Former Michigan State football WR commits to Bill Belichick, North Carolina

The loss of freshman wide receiver Aziah Johnson to the transfer portal was somewhat shocking for Michigan State football fans.

The first-year receiver from Richmond, Va., was playing some major snaps and had a solid freshman season with the Spartans, catching 16 passes for 276 yards and two touchdowns. He even passed up some veterans on the depth chart with his play which didn't go unnoticed. He was fun to watch and made some big plays throughout the year.

It felt like Johnson was due for a breakout sophomore season, but he opted to enter his name into the transfer portal shortly after Michigan State's last game and he received a healthy amount of interest.

On Friday, he picked his new home.

Johnson will head to Chapel Hill to join new North Carolina head coach Bill Belichick's program. This has bee one of the more interesting storylines of the offseason thus far with Belichick coming out of NFL coaching retirement to become the next head coach at North Carolina, replacing the legendary Mack Brown.

And now, Johnson will be one of his first additions. Actually, he's the first transfer portal commit at the receiver position for Belichick. Johnson's tape stood out to Tom Brady's former head coach.

Who knows if Belichick will see the same success at the college level that he did in the NFL, but it's clear that players are flocking to North Carolina to test that theory out. He won Super Bowls and developed Hall of Famers so why not trust him to get you to the league?

That's exactly what Aziah Johnson is doing.