Last season’s opening drive seems a lifetime ago. The hype leading into the game one, and then that first sequence of plays allowed most of us to start dreaming the impossible dream of a dominant UNC football team. And then…
The first five games we didn’t look like even a competent P4 team. Our next four showed some signs of life. Our last three were exercises in self-destruction, culminating in an embarrassing no-show effort against NC State to wrap one of the worst seasons of Tar Heel football this
century.
Andy Staples of On3 recently did that off-season coach ranking thing for the ACC, and to no one’s surprise, he put Belichick next to last, 16th out of 17 ACC coaches. Only Stanford’s Tavita Pritchard, entering his first season as a head coach at any level, ranked lower.
Debate that ranking in the comments if you wish. If you would like to see what he said about Belichick’s ranking, you can click here if you have an On3 subscription.
My only quibble would be the assumption that Belichick’s development and game day work remain top notch. To close out the season, the defense got worked by Wake Forest’s offense, which entered that game ranked below ours (118th to our 94th at the time) and led by a QB with a season QBR lower than Gio Lopez’s (48.1 to 51.4). Belichick inexplicably called a time-out to stop the clock at the end of the 3rd quarter, with the net effect of preserving wind direction on a FG attempt. Winds were slight, and Rece Verhoff had nailed one from much longer distance earlier in the game. Frankly, Belichick seemed confused.
Against the Blue Devils, UNC special teams turned two Duke field goal attempts — at distances the kicker hadn’t come close to hitting all year — into first downs via all-out rushes. The first resulted in a roughing penalty that extended a Duke drive into a touchdown. The second failed to have a safety containing the edge, allowing a field goal kicker to rumble 26 yards to the UNC 3 yard line. The game-winning touchdown came one play later. As coaching goes, those two plays stand as exhibits for malpractice. The fact that no one on staff knew the Duke kicker hadn’t come close to connecting from that range all season was inexcusable. The execution and design of the block attempts were bad. If Carl Torbush or John Bunting had presided over those plays, people would still be mocking them as testament to coaching futility.
As for the State game, the defense didn’t get off the bus until half-time. State’s first three drives scored touchdowns, burning 33 plays and 16:03 of game time in the process. When they got the ball again after a UNC field goal had cut things to 11, with 1:49 left in the second quarter, State ran 12 more plays in 1:31 for a fourth touchdown to effectively end the game. State had the superior coaching and superior effort.
Defense and special teams are supposed to be Belichick’s forte. They were disasters to close out the season against our in-state rivals, in ways that can’t be blamed on roster evaluation. And strangely enough, therein lies some semblance of hope for next season.
When Belichick agreed to coach UNC football for $10,000,000 a season, the conventional wisdom was that Belichick would put on a good show for a season and then move back to the NFL after demonstrating he could still coach at a high level. His contract included a minimal buy-out if a NFL team came calling. Instead, the circus off the field (see: Jordon) and the disastrous performances on the field ended any hopes Belichick may have entertained for returning to the NFL and breaking Don Shula’s record for wins. The season had to be deeply embarrassing for someone used to carrying around a GOAT designation. Embarrassment like that can drive substantial change.
Towards that end, Belichick remedied perhaps his worst mistake of season one, replacing Freddie Kitchens with Bobby Petrino. As offensive coordinator, to use an SAT frame, Petrino is to Kitchens what prime filet mignon is to moldy cow tongue. Personnel decisions via the portal, on offense at least, seem to reflect a specific vision, focusing especially on multiple tight ends that can create matchup problems against ACC defenses. In turn, a competent offense should, in theory, test the defense during practice in ways last season’s offense never could. Rumors suggest the offense blitzed the defense in the spring scrimmage. That kind of unit and staff competition, absent in year one, can only drive improvement.
The hiring of Petrino seems to impact the program across the board, not just on offense. Video from this year’s spring practices, scant as it is, shows disciplined unit drills with timed sessions and smooth transitions between stations, more like a well-run classroom than a haphazard collection of football activities. As a college coach, Petrino’s seen it all, making him a valuable resource for other staff members in all three phases of the game. He seems to relish the role, complementing Belichick’s NFL experience with insights into the college game. From culture to evaluations to strategy, those insights were sorely lacking in last year’s team. In short, this off-season has seen UNC functioning more like a competent college program rather than one run by NFL interlopers in over their heads but too arrogant to see it.
Locker room leadership last season didn’t emerge until the off-week crisis following the Clemson blow-out. Will Hardy and Jordan Shipp were rumored to have pulled the team together as rumors of a Belichick resignation or staff firings swirled. This off-season, some signs of a positive locker room culture, with player accountability, appear evident. That said, off-season talk can prove cheap. Until some adversity hits, no one knows how resilient or brittle that cohesiveness will be. With a front-loaded schedule including TCU in Dublin, Clemson at their place, and Notre Dame at home in the first four games, adversity could come fast.
Hope springs eternal in off-seasons, where one can imagine every player turns their potential into production and the coaching staff rolls out schemes the opponents can’t figure out. As hope goes, last season’s disappointment still greatly outweighs any signs of a turnaround in 2026. UNC fans are in, “Don’t tell me, show me” mode, and that showing can’t begin until noon on August 29th.
Much could go wrong. The QB room features a 6th year senior with a QBR similar to Gio Lopez’s, coming off a season lost to a knee injury, with three others who’ve never started a college football game. The offensive line returns little game experience, requiring a full rebuild. The same can be said for the defensive backfield. Depth across the two-deep will rely on several true freshmen; every position group save tight end remains susceptible to a key injury. Every college football team enters a season needing a few 50/50 propositions to fall in their favor. UNC currently seems to have one of those at 19 of the 22 positions on the field. Going 19 for 19 on coin flips happens once in every 524,288 tries.
As disgusted as many of us were by last year’s coaching and program management, UNC needs this to work. Bill Belichick needs redemption. Yes, the program still flies plenty of red flags. On the other hand, a possible path forward seems to be emerging. Maybe it leads to a better football future.
And maybe it’s football Mirkwood, a mirage circling us back to a dark glade in which Manny Diaz and Dave Doeren roast a GOAT. All we can do is move forward and find out.
