Bill Belichick was up to all his old tricks before his UNC football debut

Bill Belichick provided exactly what you’d expect in the lead up to his first UNC football game.

Zero.

Zip.

Zilch.

The notoriously stoic and tight-lipped coach was up to his old tricks before the Tar Heels opened their season in Chapel Hill against TCU.

For starters, the depth chart handed out to media listed exactly zero players under the any positions.

It didn’t get much better for anyone attempting to elicit anything out of him, as ESPN’s Holly Rowe found out when she asked him about the coincidence of his first college game being 34 years to the day of his first NFL one.

“I hope it goes a lot better than the game in Dallas against Jimmy Johnson,” Belichick said of his 26-14 loss with the Browns in 1991. “They crushed us. I hope it goes better than that.”

And how about how he expects his practices to translate to game time?

“Well hopefully we can do a good job with our fundamentals, ball security and communication,” he said, without breaking a smile.

What did get him to break the facade just a little bit?

Rose asking about his infamous game-day attire of a cut-off hoodie.

“Yeah, it’s kinda my thing,” Belichick said.

Not that anyone came to see the fabled head coach wax poetic about any subject, no, the star-studded crowd that included 24-year-old girlfriend Jordon Hudson, NBA legend Michael Jordan, NFL icons Lawrence Taylor and Randy Moss, among others were there to see Belichick begin to hopefully turnaround a program that went 6-7 in 2024.

Things got off to a good start with Caleb Hood scoring on an eight-yard run to cap UNC’s first Belichick-led drive before the Tar Heels found themselves down 20-7 at the half.

How did the coach celebrate the score?

With his arms crossed on the sidelines, of course.