The Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) welcomes a new, yet extremely experienced head coach to the University of North Carolina (UNC) Tar Heels football program: the eight-time Super Bowl Champion and three-time National Football League (NFL) Coach of the Year Bill Belichick. The UNC job is the first career opportunity for the notoriously blunt coach since parting ways with the New England Patriots in the 2024 offseason.
Belichick’s coaching style is intense and disciplined, heavily defined by an oppressive defense. The Patriots only finished three seasons outside of the top half of points allowed per game, exemplified by Super Bowl 53 in which the Belichick-led defense held the Los Angeles Rams to a single field goal and 260 total yards — the Rams were a prolific offense, with the No. 2 ranked offense in points and yards per game that season.
Although defense is his specialty, Belichick has sculpted incredible offenses led by none other than seven-time Super Bowl Champion quarterback Tom Brady. Even in the 2008 season when Brady tore his ACL and MCL, New England ranked eighth in points and fifth in yards per game with quarterback Matt Cassel in the huddle. Belichick may not have called every play for the Patriots throughout his tenure, however, his contagious energy trickled down into offensive coaching decisions.
Since the last Super Bowl victory claimed by the Patriots, discussions regarding Belichick’s decisions have arisen. The organization’s draft choices have been mind-boggling at times, including back to back tight end selections of Devin Asiasi and Dalton Keene in the third round of the 2020 NFL Draft or the selection of wide receiver N’Keal Harry at the end of the first round of the 2019 NFL Draft with A.J. Brown and D.K. Metcalf still on the board.
Draft woes aside, Tar Heel fans have much to be excited for the Belichick era, as the very same difficulties the program had this past season are areas where the new coach succeeds. In many ways, the Fenway Bowl represented the entire 2024 season from Chapel Hill; UNC dropped the Fenway Bowl 14-27 against the University of Connecticut (UConn) Huskies, where they were unable to convert on any of their nine third downs and allowed the Huskies to convert eight of their 16 third-downs. UConn dominated the Tar Heels in time of possession and grabbed an interception off first-year Michael Merdinger, who only collected 86 yards in his 12 passing attempts.
The loss in the Fenway Bowl capped off a 6-7 season for UNC, with a 3-5 record in the ACC to land them at 12th in the conference. One of those ACC opponents was the Jackets at Chapel Hill, N.C. Tech came away with a nail-biting win in their last meeting with the Tar Heels after dropping a late 10-point lead. This game was determined in the trenches — the Jackets ran 371 yards against former Tech Head Coach Geoff Collins’s Tar Heel defense, riding on the back of redshirt junior running back Jamal Haynes and redshirt junior quarterback Haynes King. King struggled in the passing game with a 50% completion rate on 22 attempts, likely due to an injury which forced him to miss the next two games.
Collins is likely to lose his defensive coordinator job at UNC with former Patriots assistant Steve Belichick expected to fill the role. With many defensive coordinator positions available, Collins may look to find his first successes within the ACC with a recent vacancy at Virginia Tech.
Tech will not face the Belichick-led Tar Heels in 2025, yet the ACC will be exciting for all college football fans. For Jackets fans, the goal remains the same: an ACC Championship. With head coach Brent Key and King returning, their goal of a conference championship and a spot in the College Football Playoff is one that looks to be achievable.