North Carolina Tar Heels coach Bill Belichick is being criticized yet again, and the reason won't surprise you.
Bill Belichick's debut campaign at Chapel Hill did not exactly go according to plan, as the North Carolina Tar Heels went just 4-8, were dealt several humiliating blowout losses and failed to qualify for a bowl game for the first time since 2018.
Belichick didn't exactly making it any easier on himself with his behavior, as well, doing things such as barring New England Patriots scouts from the North Carolina facility, banning Drake Maye content on social media, etc.
Of course, his much-publicized relationship with Jordon Hudson served as a distraction, as well.
Belichick is certainly hoping for better results in his second season, and for the sake of his future with the Tar Heels, it's basically a must.
But once again, Belichick is finding himself crossways with fans and media members due to his secrecy surrounding UNC's spring camp.
David Starnes of Tar Heel Blog detailed the situation.
North Carolina Tar Heels spring practice. Credit: Rodd Baxley/The Fayetteville Observer / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images."That second portal window has been eliminated. However, the transparency hasn’t fully returned," Starnes wrote. "Certainly not at UNC, where outside observers so far have been granted two observational windows, 15 minutes each at two separate practices. Some of those periods included things like stretching exercises. Access has been shrunk to a bare minimum. Fences around fields have been tarped. As of Friday afternoon, UNC still had no formal announcement of any concluding event, not even an open practice, much less a spring scrimmage."
Starnes then cited Alabama as an example of the opposite.
"If Alabama football can protect its trade secrets while allowing fans to start connecting with its 2026 team, then UNC and Bill Belichick should be able to figure it out as well. This assumes Belichick and [Michael] Lombardi care about fans and bother to invest any energy in promoting the program," Starnes added.
To be fair, it's not a requirement for Belichick to open practice to the public ... but some transparency would be nice.
This shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone, though.
Belichick has always been notoriously tight-lipped, so the fact that he is making his practices mostly inaccessible — especially after such a brutal inaugural season — shouldn't shock anyone.
The good news is that Belichick has put together a top-20 recruiting class for 2026, so there may be some reason for optimism surrounding Tar Heels football heading into the new season.
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