Amid a chaotic start to his first season coaching college football, Bill Belichick’s handling of things at North Carolina is already being called out by people within the program.
A new report from The Athletic’s Bruce Feldman, Brendan Marks and Stewart Mandel details the “culture of arrogance” that has been created by Belichick and Tar Heels general manager Michael Lombardi since they were hired in December 2024.
One North Carolina source said in the story there is an “arrogance” to the way that Belichick operates because of his past success in the NFL.
“It’s the arrogance of it all,” the university source told The Athletic. “Because they had success in the NFL— and by they, I mean Belichick only—they (thought) they could come in and replicate that without knowing how college football works.”
Despite the belief Belichick and Lombardi had in themselves as a result of their NFL resumes, the report pointed out that neither of them had much of a grasp on how the salary structure with name, image and likeness works at the college level, nor did they have any relationships with players in the transfer portal.
“Three people said they overspent on some positions while hunting for bargains at others,” per the report.
Even though the Tar Heels added 41 players via the transfer portal—the third-most among all FBS programs—the talent level left a lot to be desired. It was led by seven 4-star prospects, but only one member from that group played a skill position (cornerback Thaddeus Dixon).
One person inside the program noted they “don’t have one pro player on the whole roster.”
Belichick’s hiring was meant to signal a turnaround for the program after the disappointing end to Mack Brown’s tenure. Adding arguably the greatest coach in NFL history seemed like an easy way to earn instant credibility, especially with high-profile recruits who are looking for a path to the pros.
Instead, almost everything that could go wrong has gone wrong. The Tar Heels are 2-3 through five games with an offense that ranks 118th out of 136 FBS teams in points per game. The defense isn’t much better, ranking 85th in points allowed per game.
Each of their three losses has been by at least 25 points, including a 38-10 defeat on Oct. 4 at the hands of a Clemson team that was having its own early-season crises going into the game.
The Athletic’s story is at least the second report this week about the chaotic, disorganized program in North Carolina. Pat Welter of WRAL-TV in Raleigh published his own piece on Monday in which one person described it as an “an unstructured mess” with “no culture, no organization.”
Things have gotten so bad that both Belichick and athletic director Bubba Cunningham released statements together on Wednesday reaffirming Belichick’s status with the football team.
The following day, North Carolina confirmed that cornerbacks coach Armond Hawkins was suspended for violating NCAA rules related to extra benefits for allegedly providing sideline passes to family members of a player on the team.
There have been rumblings that North Carolina officials have held discussions about a potential exit strategy to move on from Belichick, but ESPN’s Adam Schefter has downplayed that notion at this point.
Belichick is five games into his stint with the Tar Heels after signing a five-year, $50 million contract in December, but the deal is structured in such a way that it wouldn’t necessarily be cost-prohibitive to the program to move on if they wanted to go in that direction.
North Carolina is on a bye this week before returning to play at California on Oct. 17. The Tar Heels have lost back-to-back games against UCF and Clemson by a combined score of 72-19.
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