With each passing hour, the situation in North Carolina seems to be getting worse. Or better, from the perspective those who are hoping for dramatic changes.
The latest development comes from Ollie Connolly of The Read Option and The Guardian. Despite the absence of an affiliation that would imbue his reporting with instant credibility, multiple tweets he posted on Wednesday afternoon read as if they have both legitimacy and authority.
Per Connolly, citing unnamed sources: “Bill Belichick has discussed buyout options with North Carolina’s hierarchy. Belichick has signaled a willingness to trigger his own $1 million buyout if he can find a soft landing with another team or in media.”
Belichick’s contract allows him to exit at any time by paying back $1 million to the school. Absent a for-cause termination, however, North Carolina would owe him $20 million or so if it were to pull the plug on his deal. That gives him leverage to avoid paying to leave — and to possibly get some of the remaining money in exchange for going quietly.
Connolly has posted several other tweets.
“Members of Belichick’s coaching staff have already spoken to other schools that are expected to be in CFB Playoff about taking on roles during the postseason,” Connolly reports. “From one coach: ‘the rats are leaving the ship’. Some staffers believe a change will come within two weeks.”
Then there’s this from Connolly: “Belichick’s communication with his staff in the past two weeks has been described as ‘weird’ and ‘distant’ by multiple members of UNC’s coaching staff. Multiple coaches were unable to get hold of him during UNC’s bye week.”
Even during the best of times in New England, terms like “weird” and “distant” may have been used by some to describe their interactions with Belichick. Still, it seems as if things are unraveling in Chapel Hill. Especially since there seems to be no apparent effort by the school to push back against the current avalanche of reports that collectively point to Belichick’s tenure crumbling, only five games in.
Finally, Connolly tweeted this, from an unnamed UNC defensive assistant: “What we’ve done to these kids is fucked up.”
Absent aggressive P.R. efforts to set the record straight, the mere existence of the reports of disintegration — accurate or not — can make a situation untenable. Those “upwards of 40 freshmen” the program supposedly is planning to recruit for 2026 are seeing these reports, along with their family members. What player with a viable alternative would willingly sign with North Carolina at this point?
Since Monday, the UNC football Twitter account has been silent. The oft-loquacious G.M. Mike Lombardi also has been silent. Belichick’s girlfriend/personal P.R. rep/handler/muse has posted nothing on Twitter for more than a month. (Her activity there usually consists of retweeting critical responses to negative reports about Belichick or her.)
Bottom line? If the various reports that have contributed to a general sense that the end is coming aren’t dead-on balls accurate, someone from North Carolina needs to be saying something.
