CHAPEL HILL — Nine months after North Carolina’s shocking hire of NFL coaching legend Bill Belichick, the Tar Heels’ season opener brings everything university leaders could have hoped for:
a sold-out stadium, a primetime national television audience, an ESPN pregame show live from the stadium, a new on-campus tailgate scene and the eyes of the nation on UNC football.
Can Belichick and his team cap it off with a victory?
“They’ve invested a lot in it, both in time and energy and facilities,” Belichick said of the pregame festivities. “And so it sounds like a great gameday fan experience that I think will be well received. Hopefully we can put a good product on the field and make the nights and the type of games that people want to come to the stadium to see.”
Lost, at times, in the Belichick frenzy is that, yes, the Tar Heels will have to play actual football against real opponents, who would like nothing better than to beat the six-time Super Bowl-champion head coach.
Up first: TCU. The game kicks off Monday at 8 p.m. on ESPN.
The Horned Frogs, out of the Big 12, reached the College Football Playoff championship game in 2023 and finished 9-4 last season, winning their final four games. Quarterback Josh Hoover (3,949 passing yards, 27 touchdowns) is back to guide a high-scoring offense (33.5 points per game, 25th in the nation in 2024) that led the Big 12 in total offense in 2024.
“They really make you defend all the blades of grass on the field, sideline to sideline, the line of scrimmage to 50 yards down the field,” Belichick said. “You’ve got a lot to defend, and they do a good job of attacking all of it.”
He continued: “They’re impressive to watch.”
What North Carolina will look like under Belichick remains something of a mystery. The team has 70 new players and many of the stalwarts from former coach Mack Brown’s final team (6-7 overall) are elsewhere.
The defense, a weakness throughout much of Brown’s second tenure in Chapel Hill, ranked 89th in points allowed (28.1 per game) and 72nd in yards allowed (375.8 per game) last season. The rebuilt unit, coordinated by Steve Belichick, is counting on transfers across the board. Defensive back Thaddeus Dixon and linebacker Khmori House came from Washington where Belichick was the defensive coordinator last season.
With All-America running back Omarion Hampton now in the NFL, the Tar Heels lack a proven playmaker on offense around quarterback Gio Lopez, the South Alabama transfer who was named the starter after fall camp.
“I do think we have a really explosive offense,” said Lopez, a left-hander who accounted for more than 3,000 yards and 25 touchdowns rushing and passing in 11 games for South Alabama. “We have an opportunity to be really good.”
The Tar Heels are expected to use multiple running backs without Hampton. Koby Paysour (21 catches for 356 yards in 2024) is the team’s top returning pass catcher. Sophomore Jordan Shipp (nine catches, 114 yards) could be a key receiver. Shipp will be making just his second career start against the Horned Frogs.
“It’s new to me,” he said. “And this is College GameDay, main ESPN, primetime. I’ve never been a part of something that big. But, I mean, that’s where you stay where your feet are.”
ESPN will televise a one-hour live College Football Countdown from Chapel Hill on Monday. Former Alabama coach and Belichick assistant Nick Saban, former NFL linebacker Teddy Bruschi, who played for Belichick with the New England Patriots, and commentator Pat McAfee will appear on the show. Rece Davis and Kirk Herbstreit, College GameDay regulars, will be the announcing team.
Belichick, who won six Super Bowl titles as head coach of the Patriots and two more as defensive coordinator with the New York Giants, surely will be the focus of most of the coverage – same as it’s been since he showed up in Chapel Hill.
How will he transition to college football after nearly five decades in the NFL? Will Belichick’s 24-year-old girlfriend Jordon Hudson, who captured months of attention for her personal and business relationship with Belichick, be in attendance? A crew is already filming for footage for the Hulu documentary series on UNC football set to air this fall.
It’s a big spotlight on the football program, one that few Tar Heels – outside of Belichick – are accustomed to.
“We can control our preparation, our attitude and our work ethic going into the game and then how hard we compete and our communication,” Belichick said. “So however many people are here or not here, or however many hours they talk about it on a network show or don’t talk about it, is really not anything we can control. It’s irrelevant. We’re trying to focus on what we can control, what helps us win and so the rest of it is, with all due respect, just noise for us. We have to focus on our job.”
