Bill Belichick was hired on December 11, 2024. That was 646 days ago. While some learning curve could be expected, this experiment rapidly approaches the two-year mark. The entirety of Belichick’s time at UNC to date has lurched from one embarrassment to another, both on the field and off. Yet, UNC yesterday, in its announcement of the football investigation’s conclusion, finished with this eye-roller: We believe the steps announced today will help make Carolina Football a stronger program and one that
continues to earn the pride of the entire Carolina community.
Continues to earn? When exactly did this program under Bill Belichick start to earn any pride?
The news of Steve Belichick’s resignation followed the news of CJ Sadler and Keeyun Chapman, two highly rated recruits, running afoul of Chapel Hill law enforcement. Sadler will now sit for at least the game at Clemson after his third traffic stop since the beginning of August. Chapman has been suspended indefinitely following a gun charge.
That news follows the news of the resignation of Bill’s best friend and general manager, Michael Lombardi. That news follows the news of UNC paying outside lawyers to investigate the football program, an investigation which closely correlates to what appear to be the forced departures of Lombardi and Steve. That’s just the last two months. A collection of links detailing prior embarrassments would risk repetitive strain injury from all the scrolling and clicking.
It’s not necessarily any one thing with this football program under the lack of direction from Bill Belichick. It’s the sheer volume of things, in concert with a few doozies. In short, Belichick’s three most important hires – offensive coordinator, defensive coordinator, and general manager – have all been fired or resigned. His record at UNC stands at 6-8, with two of those wins over FCS teams and four more more over teams with a collective record of 9-29. The football on the field hasn’t come close to justifying the nonstop nonsense off of it.
Nonetheless, the prevailing sentiment from UNC’s decision-makers seems to be, “Well, now Bill Belichick can get down to coaching football with these impediments removed from the equation.” In other words, 21 months after he was hired, Belichick has made the changes necessary to start resembling a competent football program. Ignore that the two main impediments here would be his own son and close friend. Ignore the fact that the two most prominent changes appear to have been forced and that “competent football,” two years into the gig, seems a laughably low bar.
So, tomorrow at Clemson, Bill Belichick gets to face what’s shaping up to be the worst Clemson team of this century. Their offense might be worse than UNC’s offense last season, which is saying something. Georgia Southern last week notched 11 tackles for loss against Clemson and held the Tigers to two of 14 on third downs. Clemson will start a true freshman quarterback with a passer rating of 111 (Gio Lopez last season: 130), dead last in the conference so far. Who’s averaging 1.53 yards per rush. Who’s taken five sacks and lost a fumble while sharing snaps with the previous starter, Christopher Vizzina. Tait Reynolds might one day be a good ACC quarterback, but he’s years away from being that.
All of the above, both the on-field and off-field results, makes tomorrow a must-win game for Bill Belichick. He has to start justifying UNC’s massive investment in both his program and him personally, and that can only come on field in the form of wins. Nearly two years into Belichick running UNC’s football program, UNC fans need to see a team that outcoaches and outplays a bad Clemson team. UNC needs to walk away with a W.
I’m not suggesting that UNC fire Belichick if he loses tomorrow. UNC’s paying Belichick to coach this season one way or the other, so he’s likely on the sidelines the remainder of the season absent losing the locker room or another off-field bombshell. However, if Belichick retains the coaching chops UNC cited in handing him a $10 million annual salary and $40 million yearly operating budget, we need to see strong evidence of it Saturday. “Wait ‘til next year” is no longer an option.
