{"id":768848,"date":"2026-07-17T19:30:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-17T19:30:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/768848\/"},"modified":"2026-07-17T19:30:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-17T19:30:08","slug":"bill-belichick-unc-is-way-ahead-of-where-it-was-a-year-ago-difference-is-night-and-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/768848\/","title":{"rendered":"Bill Belichick: UNC is “way ahead” of where it was a year ago, difference is “night and day”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bill Belichick\u2019s first season as North Carolina\u2019s head coach did not go as well as anyone affiliated with the university would have liked, with the program finishing 4-8 in 2025.<\/p>\n

But Belichick, winner of six Super Bowls as an NFL HC, said this week that things are looking up for the Tar Heels in 2026.<\/p>\n

\u201cOverall as a football team, our culture, our program, our ability to operate as a team is much higher than it was a year ago<\/a>,\u201d Belichick said Friday, via Pete Thamel of ESPN, \u201cand our talent level is higher.\u201d<\/p>\n

Belichick added that the program is \u201cway ahead\u201d of where it was a year ago, noting the difference is \u201cnight and day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Belichick also feels positively about the program\u2019s recruiting class, as he was able to bring in 20 portal players and 40 incoming freshmen.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost of the national publications … ranked us in the top 15 in your recruiting class,\u201d Belichick said. \u201cSo I think if you recruit good players, you\u2019re going to have good teams. If you don\u2019t recruit good players, then you\u2019re probably going to have a hard time breaking into that level. So I think we have to consistently bring in good players, continue to work hard, improve and develop them. And I\u2019m confident that we\u2019ll be there. It\u2019s a process.\u201d<\/p>\n

The talent level was an issue for UNC in 2025, with Belichick noting that no players from the team were drafted and only two players who were eligible are still on an NFL offseason roster.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt gives you an idea where we were,\u201d Belichick said.<\/p>\n

But the former Patriots and Browns head coach said he\u2019s having fun at the college level.<\/p>\n

\u201cI enjoy seeing the kids grow,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd so you see a lot of growth in kids as they move away from home, as they live on their own and just start to become real adults. So I\u2019ve enjoyed that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bill Belichick\u2019s first season as North Carolina\u2019s head coach did not go as well as anyone affiliated with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":768849,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[349,99],"class_list":["post-768848","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/768848","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=768848"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/768848\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/768849"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=768848"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=768848"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=768848"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}