Bill Belichick is talking a better game in 2026, but he and UNC still need to prove it

Earlier this week, the annual ACC Kickoff media days event was held and, as all coaches are, Bill Belichick was in attendance. Following his infamously bad debut season in charge of North Carolina, Belichick was talking up improvements the team has made going in 2026, saying they were “night and day” ahead of where the Tar Heels were last year. He talked about the change in philosophy they had in going more with high school recruits as opposed to the mismatch of transfer portal additions they made ahead of 2025, saying they think this method will lead to better results. Plus, they have a new offensive coordinator in Bobby Petrino, who — despite the various, uh, “stuff” in his history — is by all accounts an excellent offensive football mind.

On one hand, that’s what media day events like the ACC Kickoff are for. Coaches have a chance to generate a little good publicity around their team and try and get their fans excited for the upcoming season. No coach is going to go into one of those and say “Yeah, we’re gonna suck this year.” That would be highly entertaining if they did, but it would not be looked upon kindly by their ADs and fans.

On the other hand, I can’t say I find these proclamations especially encouraging. Last season, Belichick and general manager Mike Lombardi talked a big game, and we all see how that turned out. While they never explicity said anything like this, between the lines you could come to the conclusion that they thought they would come in and automatically have an edge over college coaches, just by virtue of having years of NFL experience. That clearly was not the case, and the reason things like more gimmicky offense and defensive schemes don’t work in the pros isn’t because they’re tactically dumb.

Now, I do have to say that one thing I find encouraging is that in talking about changing the focus of recruiting and trying to put together good high school classes, Belichick seemed to say that he realizes that you need to string together a couple good ones in a row AND develop them well in order to actually compete at a high level. That was the way national championship contending teams were able to build up and compete. Now, NIL and the transfer portal has thrown a bit of a wrench in that strategy, but I don’t think the staff believes that they’re going to pour a bunch of magic dust on four-star recruits and immediately roll out a 10-win team.

That being said, it’s the ability to stack those recruiting classes together that I still wonder about. This is now a young team with a tougher schedule than last year. A losing record isn’t off the cards even with genuine improvement. If they go 4-8, who’s to say this experiment doesn’t end? I doubt the athletic department and boosters would pull the plug, especially on the heels of a basketball coaching search, but would two bad years cause Belichick himself to wonder what he’s doing all this for? Even if that isn’t something that would happen, he’s still 74. That’s approaching an age at which people get out of coaching, even when things are going perfectly well.

I must say, I was never particularly enamored with the idea of hiring Bill Belichick at UNC. For me, the potential drawbacks always outweighed the potential highs. However, even I wasn’t expecting last year to go downhill as much as it did. (I still thought the team would go to a bowl, even with all my worries). I come into 2026 with even lower expectations. It’s not that I don’t think I can come out of this season feeling better about the program and this grand experiment, but 2026 is still very much a year that needs to be defined by two words: prove it.