Bill Belichick’s first season at North Carolina hasn’t gone to plan. You might even call it a disaster.
The six-time Super Bowl champion-winning coach has found things on campus aren’t so simple without Tom Brady under center.
How bad has it been? UNC football’s first season with Belichick has produced the program’s worst start against Power Four competition since the Tar Heels first fielded a team in 1888.
That was Grover Cleveland’s first term as president when the U.S. only had 38 states.
It’s been nearly 137 years since UNC played its inaugural game against Wake Forest at the North Carolina State Fair. No team since the program’s inception has been worse than Belichick’s team through three Power Four games.
The Tar Heels (2-3, 0-1 ACC) have lost each of their three games against P4 programs, outscored 120-33 in blowout defeats to TCU, UCF and Clemson. That 87-point margin in the first three games against P4 teams is the worst in program history.
“I don’t think that fundamentally we’re doing the wrong things. We’re just not doing them well enough,’ said Belichick, who is in the first year of a 5-year, $50 million deal.
UNC’s historically bad start has the Tar Heels in jeopardy of missing a bowl game for the first time since 2018.
‘UNC isn’t just bad; this is one the worst major-conference teams in the country,’ USA TODAY’s Paul Myerberg wrote after Saturday’s loss to Clemson.
Even the 2006 Tar Heels, who finished with 3-9 in John Bunting’s final season, were 12 points shy of matching the margin set by Belichick’s bunch. UNC was outscored 108-33 against Rutgers, Virginia Tech and Clemson in ‘06.
The 2003 team, which posted a 2-10 record, started the season with five straight losses against Power Four opponents. But those Tar Heels averaged 24.6 points in their first three P4 games. Mack Brown’s 1-10 teams in the 1988-89 seasons couldn’t even reach the rock-bottom mark set by Belichick’s team. Brown’s squads were outscored 97-44 and 65-19 in their first three games against P4 squads in the first two seasons of his first stint in Chapel Hill.
UNC’s 94 points through five games is the Tar Heels’ lowest total to start a season since scoring 85 in the first five games of 2006. The Tar Heels are 131st in total offense, worst among P4 teams, with only Kent State, Northern Illinois and UMass recording worse yardages.
UNC is 75th in total defense, but explosive plays have been the eye-popping issue. That was certainly the case against Clemson, which had 8 explosive plays vs. the Tar Heels. The Tigers tacked on seven passes of 20 or more yards, including four TDs on the first 16 plays, and one run of 10 or more yards. TCU had 10 explosive plays and UCF logged five vs. UNC.
It’s a lot to clean up for a program that is one of 11 in college football yet to win a game against a P4 opponent.
Rodd Baxley covers North Carolina Tar Heels athletics for The Fayetteville Observer as part of the USA TODAY Network. Follow his ACC coverage on X/Twitter or Bluesky: @RoddBaxley.