CHARLOTTE — Bill Belichick showed up in Chapel Hill last year the way a guy shows up at a buffet he’s not sure about: arms crossed, scanning the spread, wondering if anything’s worth the trip. Turns out, the old man found something on his plate he liked.
“I like coaching in college. I mean, really,” Belichick said Friday, speaking during ACC media events in Charlotte. “I didn’t know whether I would or I wouldn’t, but I do. It’s been great.”
That revelation comes after a debut season that would’ve gotten a lesser name booed out of the building. UNC stumbled to a 2-5 start, dropped its first five games against power-conference opponents — the first three by an average of 29 points — and then lost its final three to NC State, Wake Forest, and Duke. That’s a clean sweep of the in-state rivals, something that hadn’t happened to the Tar Heels since 1989. No bowl game for the first time since 2018, either.
The opener against TCU captured the whole ride in one afternoon. UNC scored on its opening drive, fireworks went off over Kenan Stadium, and then TCU hung the next 41 points on the board. That’s the kind of night that sends a lesser coach reaching for the antacid.
What sold Belichick, though, wasn’t the results. It was the calendar. In the NFL, coaches get roughly nine weeks with players during the offseason. In college, Belichick has January through August — with only a few breaks — to develop kids, build relationships, and actually coach.
“It gives you more of an impact on the players. You get to know them better,” he said. “And I love coaching, and I love helping them. I love the opportunity to do that, and there’s just more of it here. And those guys are really receptive.”
He also pushed back on the idea that the college game was some alien language. “It wasn’t like I’m learning a new sport like I’m coaching soccer or something,” Belichick said. The bigger adjustment, he said, was learning the people inside the university — the training staff, assistant coaches, academic departments, compliance folks — and figuring out how to get things done efficiently across all of them.
Athletic director Steve Newmark, who officially took over July 1 for the retired Bubba Cunningham after a year-long transition, acknowledged the record without sugarcoating it. “There’s no doubt that last year we didn’t have the results that we had hoped for,” Newmark said. “Yeah, there were some signs of brilliance, and then some signs of, hey, we need some work.” He and Belichick, he said, use the phrase “continuous improvement” as their barometer.
Year 2 brings a fresh quarterback room, which is a polite way of saying the old one emptied out. Gio Lopez, the 2025 starter, transferred to Wake Forest — one of the rivals that just beat them. Backup Max Johnson went to Georgia Southern. Four-star freshman Bryce Baker left for Virginia Tech. In their place: Wisconsin graduate transfer Billy Edwards Jr. and Texas A&M transfer Miles O’Neill. Belichick told local reporters the competition is open with “no leader.”
Belichick said the team is ahead of where it was a year ago heading into preseason camp. Whether that means more than two ACC wins or another long autumn in Chapel Hill, nobody in Charlotte was ready to promise. But the guy who has six Super Bowl rings and a reputation for never smiling in public says he’s having fun. And he means it.
