CHAPEL HILL — The second year of the Bill Belichick era at the University of North Carolina carries with it even more questions than the first did.
The biggest one: Will it include more victories?
Belichick, who turns 74 in April, will almost assuredly be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame by the time UNC kicks off its 2026 season against TCU in Dublin, Ireland, on Aug. 29.
Belichick, whose six Super Bowl titles and nine conference championships are the most among NFL coaches, is a finalist for the hall, whose 2026 class will be announced Feb. 5 and enshrined on Aug. 8.
“You could see the brilliance of him at a young age and today, as we’ve gotten grayer and older and fatter, he’s still the same coach,” UNC football general manager Michael Lombardi, a longtime Belichick confidant, said at a press conference this month. “And that’s what makes me so excited about what the future here at North Carolina is.”
Belichick’s first collegiate season ended with five losses by at least 16 points — more than the four games the team won during the season. The Tar Heels’ offense was anemic and the team committed penalties at an alarming rate in the final weeks of the season, a stunning twist given Belichick’s reputation as a stickler for details.
“In our first year, we learned a lot about the university,” Lombardi said. “We learned a lot about the ACC. We learned a lot about college football. We learned a lot about what matters in terms of how to recruit.”
WRAL’s latest documentary, “Coaching Carolina: The Belichick Way,” explored Belichick’s first year at UNC — from the messy hiring process through the summer of hype and into a season of turmoil and losses.
After the season-ending loss to rival NC State, Belichick said: “You can see we’ve got a lot of work to do.”
Other questions to be answered in the second year:
Will Belichick be back?
Since the day he was hired, Belichick has faced questions about returning to the NFL. And it really hasn’t ever gone away.
With 333 NFL victories (regular season and postseason), Belichick is just 15 wins away from passing Don Shula as the NFL’s all-time leader. He spent his entire career in the NFL before coming to Chapel Hill.
“I didn’t come here to leave,” Belichick said during his first press conference at UNC when asked about the NFL luring him back.
During the season, Belichick denied reports that he might be looking for an exit strategy. Last month, Belichick issued a statement stating that he hasn’t pursued NFL head-coaching vacancies and that he wouldn’t pursue pro vacancies and reaffirming his commitment to UNC. It came after he denied interest in the New York Giants’ open coaching position.
The NFL coaching carousel doesn’t really start spinning in earnest until after the regular season ends in early January. It’s possible that Belichick’s name will be floated again in connection to potential openings around the league, which always seems to have more openings than qualified candidates.
There aren’t many six-time Super Bowl champions floating around, even ones coming off a bad college football season and who bring a tabloid-friendly personal life.
Former NFL quarterback and current analyst Boomer Esiason called Belichick “the greatest football coach who’s ever walked the NFL sideline.”
“I can’t say that about college just yet,” Esiason told WRAL in an interview, “but I will say in the NFL, I saw him do things that very few coaches were able to accomplish, both in building a team, running a team, managing a game, which is really an underappreciated part of what he was able to do when he was the head coach of the Patriots.
“So he’s a first ballot Hall of Famer as far as I’m concerned, and I think most people that are part of the NFL recognize the greatness that still resides there.”
Belichick, who signed a five-year $50-million contract with three first three years guaranteed, would have to pay a $1 million buyout to UNC if he were to take an NFL job.
Can Belichick fix the offense?
The Tar Heels ranked last in the 17-team ACC in total offense and first downs and finished 16th in points per game and passing offense. UNC scored more than 20 points just once against teams from major conferences.
Belichick fired offensive coordinator Freddie Kitchens after the season. Kitchens, who was head coach of the NFL’s Cleveland Browns in 2019, was in the first year of a two-year contract. He coached tight ends and was the running game coordinator at UNC under former coach Mack Brown in 2023 and 2024.
Belichick also dismissed special teams coach Mike Preifer. Will there be more changes to come for a staff that includes two of Belichick’s sons (defensive coordinator Steve and defensive backs coach Brian) as well as Lombardi’s son (quarterbacks coach Matt)?
Who Belichick picks to lead the offense is among his most critical decisions in the offseason. It goes hand in hand with the most pressing on-field personnel decision: Who is the quarterback?
Who will start at QB?
Tar Heels starter Gio Lopez was last among qualified quarterbacks in the ACC in yards per game this season. Lopez transferred to UNC after spring practice, was involved in a car accident that wasn’t his fault days before the season opener, and left at least three games with injuries in addition to missing the entire Clemson game. It was a dreadful season all around for Lopez, who reportedly signed a two-year contract worth $4 million to play for the Tar Heels.
Lopez is expected to return next season. Will the Tar Heels bring in an experienced quarterback to compete with Lopez or take his spot on the depth chart?
Quarterback is the highest-profile position, but it highlighted some of the deficiencies in roster construction that plagued UNC in 2025.
Can Belichick build a championship roster?
Belichick and Lombardi, the highest-paid general manager in the sport, said the timing of their hire — in mid-December after high school recruiting was largely done and after the winter transfer portal had opened — put them in a tough spot for acquiring talented players for the 2025 season.
“We signed players who didn’t have offers or offers that they didn’t want [or] kind of slid through the cracks in terms of the recruiting process,” Belichick said in October. “We signed players in the transfer portal that were available. We were late in the running on a lot of them. We were late on relationships. We were late on it in contracts. We ran out of time. We did the best we could.”
Talent evaluation and acquisition were expected to strengths for a duo deeply experienced with evaluating and valuing players in a salary cap league.
“Belichick and Lombardi came in and kind of sold it on their expertise in evaluation,” said Stewart Mandel, college football editor at The Athletic. “Like, they did such a great job evaluating players in the NFL, they’re going to come in and build a great roster at UNC. And as you would start to talk to more and more people, they either completely missed on their evaluations or they were too confident or overconfident in the fact that they thought kids would just line up to play for Bill Belichick because of who he is. They overpaid for some players; they didn’t pay enough for some other players.”
Lombardi said the Tar Heels’ front office didn’t have time to implement a system last offseason.
“We were just trying to catch up,” he said.In the months since, they have built a grading and scouting system, including training students for two months to create profile tapes for their system.
“To get the system in place, it’s more than just turning the light switch on,” Lombardi said. “And unfortunately when we first got here – I’m not making any excuses — we didn’t have time to turn the light switch on. We had to just get into the dark room.”
Will 2026 bring a foundational class?
The Tar Heels are leaning heavily into that evaluation in signing a large class of 39 players this month. The class was highly ranked, in part, due to its quantity.
“They will be a foundation for our program,” Belichick said.
UNC didn’t have 39 open spots on its 105-man roster from players that were out of eligibility, a sign that the program expected heavy losses in the transfer portal. More than a dozen players who were on the roster at the end of the season have announced plans to transfer, including leading tackler Khmori House, third-down running back Davion Gause and breakout defensive end Tyler Thompson.
The Tar Heels often pointed to the 70 new players as part of the reason they struggled to build a cohesive unit. But next year’s roster could include a similar wave of newcomers. The transfer portal officially opens Jan. 2 and closes Jan. 16. There is no second portal window this year as there has been in past years.
“The best thing about this year is that on Jan. 17, the portal will close and you’ll be able to build your team knowing that when you go to spring ball, that is your team,” Lombardi said. “Knowing that when you go through your offseason program, that is your team.
“A lot of the players that played for us this year didn’t get here until the summertime and so their progress wasn’t really at the highest level until midseason. The strength of Coach Belichick’s program is in player development and that player development is hard when you practiced all spring with a team that wasn’t involved in the fall.”
Will anyone be excited for another year?
Outside of wide receiver Jordan Shipp and defensive end Melkart Abou Jaoude, it’s hard to point to a returning player that will move the needle for casual UNC football fans.
Those fans were a big part of the appeal in hiring Belichick. UNC was looking to make a big splash and find someone who could elevate the profile of the football and fill Kenan Stadium — and help pay for Belichick’s $10 million annual salary.
His December 2024 hiring no doubt brought with it tremendous excitement for the Tar Heels’ program from fans, broadcasters and sponsors. The Tar Heels sold out all tickets for home games, garnered primetime TV spots for early games and saw a financial boost from donations and sponsorships — all wins from the university perspective.
“Though we didn’t achieve the results that we had hoped for on the field, the excitement around the program has been remarkable,” UNC’s athletics department said in a statement.
But home attendance dropped off sharply as UNC struggled, even if all the seats were purchased. The Tar Heels’ final four games were on The CW or ACC Network, a sign of decreased interest from ACC television partner ESPN and one that will have a direct financial impact because the league shares some revenue based on overall television viewers.
UNC has an attractive and difficult home schedule with 2026 games against Notre Dame, NC State, Miami, Louisville, Syracuse and East Tennessee State. Coming off a 4-8 season, will the interest remain at its pre-2025 season level?
Chancellor Lee Roberts, who played a pivotal role in Belichick’s hiring, preached patience throughout the 2025 season.
“We don’t judge these things by the results on the field midway through the season or even after one season,” Roberts said. “So the change that Coach Belichick has brought to our program, the investment across the board that we’ve made, we think promises bright things for the future. And you see it in the level of attention and interest that’s being paid to Tar Heel football.”
Belichick, too, has faith, a faith reinforced by those NFL victories and success.
“The process will eventually produce the results that we want to produce, like they have everywhere else I’ve been,” Belichick said in October at a low point in the season. “I’m very confident in that.”
North Carolina Tar Heels
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