CHAPEL HILL — University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Chancellor Lee Roberts has been among the biggest supporters of football coach Bill Belichick, the NFL coaching legend who was hired in December to lead the program to national prominence.
The Tar Heels’ bleak 2-2 start, including blowout losses to its two best opponents and dreadful offensive performances, hasn’t shaken Roberts’ faith. UNC is off this week.
“It’s not the kind of thing that we judge after four games or even after one season,” Roberts said Thursday. “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.”
The Tar Heels have won at least six games — the minimum needed for bowl eligibility – in each of the last six seasons under former head coach Mack Brown.
But university leadership, including Roberts and members of the board of trustees, wanted more from the football program after firing Brown. A somewhat chaotic search led to the now 73-year-old Belichick, considered by many the greatest coach in NFL history. He won six Super Bowl titles with the New England Patriots.
“A minimum level of patience is required for any level of future success,” said UNC-Chapel Hill Board of Trustees chairman Malcolm Turner, a former athletics director at Vanderbilt. “I appreciate the need and desire for instant gratification, but it takes time to create success. Success rarely comes fast. It rarely comes easily. It’s not a controversial statement to say that about any organization, much less college athletics and college football.
‘It takes time to create success, and certainly with patience, then you start to monitor progress. But to the Chancellor’s point, I think it’s hard to make any determinations this early in the season, this early in the tenure, frankly, for this coaching staff.”
That hasn’t stopped opponents and skeptics of the Belichick hire to use the bad start and poor performances to dunk on the Tar Heels on social media and in commentary.
Roberts shrugged it off.
“We’re always delighted to see the passion around Tar Heel football and the attention that we’re receiving on a national stage,” Roberts said.
Earlier this month, Belichick praised the UNC administration for its support of the football program, citing adapting to the new era of college football, events on campus on game days and support for the program through revenue sharing and name, image and likeness.
“I can’t say enough about Chancellor Roberts and the support he’s given and the backing for the program in many, many ways,” Belichick said. “He’s been great and I’ve really enjoyed working with him.”