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Not all college football players are excited about eating vegetables. But Bill Belichick’s staff in North Carolina has found ways to make sure his players are.
Through precise food science that requires cutting vegetables into “micro” pieces, or even introducing extra grains and vitamins into the batter used to fry chicken, staff are taking every liberty to gain a competitive advantage in the dining room. UNC’s nutrition, hydration and training strategy has become more critical than ever as the team looks to make a sophomore leap, as each player has a specific strategy tailored to them and their biology.
The strategy even includes a contingency plan, when the team is traveling, sometimes in places where access to anything but fast food is limited. Public records show the team spent $129,644.38 at vendors classified as fast food or fast casual during the 2025 season, but lead nutritionist Amber Rinestine-Ressa claimed there was a scientific method behind those transactions.
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Head coach Bill Belichick of the North Carolina Tar Heels watches from the sideline during the first half against the TCU Horned Frogs at Kenan Stadium in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, on September 1, 2025. (Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images)
UNC head football chef Josh Grimes was the executive chef of the New England Patriots under Belichick from 2018 to 2024. When they came to UNC last year, they recalibrated the nutrition strategy, an NFL-style approach, and Belichick says it aligns with the core purposes of Tom Brady’s nutrition approach.
“In New England we had a lot of components and certainly some of Tom’s things were important,” Belichick told Pak Gazette Digital.
“In the NFL we trained a lot of players who were significantly older than our players here, so some of the things Tom did had more application than older players. But still, fundamentally, good nutrition, good hydration, flexibility in muscle tissues, etc., are fundamentally good things that Tom worked with and that we also adopted.”
For UNC and its players, the strategy may also have implications in the NFL Draft.
“When you look at a performance in the NFL, everything is important and everything that leads up to your performance is important. So preparation, training, nutrition, hydration, technique, fundamentals, it all adds up,” Belichick said of whether he had previously looked at a college player’s diet and nutrition program when scouting him for the NFL.
Cooking trick games
Nutrition director Amber Rhinestine-Ressa and Grimes aim to prepare foods that players actually want to eat so they continue eating in the team cafeteria and not outside. To do this, they prioritize flavor and work on nutrition from there.
“If they’re not going to change for me, I have to change my approach for each of them,” Rhinestine-Ressa said.
“We don’t live in a perfect world, and to create acceptance, I have to be a little lenient… For 80% of our diet, we’re eating foods that are great for us.”
Of the remaining 20%: “Would we rather eat brown rice or a piece of bread? Well, brown rice may have more fiber, but what will our whole day be like? Well, then maybe we could eat this piece of bread.”
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He admitted that some players find it harder to eat vegetables than others.
“Some of these kids come and see a whole green bean, and not a canned bean, and they’re not receptive to that,” he said. “A lot of guys come here and have a very small box.”
Once they work out what kind of food the players want to eat, come the “sneaky” plays to make it as healthy as possible.
“Anywhere we can manipulate an ingredient to make it taste good, but they don’t know it, we do,” Grimes said.
The kitchen cuts the vegetables into barely noticeable pieces and mixes them in various dishes, along with quinoa, to reinforce the vitamin value.
The nutrition team even has a way to manipulate batter to fry things like chicken, Grimes said using a combination of whole wheat flower and avocado oil.
“We use fried things as a kind of more strategic morale. We try to keep them happy,” the chef said.
Grimes said he gave players a suggestion box when creating the menu, and the number one suggested dish that came back was oxtail. Thus, Oxtail has become a recurring favorite in the team cafe and a key play for the staff.
Famed former Kansas City Chiefs chief dietitian Leslie Bonci employed similar strategies when selecting foods to keep the Chiefs healthy during the start of the Patrick Mahomes era and their first two Super Bowls in the last decade.
“Hide health. Start with the familiar and then expand nutrition for intuition in the kitchen,” Bonci told Pak Gazette Digital in response to UNC’s strategies.
cheat games
Pak Gazette Digital obtained Rinestine-Ressa’s college credit card statements, during the 2025 season and training camp (July 1-December 4), through a public records request.
Of the $129,644.38 spent on fast food or fast casual, the team spent the most money at Al’s Burger Shack, at $15,803.
“At Al’s Burgers, with me they use 90-10 meat,” Rinestine-Ressa said, adding that they often bought the burger joint for postgame meals last season, for up to 260 people. “So I can influence what they use because we buy it in large quantities.”
Chick Fil-A came in second with $13,092.03.
“Chick Fil-A is only done when we’re about to get on a plane, because it’s heavy, they’re about to get on a plane, they’re about to sleep, and we don’t have any activity for the rest of the day. So I don’t really care that much.”
Jersey Mike’s was third with $12,613.51 and Mission BBQ was fourth with $12,598.52. Other big spending in the returns was at popular national chains such as Zaxby’s, Moe’s Southwest Grill, Dave’s Hot Chicken, CAVA and Panera Bread.
Still, there were no transactions for American staples McDonald’s, Wendy’s, Burger King, KFC or Taco Bell. That’s where Rinestine-Ressa draws the line.
“Hell no, those are not difficult, because I can’t manipulate them, I can manipulate anywhere else,” he said.
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As UNC looks to improve its record to 4-8 starting in 2025, it will lean on the creativity and discipline of its chefs and nutritionists to make sure players are motivated to do their jobs.
