North Carolina
Hiring Bill Belichick a Hail Mary for underachieving North Carolina
Bill Belichick as the head Tar Heel. Something’s gotta give.
The Chapel Hill hiring that no one saw coming is the football equivalent to one of those old black-and-white films of two locomotives crashing head on. Or some reality-stretching experiment set up by scientists, the immovable object and irresistible force pitted against one another in order to take a peek into the total unknown. When Lieutenant General Leslie Groves asks Robert Oppenheimer, “Are we saying there’s a chance that when we push that button, we destroy the world?”
The NFL GOAT and Rameses the Ram. When they clack their horns in the middle of an open tobacco field, which of their very weighty, very opposite football pasts will prevail by pushing over the other?
Can the greatness of the gridiron genius in the hoodie finally unlock the long-puzzling, long-elusive potential of Franklin Street football? Or will the bottomless tar pits of the Tar Heels’ football history consume Belichick like they have everyone who has preceded him, going back to the school’s first game, a 6-4 loss to Wake Forest in 1888.
Belichick, 72, is, by any measure, one of the greatest coaches in the history of football, believed by many to be the best to ever wet an NFL whistle. He owns eight Super Bowl rings, six as head coach, along with the NFL head coaching records for Super Bowl appearances (nine), playoff appearances (19, tied), playoff wins (31) and division titles (17). His 333 wins (including playoffs) trail only Don Shula. He is so revered that he has served as a confidant and mentor to the man considered the modern measuring stick for college football coaching greatness, Nick Saban.
But Belichick’s closest brush with college coaching was as a kid, when he attended practices and watched film alongside his father, Steve, a 33-year assistant coach at Navy. Belichick was born in Nashville in 1952, when his dad was on the staff at Vanderbilt. The next year, the family moved to Chapel Hill while Steve coached three seasons as North Carolina’s running backs coach. That’s it. No actual college coaching. Just watching.
Now, he is on to Cincinnati … er, sorry, back to Carolina. And when one pivots their eyes from the résumé of the coach to the résumé of the place where he shall now be the coach, another movie quote comes to mind, and it’s from a North Carolinian, Ricky Bobby: “Everything cool that was just said, you wrecked it.”
The reckless reality of UNC football is that the only rankings it has ever topped are when people compile their lists of “schools that should be great at football but aren’t.”
The Heels began playing football 136 years ago and have eight conference championships to show for it. Their last ACC ring came in 1980, when Lawrence Taylor was still dressed in Carolina blue. LT turns 66 in February. Since the ACC championship game came into being two decades ago, the Heels have made two appearances, in 2015 and 2022, and lost both times to Clemson.
They have participated in 38 bowl games but have lost 23 of them, including 11 of their last 14, and have run onto the field for a January bowl only seven times — and just once this century. Their greatest postseason triumph was probably the 1981 Gator Bowl, when they held off a rainy rally by Lou Holtz’s Arkansas Razorbacks. Then again, it might be their 2010 Music City Bowl win over Tennessee, not because of the final score but because that’s the game that led to clock runoff rules being instituted. What a legacy.
This is a program that produced Dre Bly, Julius Peppers, Greg Ellis, last year’s No. 3 NFL draft pickDrake Mayeand one of the greatest old running backs to ever lace up the cleats, two-time Heisman Trophy runner-up Charlie “Choo Choo” Justice. But it is also a program that has produced only seven 10-win seasons, and only one since 1997.
The state of North Carolina is packed with high school football talent. The UNC brand is one that is genuinely global (thanks, MJ!). In recent years, the school has even made a long-needed course correction when it comes to football facilities and upgrades, with the christening of a nearly $50 million football HQ and the upfitting of always-beautiful-but-usually-sad Kenan Stadium. And yet, Belichick is the team’s third head coach in eight seasons.
In 2012, spicy Larry Fedora and his high-tempo offense were supposed to inject full-throttle energy into the program while also sprinting away from embarrassing, years-long improper benefits and academic fraud investigations. The Heels won 11 games in 2015 and were ranked 10th in the final CFP poll, but three years later Fedora was gone.
Fedora’s replacement was Mack Brown, back for a second stint (see: that 1997 success before he bolted for Texas), coming off the bench from ESPN. The arc of the Brown 2.0 era looks similar to Fedora’s, as it was for most of the coaches who came before him, a promising peak in the middle followed by an exit out the back door. From 2020 to 2023, Brown’s Heels were routinely climbing into the top 10 by midseason, but by December were routinely slipping out of the top 25 altogether.
Time after time, would-be saviors have been brought to Chapel Hill charged with waking the sleeping giant. Heck, the staff that Belichick’s father served on was led by George Barclay, the Heels’ first-ever first-team All-American, called home to put a spark into his alma mater’s team in 1953, the ACC’s inaugural season. He went 11-18-1 over three years, unable even to replicate his success at his previous stop, Washington & Lee.
Meanwhile, fans of Tar Heels football have been forced to watch every other team in the state have their own eras of success while they settled for another so-so season. East Carolina set NCAA offensive receiving records. Appalachian State won FCS titles and captured the imagination of America with wins at Michigan and Texas A&M. Wake Forest won the ACC in 2006. NC State has won 13 of its last 18 games against Carolina, including the last four. Last fall, Duke hosted “College Gameday.” Duke!
“The place has a ceiling. Just how it is,” a former UNC assistant coach said via text Wednesday morning as the world waited to see if Belichick was taking the job, adding after a long pause of typing dots: “Throw a Hail Mary. Why not? If it doesn’t work, no one will care. They just want to beat Duke.”
The last sentence of his text was punctuated by a basketball emoji.
Because of its brand, academic reputation and flagship status for the deep-pocketed state of North Carolina (sorry, Tobacco Road rivals, but it’s true), UNC is also viewed as the sleeping giant of conference realignment. While Florida State and Clemson make their public noise about the potential of moving elsewhere, the Heels are widely considered to be the most coveted ACC target for any league seeking its next cash-covered puzzle piece. A departure from the conference it helped create would be every bit the equivalent of Texas and Oklahoma bolting the Big 12 or USC breaking ranks with the Pac-12.
But with the greatest respect to Michael Jordan, Dean Smith and their fellow white trimmed jersey-wearing Heels, when it comes to redrawing maps and endorsing checks from restructured TV deals, it’s a football-gloved hand that wields the pen. And all of those other universities listed in the previous paragraph have won a hell of a lot more than a handful of Gator Bowls and earned way more than zero conference titles since the Carter Administration.
Perhaps that’s why UNC administrators are heaving this ball from midcourt. Why they have hired a coach with zero college experience. Why they have hired a man notoriously impatient with NFL rookies and put him in charge of a locker room full of 19-year-olds.
Who knows why the man we came to know in sleeveless red, white and blue will now dress in Carolina blue and argyle. What we do know is that everything and everyone that UNC has thrown at football before Bill Belichick hasn’t worked. And this might. But if bringing in a man who will one day have his own entire wing of the Pro Football Hall of Fame fails to rouse one the most puzzling meh programs in the 155-year history of the sport, then nothing ever will.
The GOAT versus the Ram. Something’s gotta give.br/]
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The North Carolina Tar Heels are entering a monumental 2026 season after being one of the biggest disappointments in 2025, posting a 4-8 record, and finishing 13th in the ACC.
Hiring Bill Belichick as head coach always carried a moderate risk, but the administration could not foresee what would transpire in the coming months. Earlier this offseason, the 74-year-old head coach provided some insight into what led to the team’s struggles last season.
Belichick’s Thoughts
Belichick began by praising this year’s group of players, explaining the goals and how this team will go about business heading into offseason workouts and carrying that momentum into the start of the regular season.
- “Well, what I expect is for us and them to get better every day, you know, to get stronger, to get faster, to be more explosive, to be better fundamentally, to be, you know, better technique football players,” Belichick said.
- “That’s what I expect from them. We have a good group of kids, they work hard, they are, you know, they’re pretty smart. I mean, they, you know, go to class, they do well academically, they, you know, they try to do what we ask them to do.”
The longtime NFL head coach then reflected on the team’s struggles last season and how the disconnect between the coaching staff and the players contributed to the poor product on the field.
- “And the group last year, I mean, I wouldn’t say they were, like, disrespectful, that’s not the right word, but it was just different,” Belichick said. “It was like they were recruited by somebody else; they came here for somebody else.”
- “I was new, they were leaving, you know. It wasn’t a bad relationship, but it wasn’t a great one. There wasn’t the same kind of adhesion that there is to guys that you bring in, that come there because of you, because they want to be with you. And then you grow together.”
Why North Carolina Could Bounce Back
As Belichick mentioned, most of the players on last season’s roster were not personally recruited by the polarizing head coach. Belichick inherited the majority of the players from the previous regime, which added another layer of challenge for the newly hired head coach, as he was already making the transition from the NFL to college.
With that being said, North Carolina’s brass, including general manager Michael Lombardi, did a tremendous job of identifying the top weaknesses and acknowledging that major changes were needed before the start of next season.
Yes, the quarterback position leaves much to be desired, and I would argue that the Tar Heels settled on the options they brought in. However, North Carolina improved the other most important position groupings on the field, bolstering both the offensive and defensive lines, which will elevate the entire operation.
Last offseason, Lombardi discussed how the front office would navigate the transfer portal, and those sentiments were fairly reflected in the program’s activity over the last several months.
- “I think every time you can acquire more talent is an important window,” Lombardi said. “I think we obviously have more time to prepare for it, because we wouldn’t have just gotten thrown right into it. So, I think a lot of scouting is preparation. We won’t know the names of those who are in the portal, but we’ll have a better idea about what it takes to be in the portal and who could possibly enter, and then have an ability to evaluate them.”
- “And really to get things the way you want to run a program isn’t to be reactive,” Lombardi continued. “Al Davis used to say this all the time to me, ‘the secret to all organizations and the secret to any great organization lies in the ability to anticipate problems, not react.’ I think when we got in here, we were reacting to the portal. Now we can anticipate the portal, which certainly will help us.”
Throughout the offseason, I have been highly skeptical of my confidence level in the direction of the program under Belichick and this coaching staff, but in terms of roster construction, I think North Carolina has had a solid offseason.
Over the last two weeks, we have counted down the top 30 players on the Tar Heels’ roster heading into this upcoming season. Today, we reveal who ranks No. 22 on North Carolina and what this player means for the program in 2026. Without further ado, here is a deep-dive analysis of a pivotal asset for Belichick and the Tar Heels on a revamped roster.
North Carolina Top 30 Players: No. 22 LT Jordan Hall
The 6-foot-8, 310-pound offensive tackle only appeared in five games for the Tar Heels last season after transferring from UAB last April. While that could be a discouraging sign for Hall, he still has two years of eligibility left, and in a limited snapshot, he demonstrated he can play offensive tackle.
Entering this season, Hall is projected to be North Carolina’s starting left tackle on a much-improved offensive line. Being given that responsibility would show the coaching staff’s confidence in Hall holding up as the blindside blocker for whichever quarterback establishes himself as the starter in Week 1.
Hall’s Importance
As we have said on multiple occasions, North Carolina’s offense will be a work in progress, especially with major question marks at quarterback. The offensive line will be a major factor in the team’s success next season, and with several moving parts on that unit, cohesion must be established quickly.
In 2025, the Tar Heels’ offensive line was one of the several glaring holes on the roster. This season, that should not be the case, as the front office invested heavily in the offensive line, ensuring a clean pocket for the quarterback and supplying the running backs with open rushing lanes. As the left tackle, Hall will be the most important piece on the offensive line, acting as the blindside blocker for any of the three between Travis Burgess, Billy Edwards Jr., and Miles O’Neill.
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ASHEVILLE, N.C. (WLOS) — The Party for Socialism and Liberation has organized a petition calling on legislators to pass a statewide ban on new data center construction.
“We see that they pollute these communities, they use a lot of water, and ultimately the cost of these data centers are passed on to working-class consumers,” said Cody Cogdell with the Party for Socialism and Liberation Western North Carolina.
According to the Environmental and Energy Study Institute, a large data center can use up to 5 million gallons of water per day. That’s equivalent to the use of a town of 10,000 to 50,000 people.
ASHEVILLE CITY COUNCIL APPROVES 1-YEAR PAUSE ON NEW DATA CENTER DEVELOPMENT
“I don’t support them at all. I think it’s terrible for the environment,” said Asheville resident Madeline Boltinghouse.
She says a statewide ban would be nice.
But Ken Brame, with the environmental organization Sierra Club, says the ban is unlikely to happen.
JULY 1, 2026 – A flyer protesting data centers in Asheville, N.C. (Photo credit: WLOS Staff)
“Banning them all is probably a stretch and I’m just not sure I see our North Carolina legislature going that far,” said Brame.
The petition also calls on the state to repeal the state’s tax incentives for data centers.
“There should be no debate about that. We should not be subsidizing something that hurts our environment,” said Brame.
WEAVERVILLE COUNCIL VOTES TO BLOCK DATA CENTERS IN TOWN, CITING LIMITED RESOURCES
It’s also calling on the legislature to stop Duke Energy from raising rates to pay for more data centers.
Duke Energy sent News 13 a statement saying in part:
Duke Energy does not develop or select data center projects, but we do have an obligation to serve customers in our territory while protecting reliability and keeping costs as low as possible. That’s why we require large-load customers to make significant financial commitments and pay the costs associated with serving them, while their additional revenue helps support grid investments and reduce pressure on future customer bills.
Meanwhile, state lawmakers are working to pass a bill that would require data centers to pay for their own expansion and regulate how much water data centers can use.
A man kidnapped and killed a U.S. Postal Service worker while she was delivering mail in North Carolina last week, police said, orphaning her two daughters, who lost their father just a few months before.
Brandi Reynolds, 35, was found dead following a call for help to authorities in Hays, North Carolina, Friday afternoon, the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation said in a statement.
“I can confirm that Brandi Reynolds was delivering mail on her route when the incident occurred,” U.S. Postal Inspector Michael Martel said by email.
Prosecutors in Wilkes County charged William Craig Durham, 56, of the community of Roaring River, with first-degree kidnapping and murder, according to court records.
The defendant, arrested the day of the murder, remained in Wilkes County Jail on Tuesday, according to a third-party inmate information service used by the county. His lawyer did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday.
A warrant filed in district court alleged Durham committed kidnapping “by unlawfully restraining the victim, removing the victim from one place to another without the consent of the victim.”
It said Durham carried out the alleged kidnapping “for the purpose of terrorizing” Reynolds and “doing serious bodily injury” to her.
It’s unclear how Durham allegedly committed the killing. Any weapons that may have been used were not mentioned in the document, and any motive was unavailable.
On Monday, district court Judge Robert J. Crumpton ordered the defendant to remain in custody without bond, citing his “significant criminal record.”
State prison records show Durham has served time for second-degree kidnapping, assault on a female and possession of a gun by a felon, among other offenses.
An investigation into the killing was being conducted jointly by the United States Postal Inspection Service, the Wilkes County Sheriff’s Office and the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation, the bureau said.
Reynolds was the mother of two girls, according to her obituary. She lost her husband, Brent Reynolds, on Dec. 23, 2025, when the pickup he was driving veered off a road in Rhonda, North Carolina, and struck a tree, according to NBC affiliate WXII of Winston-Salem.
His obituary stated at the time that he was the father of the couple’s two girls — “the light of his life.”
Reynolds’ obituary, likewise, stated that her daughters “were her whole world.”
She left behind her mother, two sisters and several nieces and nephews, it said.
“The U.S. Postal Service is deeply saddened about the death of our colleague, Brandi Byrd Reynolds,” Postal Service spokesperson Martha Johnson said by email. “We extend our heartfelt sympathies to her family, friends, and co-workers at the Hays Post Office.”
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