Bill Belichick
sold his UNC football program as the “33rd NFL team.” Through five games as a college football
coach, the Tar Heels rank 128th in points per game out of the 136 NCAA Division
I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) teams. Pick a stat right now, it’s not good. A
38-10 loss to Clemson on Saturday was Carolina’s latest embarrassment. A few weeks
earlier, the stadium and student section were buzzing and brimming with optimism.
Saturday versus Clemson, the stadium began to empty at halftime.
So how has the six-time Super Bowl champion coach, who many consider the greatest of all time,
fallen so far from grace? WRAL has spoken to parents of UNC players, members of
the staff, the athletic department and the UNC Board of Trustees. Multiple
sources with knowledge of the inner workings of Belichick’s program say the
results on the field are a product of a divided locker room, a disorganized
coaching staff and a failure to communicate.
“It’s an
unstructured mess,” a source with first-hand knowledge of the program told
WRAL. “There’s no culture, no organization. It’s a complete
disaster.”
UNC fired Mack
Brown on Nov. 26, 2024, days after a 41-21 loss at Boston College. He went
6-6 in his final season. In his six seasons during his second go-around at UNC, Brown won at least six games every year. 2022 was his most successful season: Carolina went 9-5, won the Coastal Division and lost in the Holiday Bowl.
Brown’s record versus NC State and inexplicable losses as a double-digit
favorite to teams like James Madison were reasons you could point to why
Carolina chose to move on.
Belichick was
named UNC head coach on Dec. 11, 2024, in a search led by UNC Chancellor Lee
Roberts and John Preyer, who was the Board of Trustees chair at the time. According
to sources, the divide in Belichick’s locker room started right away.
“It’s all
starting at the top, and the boys are being affected,” a parent of a
current UNC player said under the condition of anonymity for fear of
retaliation. “I don’t fault the players; I fault the leadership that
created this toxic environment. There’s an individualistic mindset. The boys
are young, and they are feeding into it.”
The challenge for
Belichick, who had never coached college football before, was navigating a
sport that had undergone tremendous change in the last several years. The
transfer portal and constantly evolving NIL rules were challenging for college
football veterans, let alone someone new to the sport. At Belichick’s
introductory press conference, he said he thought his NFL experience would help him navigate the new college structure.
“I do think
there are a lot of parallels,” Belichick said at his introductory news conference on Dec. 12, 2024. “I think that’s the reason for the general
structure of Michael [Lombardi] as the general manager and myself as the coach
working together collaboratively like we’ve done in a professional organization.
I do think there are some parallels.”
Lombardi as
general manager was Belichick’s first hire. Lombardi’s only listed college
experience is as a recruiting coordinator for UNLV from 1981-1984. In the NFL
he began as a scout with the 49ers. He worked with Belichick with the Cleveland
Browns and New England Patriots.
The transfer portal opened Dec. 9, 2024. Together,
Belichick and Lombardi would bring in 70 new players between the portal and
their high school signing class. According to sources, it was there that a
divide organically formed between the Mack Brown-recruited players and the
transfers.
Preferences for Belichick’s recruits
“It started
with recruits coming in acting entitled to certain things,” a source said.
“It was about them individually, not the team. It was about me and what I
was going to do.”
It’s common in
college football for players who transfer to get paid more than players who
stay, but according to multiple sources, Belichick and his staff haven’t done
enough to unite the players. There are multiple examples of preferential
treatment for transfers that have added to the discord in the team.
According to
several sources, some Belichick-recruited transfers have preferential parking
for themselves and their parents, as well as more tickets for games. Khmori
House and Thaddeus Dixon played for Belichick’s son, Steve Belichick, at the
University of Washington. Their names come up repeatedly when talking to
sources about preferential treatment. Dixon’s family has field access on game
days, something that no other family is believed to have.
According to
sources, there’s a board in the UNC football facility that lists people who
have missed workouts and class. Some Belichick-recruited players repeatedly
show up on the list but have not had their playing time affected.
Coaches who don’t communicate
Failure to
communicate with players and parents has also furthered the divide. According
to sources, the players who chose to stay at UNC after Mack Brown’s firing
didn’t meet Belichick for weeks after he was hired. Parents were told not to
approach Belichick. They didn’t meet Belichick and his staff until the
“Practice like a Pro” spring game.
“There’s
been no communication with coaches and parents, period,” a parent of a
current UNC player said. “None, zero, zilch. Not one email from a coach,
one text, phone call, nothing.”
Under Mack Brown,
parents had relationships with coaches and their phone numbers. Coaches might
call a parent if they felt something was going on with their son. Multiple
sources have said that Belichick’s son, Brian, the defensive back/safeties
coach, is very personable. Belichick’s son Steve, the defensive coordinator,
they said, is the opposite.
>> Belichick’s first coaching staff at UNC includes his two sons
“He has not
talked or had a conversation with most of the guys on defense,” a source
said. “They don’t even have his number.”
The experience
level and perceived nepotism with Bill Belichick’s staff have been frequently
called into question in the media. Internally, it is being questioned by
players and parents too.
“The lack of
experience the coaches have, it’s ridiculous,” a source said.
>> Defensive coordinator Steve Belichick tops UNC assistants in salary
Steve Belichick
was a defensive coordinator for one season at Washington prior to UNC. He began
as a defensive assistant in 2012 under his father with the Patriots. He moved
into defensive position coach roles in New England and was their defensive play
caller from 2020-23.
Brian Belichick
had a nine-year career with the Patriots. He started as a scouting assistant in
2016 and was the team’s safeties coach from 2020-23.
Matt Lombardi,
the son of Michael Lombardi, is the team’s quarterbacks coach. He spent the
2024 season as an offensive analyst at the University of Oregon. According to
UNC’s website, prior to that Lombardi worked as an assistant wide receivers
coach with the Las Vegas Raiders and an assistant quarterbacks coach of the
Carolina Panthers with an additional stint on the offensive staff of the Miami
Dolphins.
Among the most
inexperienced coaches are outside linebackers coach Ty Nichols and cornerbacks
coach Armond Hawkins. Prior to UNC Nichols was an analyst and a defensive
graduate assistant at Arizona. Hawkins started as a director of high school
relations at USC. He spent a season at Colorado as an assistant recruiting
coordinator, was an assistant director of recruiting and defensive analyst at
Arizona, and a defensive analyst at Washington.
Belichick himself
has been praised by multiple sources for his one-on-one coaching; it’s his
ability to run the program that’s being questioned by parents and players.
“Bill shuts
people out. He’s limited in what he says,” a source said.
Belichick will
say “hi” when he sees players in the building. His GM, Michael
Lombardi, has been described by multiple sources as “rude” and
“nasty.”
“Nobody
likes him,” a source said.
In a recent
letter to donors during Carolina’s bye week ahead of the Clemson game, Lombardi
positioned the UNC program as a rebuild.
”Twenty years of
sustained success in New England was due to investing in the long term,
establishing continuity within the program, which allowed growth and
development of the players,” Lombardi wrote. “This is the formula we
intend to use by signing a large high school class. There must be a blend of
old and new which provides short and long-term answers.”
In Lombardi’s
first season as Carolina GM, he has struggled at football’s most important
position. Belichick and Lombardi were able to retain quarterbacks Max Johnson,
who suffered a broken leg in 2024, and Bryce Baker, a four-star high school
recruit from Kernersville, NC. They landed Ryan Browne in the transfer portal
from Purdue. According to sources, Browne was asked to leave after spring
practice. Lombardi tried to rescind Browne’s NIL money. According to sources, Browne got a lawyer involved and reached a settlement.
Former South
Alabama quarterback Gio Lopez transferred to UNC after the spring. He was named
the team’s starter and is making $2 million this season, according to sources. In
four games, Lopez threw for 430 yards, 3 touchdowns and 3 interceptions. He was
injured in the second half of the UCF game. Johnson started versus Clemson.
According to sources, Johnson hasn’t been making any NIL money from UNC.
One of
Belichick’s selling points when he was hired was preparing players for the NFL.
Parents and players have been complimentary of Belichick’s actual coaching
acumen and the increased strength and conditioning they’ve seen from workouts
and nutrition. But parents have been frustrated by Belichick’s decision to ban
New England Patriots scouts from the UNC facilities. After the Charlotte game,
Belichick confirmed reports that he banned the Patriots in response to the
Patriots banning him.
“It’s clear
I’m not welcome there at their facility. So, they’re not welcome at ours,”
Belichick said.
After Belichick
and Patriots owner Robert Kraft agreed to mutually part ways in January 2024, no NFL teams offered a job to Belichick, according to reports. The
six-time Super Bowl champion interviewed for but did not receive any NFL head
coaching jobs. UNC’s lack of discipline on the field and divisiveness off it
show a glimpse as to why.
“The
disconnect comes from this is not NFL,” a source said. “There are
certain ways to operate in the NFL that you can’t do in college.”
The points of
division are small, but the feeling among sources is that the little has become
big. Things like the non-travel roster are not getting to dress in uniform at
home games. Former UNC quarterback Bryn Renner, who played for the Tar Heels
from 2009-2013, said he’d seen that done with practice squad players in the
NFL, but not in college football.
“I think
part of the tradition and in part of college sports is you are involved with a
team at a high level, and game days are special, and you don’t know how many
you’re going to get,” Renner said. “Sometimes these kids are only
going to put on a Carolina uniform that Saturday. And you’ve got to think about
that. And I just have never seen it. I think it’s really good for morale.”
According to
sources, another example of a lack of unity is that some players are selling
their spare tickets for cash instead of sharing with other players and their
families like UNC has done in the past.
Preaching patience
WRAL talked to a
source on the UNC football staff who said they did not believe the locker room
was divided or that the staff was dysfunctional.
Renner said that
the players need to be held accountable for their play as well.
“I think
there’s a lot of guys looking around and seeing who, who’s going to lead,”
Renner told WRAL. “When you when you create a roster with 70 guys that are coming from all different areas, and you really haven’t had time to mesh and
gel, it’s hard to hold somebody accountable that you don’t know, and I think
that’s the biggest thing.”
“At a
certain point, the players have to go and make plays, and they’re accountable
for what happens on the field. The coaches can’t go play,” Renner
continued.
Last week, UNC
chancellor Lee Roberts preached patience at a Board of Trustees meeting before
the Clemson loss.
“It’s not
the kind of thing that we judge after four games or even after one season,”
Roberts said. ”These things take time. We last won the conference championship
in 1980, and so we have significant work to do, significant investment to make
to get the program where we want it to be.”
”A minimum level
of patience is required for any level of future success,” said UNC-Chapel Hill
Board of Trustees chair Malcolm Turner, a former athletics director at
Vanderbilt. ”I appreciate the need and desire for instant gratification, but it
takes time to create success.”
Even after the
Clemson loss, the feeling within the UNC athletic department remains the same. Given
the investment made in Belichick, patience is the path, but they also
understand that they hired Belichick knowing he didn’t have college experience.
They would like to help and support the coaches and players, but the staff
needs to be open to that help as well. According to Belichick’s contract, the buyout
would be $20 million at the end of this year.
At 73 years old,
time at UNC was never on Belichick’s side. After a 38-10 loss to Clemson,
Belichick and the Tar Heels have been outscored 120-33 versus power four teams.
“It’s a lack
of concentration,” he said, “and part of that is coaching, too, so
I’ll take my share of the responsibility.”
After the loss to
Clemson, Belichick was asked what he has to say to fans and donors who feel
they aren’t getting their money’s worth.
“We’re going
to keep working and grinding,” Belichick said. “We’re going to move
on the right track.”
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