As Bill Belichick was winning six Super Bowls in 24 seasons with the New England Patriots, the coach\u2019s teams came to establish certain baseline expectations.<\/p>\n
They almost always throttled their divisional opponents and projected an air of exacting competency, all while imploring players to focus on football under a credo he repeated ad nauseam: \u201cDo your job.\u201d<\/p>\n
For the first time since he was pushed out of New England in 2024, Belichick will coach a game, when the University of North Carolina faces Texas Christian University on Monday. Seeing Belichick on a sideline again feels familiar. What wasn\u2019t was the disarray that surrounded him, particularly throughout the nine months since he took the job in Chapel Hill.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s why, on the heels of a tabloid-filled offseason for a coach considered the greatest of all time \u2014 when there was more news about his relationship with his 24-year-old girlfriend, Jordon Hudson, than about his coaching \u2014 it\u2019s anyone\u2019s guess what will happen in his first college season.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s going to teach you the right fundamentals, the right techniques. He\u2019s going to have a high expectation for you and you\u2019re going to develop a lot. That\u2019s what I know,\u201d former Patriots quarterback Tom Brady said on Fox.<\/a> \u201cI think the challenge for him is he\u2019s dealing with probably a lot of underdeveloped players because he\u2019s dealt with guys that are four, five, six years further along than what he\u2019s normally had to deal with. I think there\u2019s probably a learning curve for him.\u201d<\/p>\n The marriage between this coach and this school was one few saw coming. Including his time as an NFL coordinator, Belichick owns eight Super Bowl rings; North Carolina, meanwhile, boasts just eight double-digit-win seasons in its 121-season history. At UNC, basketball is one of the school\u2019s traditional powers; its football program, however, is not. In a bid to become one, North Carolina swapped out the oldest active coach in the NCAA\u2019s Football Bowl Subdivision, 73-year-old Mack Brown, for a 73-year-old successor who would hold the same distinction.<\/p>\n The idea that Belichick, who had coached in the NFL for his entire career, since he was 23, would leave for the college ranks was so unexpected that former Patriots stars Brady, tight end Rob Gronkowski and receiver Julian Edelman laughed off the possibility last December.<\/p>\n \u201cGetting out there on the recruiting trail and dealing with all these college kids, that would be frightening,\u201d Brady said on Fox<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cCould you imagine Bill on a couch recruiting an 18-year-old?\u201d Edelman said.<\/p>\n That was Dec. 8. Three days later, Belichick was sitting in a packed press conference in Chapel Hill, being introduced as the next UNC coach. He wasn\u2019t universally thought to be the man for the job; according to ESPN, his candidacy divided the school\u2019s leadership<\/a>.<\/p>\n When Belichick promised to operate North Carolina like the NFL\u2019s \u201c33rd team,\u201d it promoted his big-league bona fides. Yet it was also a reminder that none of the league\u2019s 32 teams had opted to hire him during the two hiring cycles since he had left New England, despite being only 15 wins shy of passing Don Shula for most all time.<\/p>\n His best shot came in 2024 when he interviewed with Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank; however, a conversation Blank had with Patriots owner Robert Kraft, whose relationship with Belichick had deteriorated, may have undermined Belichick\u2019s chances, according to ESPN.<\/a><\/p>\n Belichick spent last season out of football not by holing up in retirement at his beachfront home in Nantucket,<\/a> but by doing something that seemed to be the least favorite part of his 49 years in the NFL \u2014 going on a media blitz. Dour and evasive behind a lectern in New England, Belichick poked fun at himself and former players at a 2024 roast of Brady, appeared regularly last fall on two ESPN broadcasts, analyzed plays on a CW show, and hosted or co-hosted multiple podcasts.<\/p>\n He also wrote a memoir, \u201cThe Art of Winning,\u201d whose publicity campaign last spring raised questions around his relationship with Hudson and whether it would affect his ability to do his new job.<\/p>\n Asked during a taping of a CBS morning show about their relationship, Belichick, wearing a ragged sweatshirt that became his calling card in New England, said he had \u201cnever been too worried about what everyone else thinks.\u201d But when Belichick was asked how the two had met, Hudson, sitting off camera, cut in.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re not talking about this,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Belichick later released a statement defending Hudson for \u201csimply doing her job to ensure the interview stayed on track\u201d and claimed the two had met on a flight to Palm Beach in 2021.<\/p>\n Belichick would later say that Hudson, who is not employed by the university, \u201cdoesn\u2019t have anything to do with UNC football.\u201d Weeks into taking over in Chapel Hill, however, Belichick reportedly asked that Hudson be copied on certain emails. And according to emails released under public records requests<\/a>, Hudson had suggested to university officials how to shape public relations around the hiring of Belichick\u2019s son Steve as the school\u2019s defensive coordinator.<\/p>\n In May, Belichick supported Hudson’s bid <\/a>to become Miss Maine USA by sitting in the pageant\u2019s front row. (Hudson finished third.<\/a>)<\/p>\n As tabloid attention grew around Belichick\u2019s personal life, former Patriots players recalled with irony how the coach constantly stressed the importance of minimizing public distractions.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you were on the Patriots, the whole goal was to eliminate all the distractions that can possibly happen while you\u2019re on the team,\u201d Gronkowski said in May. <\/a>\u201cAnd don\u2019t bring those distractions to the team and in the locker room. And we\u2019re just looking down at the program in North Carolina and it just feels like there are just distractions 24\/7 down there. There\u2019s just no football talk at all.\u201d<\/p>\n Edelman, the former star receiver, also described questions about Hudson\u2019s role with the team and the coach as \u201ca distraction.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s what we all think right now. It\u2019s becoming a distraction. We gotta practice what we preach here,\u201d Edelman said in May.<\/a><\/p>\n Belichick and Hudson\u2019s relationship isn\u2019t only personal, but professional. This month, a company applied for more than a dozen Belichick-related trademarks through the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office \u2014 including \u201cGold Digger,\u201d \u201cChapel Bill (Bill\u2019s Version), \u201cThe Belichick Way\u201d and \u201cDynasty (Bill\u2019s Version).\u201d That company lists Hudson<\/a> as the manager.<\/p>\n When Belichick wasn\u2019t facing questions about Hudson, he was being asked about how his NFL acumen would translate to college.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s no owner, there\u2019s no owner\u2019s son, there\u2019s no cap, everything that goes with the marketing and everything else, which I\u2019m all for that. But it\u2019s way less of what it was at that level,\u201d Belichick told The Boston Globe<\/a>. \u201cGeneric NFL teams, you have the owner, president, general manager, personnel director, college director, pro director, cap guy, some other consultant, then head coach. I\u2019d say when we had our best years in New England, we had fewer people and more of a direct vision. And as that expanded, it became harder to be successful.\u201d<\/p>\n Building a roster has been the biggest change, he told the Globe; instead of tracking more than 300 NFL free agents, UNC hosted more than 4,000 prospects during the offseason.<\/p>\n Still, for all of the scrutiny UNC faced during the spring, it could financially win the fall even without a notable bump from last season\u2019s 6-7 record. Revenue generated by the football team is projected to increase from $12 million last season to $19 million, a UNC official told the Globe<\/a>. In the school bookstore, sleeveless Tar Heels hoodies are being sold for $84.99.<\/a><\/p>\n During Belichick\u2019s tenure in New England, the Patriots never allowed \u201cHard Knocks,\u201d HBO\u2019s all-access NFL docuseries, to film the team. Yet a Hulu docuseries will follow the Tar Heels in 2025.<\/p>\n For better or worse, attention is on Belichick and North Carolina \u2014 and how well he will, ultimately, do his job.<\/p>\n