Bill Belichick is confident in the direction of North Carolina’s football program.
Belichick firmly believes that the Tar Heels are ready to take a step forward after a disappointing 4-8 season in his first year at the helm.
“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 told ESPN on Friday.
In any case, UNC’s program will have a different look this fall. It has a new offensive coordinator — bringing in Bobby Petrino — and 40 true freshmen joining the team.
“Most of the national publications…ranked us in the top 15 in [ESPN’s] recruiting class. So I think if you recruit good players, you’re going to have good teams,” Belichick told the Worldwide Leader.
Belichick explained further at ACC media days on Friday that having Petrino will be a great asset.
“Yeah, it’s been great having Bobby,“ Belichick said. I’ve known him for a long time from the pro to college side but also when he was in Atlanta. A lot of things he does offensively are similar to what we did in New England. We’ve kind of been able to merge those together — protections, routes, play actions, balanced attack, things like that. Yeah, it’s been great.”
The Tar Heels open their 2026 season against TCU on Aug. 29 in Dublin, Ireland.
North Carolina’s season opener against TCU last year resulted in a crushing 48-14 defeat, setting the stage for the rest of the disappointing season.
“It’ll definitely be a challenge for us,” Belichick said of the Horned Frogs. “They do a good job. It’s the overall team competitiveness and toughness that TCU has. That’s really what you got to be ready for.”
Belichick added he has yet to name his starting quarterback for this upcoming season.
Wisconsin transfer Billy Edwards Jr., Texas A&M transfer Miles O’Neill and freshman Travis Burgess are among the options.
Even through the struggles last year, Belichick called coaching college football “fun” after winning eight Super Bowls in the NFL as an assistant and head coach.
Director of athletics Steve Newmark told The Athletic on Friday that he hopes to provide Belichick with important resources to thrive.
“Our role is to put Coach Belichick and his staff in a position to be able to succeed,” Newmark said. “It’s about dollars. It’s about caliber of facilities, and quite frankly, it’s, are you giving them the resources necessary to be able to recruit players of a caliber to achieve the level of success we want?”
