Last month at this time, we had questions about the football team. So, so many questions. The number of unknowns left all of us guessing at possible outcomes, based far more on hope than data. September exposed a lot of wishful thinking and provided a deluge of unpleasant data points, on and off the field. We enter October wondering just where things go from here.
About the only thing we know for sure at this point: the roof ain’t the ceiling for UNC football 2025. As a staff, we hit the reset button
over the bye week (and fervently hope the team did likewise). We started with the Clemson game and ended with UNC football’s future under the direction of Belichicks and Lombardis. We hit a few other important topics in between. Part 1 addressed the rest of the season. Part 2 looks at the bigger picture of UNC football under Bill Belichick. Where are your thoughts? We hope you’ll provide your own below in the comments section. Disagree? Be kind, but fire away.
The Bigger Picture: 3 Questions
1: What are your general impressions so far of Bill Belichick’s first college football team?
Brandon A: One of the things that I ask of my teams is for there to be a clear picture when it comes to where things are headed. The problem, though, is that I have no idea where things are headed long term. So far the Bill Belichick experience has been underwhelming to say the least, but also he had so many transfers come in that I can’t be surprised. But then how do things look in Year Two? Do things improve enough to justify the hoops that UNC hopped through to get him? It’s hard to imagine that the investment ever becomes “worth it” when you think of how much money was poured into this project. As of right now, I am underwhelmed but not yet ready to start screaming.
Brandon G: There have been times when the defense looks solid. They do seem to be able to make open field tackles and occasionally get stops. The offense looks like a hot mess with only the bright spots of Demon June and Jordan Shipp.
Akil G: Well, they’re not good! All of the potential cons of the Belichick hire that I first laid out have come to pass: poor talent evaluation and recruiting struggles leading to a deficient roster, UNC having no off-ramp for poor performance because of the upside-down hiring process, roster management and culture appearing to lack given that UNC seems to be the only program that has had multiple players publicly leave the team. All for a team that seems marginally better coached than Mack Brown’s squads but that has scored one meaningful touchdown in 8 quarters of play against non-bottom-feeders. Why? Because the offensive coaching and quarterback play have been so abysmal and because the defense isn’t good enough to make up for it. It is nigh impossible to square the goals, vision, and promise that Belichick and his supporters sold at the time of the hire with the act we’re seeing on the sidelines and on the field right now.
Al H: It’s tough to be positive when you look at how they’ve done against any sort of decent competition. It looks like a team that completely wasted the spring and is learning on the fly.
Matt B: Woof. I know you can’t build a juggernaut overnight (even with the transfer portal), but getting boat raced by two mid-table Big 12 teams in your first four games is a pretty bad look. Something isn’t clicking here, but what? With as tight a lid as Belichick keeps on the program, it’s hard to tell what could be the root(s) of the problem.
Max S: (Editor’s note: Max politely abstained.)
Thomas B: (Editor’s note: Thomas was also at a loss for words.)
David S: It all feels slapped together on the field and off. The reported instances of recruits flown in to meet Bill, driven to Chapel Hill, then told he wasn’t available and driven back to the airport? That for me seems emblematic of the entire venture so far. Plus: Nepotism? Check. Insular and defensive culture? Check. Petty grudges? Check. Have I ever seen an organization with so many concerning elements find success, whether in sports or business? Nope.
2: What are your hopes and concerns for the future?
Matt B: My biggest concern is that the Belichick experiment will fully solidify the narrative that Carolina football just isn’t built for the big time. Year after year, it feels like a common theme for this program has been falling short (some years a lot shorter than others) of its full potential. I can already see the question being asked: if arguably the greatest coach ever couldn’t wake up the (perpetually) sleeping giant, can anyone?
Akil G: You know my most immediate hope for the future: that either Bryce Baker or Au’Tori Newkirk starts against Clemson and for the remainder of the season. If that doesn’t happen, then my biggest concern is what I said at the end of that article: “…that Belichick isn’t taking this endeavor seriously.” Starting Johnson over either of the two would be a pretty clear indicator that there is no vision for the future. There is no program-building reason that we’re seeing such abysmal results in Year 1. If this is actually the best that Belichick could do when he’s trying to win games right now, what we’re going to be stuck with for the next two to four years or longer?
Still Akil: My other concern is that there has not been any displayed accountability on the sidelines for the performances thus far. Say what you want about Mack Brown (and I’ve said plenty), but you always knew who on his staff he was going to talk to mid-season or consider firing at the end of a season because things weren’t working. He was wrong a lot, devastatingly so, but you at least knew he wasn’t satisfied. I have no reason to believe that necessary changes will be made to this staff at the end of this season, especially given how nepotistically and lazily it was built. That’s really worrying for what the ceiling of this regime and program can be.
Max S: Eventually, someday, it will all end. This season and era will fade into the mists of time, remembered only as a passing chuckle or a deep pull at pub trivia one night. To be clear, this is both a hope and a concern. Glad to help here.
David S: Where’s evidence of excellence anywhere so far? Lombardi’s asking everyone to “trust the process.” Hard to “trust the process” when the process has looked so amateurish. Hard to trust the process when the people guiding it have never done it before. Building a roster and a program culture in college superficially resembles doing it in the pros, but the devil lies in hundreds of differentiating details. And once again, here’s my annoying reminder that Belichick’s last two seasons in Foxborough were abject disasters. I don’t think he’s even a good pro coach anymore, much less college. I’d love to be wrong about that.
Al H: We are stuck with Belichick for at least one more year. The hope is that this is a cold splash of reality for just how much they need to adjust and that Baker gives them the QB they need. The concern is that things go so bad this year that they can’t really get any talent.
Brandon G: The defense and special teams give me hope, as do the aforementioned June and Shipp. Concerns include Gio Lopez and Freddie Kitchens.
Thomas B: For this season, at this point I’d be content with a 6-6 record and a bowl win, even if it is a Gasparilla Bowl win against Rice. This in itself won’t change the trajectory of the program, but the Heels haven’t won a bowl game since 2019, so it’d at least be something positive. Getting to 6-6 would almost certainly represent an improvement in the Heels’ play, giving the fans some hope that Belichick hasn’t lost his coaching chops and just simply needs better players. With a solid recruiting class coming in for 2026, you could talk yourself into believing the future is still bright.
Brandon A: My hope for the future is that UNC gets a return in their investment in the form of an ACC title. My bar isn’t set very high for football, and an ACC title is always right there for the taking no matter who’s the coach. The only problem, though, is that no coach has been able to do that for years. Bill Belichick in theory should be able to do it, but this year isn’t going to be the year for that. My biggest concern is that we are learning that the guy doesn’t have it in him to be successful without that one guy that played for the Patriots for like 30 years. We’ll see how things play out.
3. Do you think Belichick and Lombardi ever deliver on their promise of “33rd NFL team?” Why or why not?
Matt B: I think it all depends on whether or not Belichick’s ego forces him to see it through. Like I said, you can’t build a juggernaut overnight. Age may very well be a factor here, too; Belichick is less than a year younger than Mack Brown, who had clearly lost his edge by the end of his second stint. That being said, with college football becoming more and more NFL-like, I don’t see why it couldn’t happen with the right people in place.
Brandon A: No. I don’t think that needs an explanation. The closest thing we got to a 33rd NFL team was what was going on at Alabama, and UNC couldn’t be further away from what Nick Saban was cooking up.
David S: I repeat the question: where’s the evidence of excellence anywhere so far? Also: what Brandon A said.
Brandon G: Maybe. The recruiting class is big in quantity, so there is a good chance for some hits. Plus, if they get some talent during the real and now only transfer portal, they could change things quick. However, I do think some coaching changes (looking right at Freddie Kitchens and the younger Lombardi) will be needed to actually be competitive. If they don’t reach competitive, they will never be anything more than Rutgers 2.0.
Thomas B: I mean, we already resemble the Tennessee Titans so… mission accomplished?
Max S: Never. A couple of reasons: 1) that’s not a thing, 2) if it was a thing, it wouldn’t happen at Carolina for reasons that I won’t list here to avoid a messy sublist, and 3) even if it was a thing that could happen at Carolina, it wasn’t going to be accomplished by a head coach whose glory days are in the dim and dusty past and so far removed from ACC football as to be almost an entirely different sport and the head coach’s press-facing proxy “GM” whose glory days are [citation needed]. Or, for that matter, by either of those two men’s sons.
Editor’s note: James Joyce looks down upon that middle sentence construction and nods approvingly.
Al H: Nah. Too much inertia against them and the mere fact that Belichick won’t last long basically means it’s more of the same—but at a much higher cost.
Akil G: For several reasons of which just one would suffice, no. Belichick is recruiting 2026 better than he did 2025, but that’s still only at UNC’s program average, so he’s not starting at a great spot. I suspect he thought coming in that the talent gap between UNC and the Alabamas and Georgias of the sport was going to be similar to that between a Super Bowl winner and a middling NFL team, which is a gap that can be and often is made up for with coaching. But that gap in college is orders of magnitude bigger, so a “33rd NFL team” was a fanciful thought even if the current edition of UNC football wasn’t such a car crash.
Still Akil: The next useful thing I see Michael Lombardi say or do for UNC football will be the first. As far as I’m concerned, he’s nothing more than Belichick’s media attack dog who also managed to get his hilariously underqualified son a spot coaching the most important position in the sport.
