North Carolina Tar Heels football coach Bill Belichick is now 0-3 in ACC play after losing 17-16 in overtime to the Virginia Cavaliers at home on Saturday, and 2-5 overall since taking over in Chapel Hill.
While Belichick is the man in charge, that’s only because the administration is allowing him the time to get things together amidst an unfathomably disappointing start for the six-time Super Bowl champion head coach.
How much longer will he be in charge, though?
USA Today’s Paul Myerberg raised the question of whether Belichick will be given the chance to hire a new offensive coordinator and put together a Power 4-caliber attack.
“Moral victories aren’t why UNC is paying a six-time Super Bowl champion $10 million per season,” Myerberg prefaced before saying, “But that’s where we are with the Tar Heels, who fought and clawed to hang with No. 16 Virginia – just like California the week before – but lost 17-16 in overtime to fall to 2-5 overall and 0-3 in the ACC. The defense has made some nice gains since the opener against TCU, but the UNC offense is a punchless and inept group that will clearly need to be redone this offseason. The big question: Will Belichick be around for the overhaul?”
Truthfully, the sky may be falling to analysts on Belichick in a way that doesn’t represent reality.
Belichick isn’t the box office draw Deion Sanders was with the Colorado Buffaloes, and his relationship with Jordon Hudson being so public is frankly off-putting. The media, by and large, would rather move on from this mess.
But North Carolina is slowly making strides towards respectability and could be close with more talent last year. With a group that was largely stitched together in the transfer portal, the Tar Heels have gone from losing big to losing small.
The next step in the evolution is winning those close games. Over the next six weeks, we may get to see those close wins against the underwhelming squads like the Syracuse Orange, Stanford Cardinal, or the team’s Tobacco Road foes, the Wake Forest Demon Deacons, Duke Blue Devils, and NC State Wolf Pack.
If that happens, the Belichick firing rumors will be a thing of the past sooner rather than later.