After Loss to TCU, Is Bill Belichick Truly Built for College Football?

MJ was there. The one and only. The greatest basketball player to ever live rarely makes it to North Carolina football games these days. 

Sure, he thrived in Carolina Blue decades ago before becoming the Michael Jordan, although he's been pretty busy since then. But this was a special occasion, the debut of the Bill Belichick, and it felt special for a while. 

There was energy, and it wasn't forced energy. A football program that has had its fair share of moments over the past 25 years was ready for another. Jordan, other celebrities and athletes, and more than 50,000 hopeful North Carolina fans, came to watch Belichick coach a college football game against TCU.

Then the first drive happened, which resulted in a North Carolina touchdown. The energy will never be as real as it was in that moment. Then the rest of the football game happened, and the game unraveled.

Final score: TCU 48, North Carolina 14.

By halftime, many of the North Carolina fans had left. By the middle of the fourth quarter, the place was largely a ghost town. Energy gone. A new reality setting in. 

Now, with actual football to discuss, we can't help but wonder how this unique pairing will possibly age with the shine and possibilities of the spectacular all but gone. Maybe more directly, how long will the most decorated football coach to ever grace a sideline, a 73-year-old NFL titan, take on beatings from unranked teams?

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Indeed, it's only one game. Not only is it just one game, but Belichick played this game with a reported 70 new players (not a typo) on his roster. New faces. New coaching staff. New standards. New levels of attention.

All of it matters, and it feels more prevalent now. No one expected UNC to look like a finished product out of the gate, even if the oddsmakers made the Tar Heels a small home underdog against a dangerous team.

Big miss there.

While "reason" and "college football" rarely square dance nicely, we can at least try to be reasonable in the aftermath of such a lopsided, embarrassing outcome. 

It would be completely unreasonable to write the obituary for the 2025 North Carolina football team on the first day of September. But it's not unreasonable to ask the question we've asked since this football marriage became official.

Why?

Why is Belichick doing this?

We asked this when Belichick, winner of eight Super Bowls, took a middle-of-the-road job in the ACC out of thin air. No offense intended. It's simply the reality of North Carolina football.

He was paid a lot of money to do so—a cool $10 million a year. Oh, and he hired his son, Stephen Belichick, to coach his defense. Not a bad gig.

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After trying to claw his way back into an NFL job, it was also clear he still wanted to coach even if the league didn't want him. Given the way his tenure at New England ended, it's not exactly shocking.

While only Belichick knows why he chose to take this job, a more important question now takes center stage.

How long?

How long will the most successful football coach of our lives tolerate losing to unranked teams by bundles of touchdowns?

How long can a 73-year-old stomach a dramatic football rebuild?

How long can Belichick deal with losing, even if every game isn't like this one?

The part that never quite aligned was the expectations. The shock of the hire and the fit really overwhelmed the conversation. The fact that Belichick's contract essentially has no buyout—reportedly just $1 million—speaks to the unusual arrangement between the two sides.

This is not a program that goes into a year expecting to win a national title, hence the excitement of the addition. This is a team that, quite frankly, is happy to flirt with an ACC title every now and then?

Would Belichick be happy to guide UNC regularly to nine-win seasons? If so, for how long?

At the moment, a nine-win season seems like a lot to ask. Maybe TCU, a nine-game winner last season, is the best in the Big 12. That could explain some of it. Maybe UNC will see itself drastically improve with more reps later in the season.  

Maybe the scoreboard and the embarrassment will be justified, although sometimes we fight reality for far too long. And let's be honest about the present reality.

We know enough about North Carolina after 60 minutes to have a sense at what this team will and won't do. Belichick should play for next year now, which is always part of the plan in the sport he's still learning.

He'll be 74 years old then, and perhaps the goal will be bowl eligibility once more. For a coach who has done so much—more than anyone in the game's storied history—none of it adds up.

If this is what he wants, fantastic. But it's hard to see an outcome where this ends gracefully. It's hard to see beyond what we just saw, which is likely not the last time we see it.

MJ's next football game might not be for a while.