Bill Belichick’s first season as North Carolina’s head coach did not go as well as anyone affiliated with the university would have liked, with the program finishing 4-8 in 2025.
But Belichick, winner of six Super Bowls as an NFL HC, said this week that things are looking up for the Tar Heels in 2026.
“Overall as a football team, our culture, our program, our ability to operate as a team is much higher than it was a year ago,” Belichick said Friday, via Pete Thamel of ESPN, “and our talent level is higher.”
Belichick added that the program is “way ahead” of where it was a year ago, noting the difference is “night and day.”
Belichick also feels positively about the program’s recruiting class, as he was able to bring in 20 portal players and 40 incoming freshmen.
“Most of the national publications ... ranked us in the top 15 in your recruiting class,” Belichick said. “So I think if you recruit good players, you’re going to have good teams. If you don’t recruit good players, then you’re probably going to have a hard time breaking into that level. So I think we have to consistently bring in good players, continue to work hard, improve and develop them. And I’m confident that we’ll be there. It’s a process.”
The talent level was an issue for UNC in 2025, with Belichick noting that no players from the team were drafted and only two players who were eligible are still on an NFL offseason roster.
“It gives you an idea where we were,” Belichick said.
But the former Patriots and Browns head coach said he’s having fun at the college level.
“I enjoy seeing the kids grow,” he said. “And so you see a lot of growth in kids as they move away from home, as they live on their own and just start to become real adults. So I’ve enjoyed that.”
A new article from Seth Wickersham of ESPN takes a look at Broncos coach Sean Payton’s hectic week before the AFC Championship. While taking a look at it, one thing stood out.
After the Patriots fired coach Bill Belichick following the 2023 season, Payton (who had just finished his first year with the Broncos) “considered suggesting” to owner Greg Penner that Payton would step back to the position of assistant head coach, running the offense. Belichick would hold the job until he won 15 games, breaking Don Shula’s all-time record of 347.
Belichick has 333 total wins, 14 behind Shula. (As regular-season wins go, Shula has 26 more than Belichick: 328 to 302.)
Wickersham explains that, "[i]n the end, it was too complicated — and maybe too fanciful.”
It was, as we understand it, Payton simply thinking out loud. It would have been practically impossible, but he at least formulated the thought out of his respect for Belichick.
Ultimately, it may have been the only way for Belichick to catch Shula. With only one NFL interview in three hiring cycles (including a 2026 turnover that had 10 open jobs), Belichick’s NFL door seems to be closed.
Jordon Hudson keeps trying to extend her 15 minutes of fame.
Upon seeing Thursday’s report from The Assembly that Hudson has requested a broad range of internal North Carolina documents regarding last year’s report from Pablo Torre that she had been “banned” from the UNC football facility, my first reaction was to not give the story the oxygen she wants it to have.
Ignoring it simply because she wants it to be noticed isn’t the right answer. The development, despite being apparently gratuitous, has significance.
On one hand, Hudson is possibly trying to gather evidence that could be used in her promised (but not yet filed) lawsuit against Torre. (She should be paying very close attention to the applicable statutes of limitations, if she’s serious about suing.) On the other hand, she could be fishing for any evidence that could reveal whether and to what extent North Carolina officials were discussing her, internally or externally.
Whatever the explanation, it’s a very bad look for North Carolina coach Bill Belichick. He knows what she’s doing and supports it or he knows what she’s doing and has asked her not to do it or he’s clueless about what she’s doing. Whatever he knows, or doesn’t know, the notion that the girlfriend of the major college head football coach has become a chronic thorn in the side of the institution becomes a potentially major problem for the coach.
That’s the practical impact of her public-records side hustle. It will absolutely impact the manner in which UNC views Belichick. Which will make the bar a little higher for him to earn a third season at UNC.
Already, there’s a sense that Belichick is on the hot seat entering the 2026 season. If firing him means not having to deal with Hudson, firing him becomes a more attractive option. Which means that, if it’s ultimately a close question, Hudson’s antics could turn a decision to keep him for a third year into an announcement that he has been terminated.
Does Hudson not realize how this will impact UNC’s attitude toward her boyfriend? Or does she know it and not care?
This wrinkle serves only to make a strange situation borderline bizarre. Belichick, the ultimate no-distractions/"do your job” head coach, has created a massive distraction through his personal life, one that continues to create developments that take the focus away from what the Tar Heels are trying to do.
Broaden the lens. When has the spouse or significant other of a college or pro head coach created so many issues? (Or any issues?) Hudson has consistently interjected herself into Belichick’s job, and the general reaction has been consistently negative.
Still, she seems to revel in it. Beyond craving fame, she embraces notoriety. At the potential expense of her boyfriend, whose eight-figure job would seem to take precedence over her effort to find ways to get people to write or talk about her in advance of whatever reality-show endgame she may have in mind.
The saddest part of the saga is that she’ll find a small minority on social media who will loudly cheer her on. Even as a vast majority of largely silent observers will constantly be asking themselves questions like, “What the hell has Bill Belichick gotten himself into?”
North Carolina coach Bill Belichick, who didn’t spend much time talking to the media a year ago when promoting his book, submitted this week to a pair of lengthy podcast interviews. His sudden willingness to be so chatty raises an obvious question: Why now?
Consider the recent public criticisms from former North Carolina quarterback Gio Lopez.
Lopez, who transferred to Wake Forest one year after transferring to North Carolina, didn’t hold back about his concerns about playing for Belichick.
“Back at the other school, it felt like there’s no air,” Lopez said. “Here, it’s fun again. They’re moving us in the right direction, energized, and guys are enjoying football. It’s like fresh air. I’d never had to respond to tough situations like that on that loud of a scale. . . .
“It was more like work. After that first game, it felt like getting through the day. You don’t want to live like that, where you’re up at night thinking about the next day.”
That wasn’t from some random player. It came from the quarterback who started 11 games for Belichick in his first year at UNC.
Lopez’s comments came to light two weeks ago. It’s reasonable to think those remarks hit hard in Chapel Hill, prompting Belichick or someone close to him to urge the curmudgeon to make himself seem more likable (or less unlikable) by submitting to interviews with Pardon My Take and Sean Hannity.
Both shows gave Belichick very favorable treatment. Hannity (who claims he’s a huge football fan but who asked multiple questions that revealed a fundamental lack of awareness as to certain obvious facts any huge football fan would know) repeatedly fawned over Belichick.
At one point, for instance, Hannity said to Belichick, “You could have stayed in the NFL as long as you want to, I think. That’s my opinion. I think you know that, too. I’m sure you had offers.”
Belichick, who didn’t correct Hannity, has had no offers to coach another NFL team, in three hiring cycles. In all, Belichick has had one interview.
Without question, Belichick is one of the greatest coaches in the history of sports. His omission from the 2026 class of the Pro Football Hall of Fame strips the institution of any remaining credibility it had.
Still, Belichick is hardly flawless. His first year in college football was a disaster, in part because Belichick and his consigliere, G.M. Mike Lombardi, set the bar way too high by dubbing the program the NFL’s 33rd franchise. And Belichick apparently didn’t modulate his approach to factor in the mindset of young players in the NIL era. As evidenced by Lopez’s willingness to say what he said.
Belichick was asked about Lopez’s comments in neither of the podcast appearances, both of which lasted more than an hour and a half.
Blind hero worship doesn’t properly capture Belichick’s current reality. During the PMT appearance, Belichick had his Super Bowl trophies in the background and a box of Super Bowl rings to his right. The entire goal seemed to be reminding current college football players (and, perhaps more importantly, their parents) that the current coach of the Tar Heels has more than a few pelts on the wall.
Will that be enough to get them to buy in to Belichick’s approach? The real question is whether he plans to change his approach, or whether his recent media tour is simply about putting out the brushfire so that he can get back to doing things the way he has always done them: My way, or go away.
Last year, when North Carolina coach Bill Belichick was selling a book, he conducted a very truncated media tour. This week alone, without anything specific to sell, Belichick has made a pair of lengthy podcast appearances.
It started with Pardon My Take, and it continued with Fox News Media’s Hang Out with Sean Hannity.
The PMT spot — which was very entertaining — focused only on football and none of the various non-football questions that could have been posed to Belichick. In contrast, Hannity raised the disastrous CBS interview from 2025. Which was a Sunday morning softball session that Belichick and his girlfriend, Jordon Hudson, treated like chin music.
“By the way, like CBS, I was stunned at how horribly you were treated,” Hannity said. “I couldn’t believe it.”
“I couldn’t believe it, either,” Belichick said.
“I was stunned,” Hannity replied. “I hope you sue them.”
Based on his history, Belichick easily could have said, “I’m on to Cincinnati” (or whatever) as a way to avoid revisiting an old topic. He didn’t. He embraced the subject.
“As we’ve seen recently, there have been more editing problems, and they go back over a couple of years,” Belichick said, via Brandon Contes of Awful Announcing. “Multiple examples of editing and interview process and all that. You know, I thought that the interview I had with them was done very deceptively. I’ve asked for the transcript from them, and they won’t give it to me. They’ve done that with others. I’m not really sure what that policy is. . . .
“So I’m kind of confused about their — some of the things that they say they are, but I don’t really see them living up to the trust that they talk about.”
The worst moment in the CBS interview (beyond Belichick’s decision to wear an old football jersey with a hole in the neck) came when Tony Dokoupil asked Belichick how he met Hudson. She interrupted the interview and said, “We’re not talking about this.”
It became, at the time, one of the biggest stories in all of sports. And while Belichick has since complained about the way the interview was conducted and edited, it’s entirely possible that the full, unedited session would not make Belichick and/or Hudson look any better.
Quite possibly, it would make them look worse.
Given that Belichick is still willing to air his grievances about it, why shouldn’t CBS release the full interview? Start to finish. Let the viewers see it and hear it.
And if it takes a lawsuit to get the entire interview, here’s hoping Belichick files one. Our guess is that, in the end, the chances of Belichick suing CBS are roughly the same as Hudson following through on her vow to sue Pablo Torre.
Meanwhile, Belichick’s publisher should be keeping an eye on his willingness to do media appearances now, and it should be asking itself whether he fully complied with his contractual obligation (if any) to make a minimum number of media appearances a year ago to promote his book.
It’s possible that, of all potential lawsuits that could be filed by Hudson, Belichick, and/or Belichick’s publisher, a breach of contract suit from Simon & Schuster against Belichick would end up being the most viable.
Even if it definitely would not be the most entertaining.
North Carolina coach Bill Belichick could use some good P.R. There’s no better way to get it than to appear on a wildly popular podcast and, in so doing, attempt to come off as almost human.
He largely accomplished that in his visit with Pardon My Take, even if — as Carmine Lupertazzi once said — a Don never wears shorts.
During the extended interview, the issue of Belichick’s “no days off” motto came up. After all these years, Belichick explained that it doesn’t reflect a maniacal mandate to working every single day but a commitment to working hard on work days.
“Most people don’t really understand what that means — or what it meant to us, I should say — what it meant to us,” Belichick said. “What it meant to us was, when you come to work, you go to work. You don’t come to work and dillydally around and like, ‘I was here, I broke a sweat, I showed up,’ and go home. That’s a day off.
“When we said, ‘no days off,’ we meant, ‘You come to work, you’re ready to work, you’re prepared, you put in a good day’s work,’ OK? Maybe tomorrow’s an off day. . . . That’s fine. I’m not saying like, ‘Don’t take a day off.’ We’re saying, ‘Don’t come to the stadium and take a day off.’ And so the ‘no days off’ was when you come in here, man, we expect your best and we expect you to work at it. When we’re done, we’re done, and, you know, you’re with your family or you’re, you know, whatever you’re doing. Sure, there’s days off. But don’t take them here.”
It wasn’t viewed that way. As Belichick said, it became part of the “hype train of the Patriots.”
“I’m sure it’s sold towels and some, you know, beer mugs or whatever,” Belichick said. “And it was used in a different context.”
It’s a reasonable explanation. And, if it had been provided at the time, Belichick would have been perceived as less of a curmudgeon who lacks perspective or life balance and more as a guy spreading the very positive message of being fully engaged in your work, on your work days.
That said, the rule only applied to the players. For the coaching staff and the front office, there weren’t many days off.
Under coach Bill Belichick, the North Carolina Tar Heels are struggling to win on the field. Off the field, the players have caused ongoing concern regarding the manner in which they drive, and park, their NIL-financed vehicles.
A new report from WRAL looks at the various issues related to speeding, reckless driving, and parking in places where they shouldn’t be parking (such as spots reserved for people with disabilities).
Pushing the matter internally is professor Mark Peifer, who has been peppering North Carolina Athletic Director Bubba Cunningham with complaints about the situation.
“Is there no one who can rein in these players, probably only a subset of the football team, who are tarnishing the reputation of our school and of all Carolina athletes?” Peifer wrote in a recent email to Cunningham, per the WRAL report.
Cunningham told Peifer in an April 2026 email, “I don’t know how many more times I can apologize. Disappointing to say the least.”
One player, per the report, has been cited four times for speeding and two times for reckless driving since arriving at the Chapel Hill campus in January 2026. Another player has received three citations since February; on one occasion, he was allegedly driving in excess of 100 miles per hour.
Belichick was asked about the situation by WRAL in November 2025.
“Our conduct outside of the building, outside of the program, is important to us, and we stress that,” Belichick said at the time. “We’ve addressed multiple things, not just that. There are other things that go on, besides driving, that we’ve talked about absolutely.”
Talking apparently hasn’t solved the problem. And Peifer now believes Cunningham has no power to fix it.
“I thought [Cunningham] actually was probably right up there with the chancellor and running the university, but I found out when I wrote to him that he doesn’t have any control over the football program anymore,” Peifer told WRAL. “He clearly was frustrated and ultimately angry about this behavior and didn’t seem to be able to change it.”
Behavior won’t change without consequences. And while Belichick has a well-earned reputation when it comes to imposing consequences for behaviors that directly impact the goal of winning games, the fact that this specific problem persists shows that Belichick can’t, or won’t, demand compliance.
And, yes, issues like this aren’t uncommon from the football players on college campuses. For Belichick, who is facing increased pressure after a grossly subpar debut season, the issue gives local media outlets (like WRAL) an obvious way to point to flaws in the program unrelated to not winning enough games.
North Carolina, under Bill Belichick, fancies itself the NFL’s 33rd team. The better description is the NCAA’s equivalent of Belichick’s Patriots.
Without, to date, the winning.
Former UNC quarterback Gio Lopez, who played for Belichick in his first year as a college coach, has transferred to Wake Forest. To hear it from Lopez, it sounds less like a transfer and more like an escape.
“Back at the other school, it felt like there’s no air,” Lopez recently said, via Logan Lazarczyk of SI.com. “Here, it’s fun again. They’re moving us in the right direction, energized, and guys are enjoying football. It’s like fresh air. I’d never had to respond to tough situations like that on that loud of a scale.”
What was the biggest difference about playing football under Belichick?
“It was more like work,” Lopez said. “After that first game, it felt like getting through the day. You don’t want to live like that, where you’re up at night thinking about the next day.”
Gio Lopez’s father, Barney Lopez, has offered more specific commentary regarding the manner in which the team was run. And regarding the feedback Gio received in real time.
“You were ridiculed if you didn’t do it exactly the way he was told,” Barney Lopez said. “You could be at the dang line, see the play is about to be blown up, but if you try to call it off or audible, you were ridiculed.”
The end result was that Gio Lopez no longer enjoyed playing.
“Gio has always loved the game of football, and he was losing the love for it when he was over there [at North Carolina],” Barney Lopez said.
Gio Lopez started 11 games in 2025, his first and only season at North Carolina. It will be interesting to see what Belichick and/or G.M. Mike Lombardi will have to say about Lopez’s comments.
Our guess is that Belichick would grumble something unintelligible before saying he’s only focused on the guys who are on the team. Lombardi possibly would find a way to throw shade at Lopez indirectly, saying something about how NFL-style football isn’t for everyone and some guys respond the right way to coaching from the greatest coach of all time and others respond a different way.
And then Lombardi would probably try to find a way to blame it all on the media.
Here’s the key. Belichick’s methods work if he wins. Because winning validates a coach’s approach. Players who complain about how a coach goes about coaching a team into becoming a winning program come off as whiners, whatever the techniques.
When a team underachieves, the feedback from the players helps explain why things went sideways.
Ultimately, it comes down to whether Belichick and Lombardi will be able to recruit enough good players to Chapel Hill. Without good players, no college program has a chance to compete at a high level.
But an important question will remain, regardless of the quality of the roster. Do Belichick’s methods work on college-aged players? Could the Patriot Way at the NCAA level make a potentially good team worse, or better?
College football players have more power and freedom than ever. They no longer have to tolerate an emotionless taskmaster. And, for those who eventually make it to the NFL, they can worry about it feeling like a job later. Kids who are 18, 19, and 20 prefer to behave accordingly, at least some of the time.
For now, all we know is what has transpired. Belichick’s first season at North Carolina fell far short of expectations. Even with 2025 lowering the bar for 2026, Belichick will have plenty of work to do in order to stick around for a third year.
Last year, North Carolina G.M. Mike Lombardi crowed that the Tar Heels were the NFL’s 33rd franchise. The other 32 had no interest in any of their draft-eligible players.
None of the players from the first year of the Bill Belichick tenure at Chapel Hill were among the 257 draft picks from the 2026 selection process.
None. As in not one. And they arrived in time to take advantage of the transfer portal to find one-year players who would then exit for the NFL. Given that it was too late to put together a strong class of incoming freshmen, they were even more likely to seek and find established players.
That was the basic problem with the program in 2025. They didn’t have enough good players. And it was Lombardi’s job to find them.
Between finding them and coaching them up, Belichick and company didn’t do enough to get any of them drafted.
When Berj Najarian left Boston College in December 2025, the question became whether he’d reunite with Bill Belichick at North Carolina.
That’s not going to be happening.
Via Pete Thamel of ESPN, Najarian has taken a job at Michigan. He becomes the assistant general manager/strategy, with the job of assisting new coach Kyle Whittingham as to contracts, negotiations, and “strategy for the new college sports landscape.”
Najarian served as Belichick’s right-hand man for 24 years in New England. When Belichick took the job at Carolina, Najarian was already working for Bill O’Brien at Boston College.
The connection to Belichick nevertheless endured. An April 2025 email from Belichick regarding publicity for his book (which Jordon Hudson posted on social media during the kerfuffle following his disastrous CBS interview), showed “Berj” as a recipient. That raised an interesting question regarding whether and to what extent Najarian (unless Belichick would be sending the email to some other “Berj”) was collaborating with the head coach of a conference rival to his current employer.
So why wouldn’t Najarian rejoin Belichick? As noted in December, the elephant in the room may have been North Carolina G.M. Mike Lombardi.
Last year, Pablo Torre reported that Najarian was one of multiple key Patriots employees who complained about Mike Lombardi during his stint with the Patriots, resulting in Lombardi being ousted. (Lombardi has claimed he left voluntarily.)
Or maybe it’s as simple as Najarian seeing a more viable future in Ann Arbor, where things are just getting started, than in Chapel Hill, where another lackluster season could mean things will be coming to an end for Belichick and company.
