Despite hiring Bill Belichick and grooming first-round quarterbacks, the North Carolina Tar Heels’ football program remains mired in mediocrity, failing to secure a conference title for over four decades.
The North Carolina Tar Heels are known as a basketball school.
There's no shame in that.
The Tar Heels made it known this year that just making the NCAA Tournament isn't enough, as they fired Hubert Davis after a first-round exit and hired an NBA championship head coach in Michael Malone.
The football program has had quality coaches in its history. Mack Brown was a legendary coach in his own right, going 113-79-1 during his two stints at North Carolina, but only making the ACC Championship Game once, suffering a 39-10 loss to Clemson in 2022.
A 6-6 stint in 2024 made UNC decide to part ways with Mack Brown, and the program put their hopes in six-time Super Bowl-winning head coach Bill Belichick to compete for an ACC championship and College Football Playoff appearance.
That idea was a bust in 2025, with Belichick going 4-8.
Eddie Timanus of USA Today ranked North Carolina as the No. 13 best program in the ACC, arguing that the Tar Heels are one of the "biggest underachievers" in the conference.
That idea was a bust in 2025, with Belichick going 4-8.
"The Tar Heels’ latest experiment to become relevant in football is off to a shaky start entering Bill Belichick's second season," he wrote. "There's tremendous advantages for this program that makes it one of the biggest underachievers in the league.
"For much of its lengthy history the program has been middling as evidenced by one double-digit win season this century, and its 15-24 bowl record is also less than stellar."
UNC has won five ACC championships, but has not brought one home since 1980. It's only won two Coastal Division championships in 2015 and 2022. The program is 738-577-54 overall.
The disappointing part of all of this is that UNC has invested in its football program, though maybe not to the degree of its more decorated men's basketball program.
North Carolina has had recent first-round picks at quarterback in Mitch Trubisky and Drake Maye, but hasn’t sniffed a conference championship.
Belichick could still wind up leading UNC to better days, though that likely won't come this season amid a difficult schedule for the rebuilding program.
