Unprecedented amounts of chaos overtook college football in the form of the 2025-2026 coaching carousel. 34 different FBS head coaching jobs opened up from the middle of September all the way up until the middle of February.
Slower coaching carousels generally tend to follow in the two to three seasons after the busiest ones. The 2026-2027 carousel should feature less movement, but several programs are growing restless with their current head coaches.
Among the frustrated college football programs is North Carolina, which is entering its second season with legendary NFL head coach Bill Belichick at the helm.
Belichick played a major role in one of the most prosperous dynasties in NFL history. Between 2001 and 2018, the New England Patriots won six Super Bowls with Belichick as the organization’s head coach.
The dynasty slowly began to decline following quarterback Tom Brady’s departure to Tampa Bay via free agency in 2020, and the Patriots and Belichick decided to part ways after the 2023 season.
After one season away from football, Belichick decide to try his hand at college coaching at North Carolina in 2025. The Tar Heels tried rehiring an older head coach in Mack Brown prior to their hiring of Belichick. Brown finished 44-33 in his second stint at North Carolina, although the Tar Heels never reached a double-digit win like they did the first time around with him.
Belichick’s first season in Chapel Hill was North Carolina’s worst since the end of Larry Fedora’s tenure in 2018. The Tar Heels finished the year 4-8 overall with a 2-6 mark in ACC play, the only wins against two of the worst teams in the league.
North Carolina Tar Heels head coach Bill Belichick looks to the clock against the Syracuse Orange | Mark Konezny-Imagn Images
The urge to make a change at North Carolina is growing stronger ahead of the 2026 season. Brad Crawford of CBS Sports unveiled a list of the 10 college football coaches facing the most pressure going into the 2026 college football season. Belichick was the ninth coach Crawford featured on his list, and Crawford mentioned the possibility of Belichick looking to the NFL for another opportunity in 2027.
“Only the first three years of Belichick’s five-year, $50 million contract are fully guaranteed. If North Carolina struggles again in 2026, the university would owe roughly $10 million to move on,” Crawford wrote. “On the other side, if an NFL opportunity arises next cycle, Belichick would owe the Tar Heels $1 million to depart early.”
The Tar Heels play a pair of marquee non-conference games against TCU and Notre Dame in the first four weeks of the 2026 season. Of the eight ACC teams it faces in 2026, Syracuse is the only one on North Carolina’s schedule that missed the 2025 postseason.