3,000 yards of total offense and 25 touchdowns last season for the Jaguars and is expected to be the Week 1 starter, but Belichick has yet to make an announcement going into the final week of camp and has begun joking about it during his press conferences.
"Yeah, we're getting ready to do that [today], the starting lineups and the play times and how we'd but substituting everything...we want to make sure we get that out there right away.," Belichick quipped to laughter in the press room.