At the time he was hired last December, I was … um, skeptical about North Carolina’s choice of Bill Belichick as head coach. But I’m always open to being proven wrong. Perhaps hiring a then-72-year-old coach with zero college experience would prove to be an inspired decision after all. As such, I’ve been scouring for any morsel of info on how the Belichick era is going so far.
Information has been sparse.
Belichick has spoken with local reporters just once since December, at the start of spring camp. Players and assistants weren’t available for interviews at all. The school does post all-access type practice clips, but because Belichick had the numbers removed from players’ jerseys, who knows which guys those are in the videos.
Most of what we’ve learned about the program has come through the intrepid work of reporters like my colleague Matt Baker, who recently obtained emails through a public records request that shed light on the role Jordon Hudson, Belichick’s 24-year-old influencer girlfriend, is playing in the athletic department.
More on that later. Here are five notable takeaways to date.
Belichick’s boss did not intend to hire him
In early March, ESPN pieced together the events that led to UNC hiring Belichick. Knowing the Mack Brown era was nearing its end, athletic director Bubba Cunningham contacted Steelers OC and UNC alum Arthur Smith in early November. When that didn’t work out, he pivoted to respected college coaches, including Iowa State’s Matt Campbell and Tulane’s Jon Sumrall.
All the while, a couple of UNC board members were conducting their own one-man search, as The Athletic reported. Belichick had made his interest known through a bizarre game of telephone that began with, of all people, then-Florida Sen. Marco Rubio. That interest eventually made its way to UNC Board of Trustees chairman John Preyer, a public critic of Cunningham, who took it upon himself to offer Belichick the job behind Cunningham’s back.
Cunningham eventually wrested back control, finalizing a five-year, $50 million deal for the coach. Quite an awkward start to the employer-employee relationship.
The program has a three-letter identity: N-F-L
Belichick said from the jump he would run UNC’s program like an NFL organization, and boy, he wasn’t kidding. It’s all they talk about.
General manager Mike Lombardi set the tone when he met with reporters in February: “Everything we do here is predicated on building a pro team. We consider ourselves the 33rd (NFL) team.”
In the last two weeks alone, the Tar Heels’ Instagram account has made graphics about special teams coordinator Mike Priefer’s 21 years of NFL experience, the staff’s 240 years of NFL experience and practice visits from “two-time Super Bowl champion” former Patriots Rob Ninkovich and David Andrews.
On Tuesday, in a video titled “Pro Performance Nutrition,” UNC interviewed its executive chef, Josh Grimes. Even he’s a former Patriot. And even he says things like, “The goal is to build their (nutrition) routines so that when they go into the NFL, they’re successful.”
Hopefully that routine includes a lot of Uncrustables.
This may not be the most fan-friendly program
UNC closed out spring with a public practice in Kenan Stadium titled — wait for it — “Practice like a Pro.” A promotional post for the event promised fans they’d be able to watch “multiple periods of action” and — not joking — “See Kenan’s New Grass Field.”
From reading an account from television station WRAL, this was the football equivalent of watching grass grow. The P.A. pumped up the crowd with hip new artists like Bruce Springsteen and Van Halen. The fans had no idea who they were watching because of the no-number thing. And while that poster teased a “brief autograph session with players” after practice, the head coach “walked off the new Kenan Stadium grass without missing a step,” wrote Brian Murphy.
Left UNC’s “Practice Like a Pro” end to spring ball wondering .. who was that for? Great opportunity to make a splash with fans, get them excited to support program, have Belichick say a few words or sign a few autographs. Got none of it.https://t.co/O3sexMhvzO
— Brian Murphy (@murphsturph) April 13, 2025
While unsurprising, this is pretty much the antithesis of most new coaches, who promote the heck out of the spring game (or what used to be a spring game) to drive fan interest and energize recruiting. That’s exactly what Belichick’s pal Nick Saban did his first spring at Alabama, in which 92,000 fans packed Bryant-Denny Stadium.
Crowd estimates for Practice Like A Pro were closer to 2,000.
Recruiting is going … fine?
When he got the job, many predicted Belichick would flash his rings and recruits would come flocking. He’s had some wins so far in the 2026 cycle, flipping four-star defensive tackle Trashawn Ruffin from Texas A&M and beating out Tennessee for running back Jaylen McGill from Spartanburg, S.C.
The Tar Heels’ class is ranked No. 12 nationally on 247Sports, which, were it to hold up, would be considered a rousing success for that program. But early rankings are skewed heavily by class size. UNC has 13 commits; Alabama has five. It’s more instructive to look at the caliber of the players.
UNC’s class includes three four-stars and nine three-stars for an average player rating of 87.96. That’s almost identical to Brown’s last two classes (2023-24), which had average player ratings of 88.16 and 87.84. And that was after Brown’s program began fading. His 2022 class ranked No. 11 with a 90.77 average.
We may have gleaned some insight into Belichick’s portal strategy. When Tennessee parted ways with quarterback Nico Iamaleava last weekend, UNC was immediately mentioned as a transfer possibility. But On3 soon reported the Tar Heels were focused instead on South Alabama’s Gio Lopez, who would presumably cost much less than Iamaleava’s reported $4 million asking price.
Could be the classic Belichick/Patriots strategy of prioritizing substance over style. Or, could it be that UNC is broke after spending more than $20 million on him and his staff.
Finally … about the girlfriend
Usually, I believe a coach’s personal life is not a public matter, but it’s harder to say that when said coach is dating someone 49 years younger than him and is constantly taking photos with her on red carpets, on thrones and lying on his back on the beach.
And it becomes completely fair game when the coach requests that his girlfriend be copied on many of his emails, which are public records.
While Hudson is not employed by UNC’s athletic department, the emails obtained by The Athletic show she is something of a social media/PR advisor. She seemed particularly concerned about the appearance of nepotism before the school announced Bill’s son Steve would be serving as defensive coordinator.
“It is really worth emphasizing the point that Steve has the experience of being a COLLEGE defensive coordinator and will bring a plethora of knowledge to the coaching staff,” Hudson wrote, to which an administrator assured her they would, “certainly promote him as his own entity.”
That administrator is Robbi Pickeral Evans, UNC’s senior associate athletic director for external affairs and strategic communications, who, according to her bio, has worked in communications for the school since 2013 and was a journalist for 16 years before that. Which means her professional career began before the person giving her unsolicited advice was born.
Ultimately, the Belichick hire will be judged solely by his record, not his public relations strategy. All of this offseason stuff will be rendered moot one way or the other. But I wrote in December, “I fail to see how this will end well.” Four months later, my confidence level has not budged.
(Photo: Peyton Williams / Getty Images)