Things got messy for North Carolina football a couple of weeks ago. While the team still hasn’t beaten a Power Four opponent, the off-field storms have largely subsided.
Case in point: Assistant coach Armond Hawkins, who was suspended as part of an investigation regarding the potential giving of extra benefits to players, has been reinstated.
“Yeah, he’s back,” coach Bill Belichick told reporters earlier this week, via the Associated Press. “The university cleared him, they went through their process with him and he’s back, yes.”
Belichick also was asked whether his program is dong enough to ensure full compliance with the various NCAA rules and regulations.
“I would say if anything, I feel like maybe we’ve spent too much time on it, to be honest with you,” Belichick said. “I mean, we’ve gone over and over and over it to make sure that we have it right. And every time we check it, ‘Hey, I just want to triple-check and make sure we’re OK on this? Yes, yes.’ . . . Right now we’re still making sure that we’re trying to do every single thing right. I think that’s the right thing to do.”
At the halfway point of Belichick’s first season in Chapel Hill, the Tar Heels are 2-4. Their most recent loss was their closest yet, 21-18 at Cal. North Carolina’s next opportunity to get a victory comes on Saturday, at home against Virginia.
Five games remain after that. A win would go a long way toward changing the narrative around the football operation.
It also would be helpful to avoid more headlines that tend to put the program in a less-than-ideal light. For now, it has.
