Inside Bill Belichick’s College Team: How Tar Heels Are Adapting to a Game-Changing Coach

It’s not every day you hear that a legend from the NFL is swapping the professional gridiron for a college sideline — but here we are. When word broke that Bill Belichick, the mastermind behind six Super Bowl victories, was taking the reins at North Carolina, jaws dropped and minds started spinning. Imagine being Jordan Shipp, tossing around the idea with your roommates: the greatest coach of all time is now your coach. That’s the kind of seismic shift that’s been reshaping the Tar Heels’ world. Belichick’s arrival isn’t just a headline; it’s a full-scale revolution, a gamble on NFL pedigree to reboot a college program hungry for relevance and fire. The players — a curious mix of veterans and fresh faces from the transfer portal — are witnessing first-hand the peeling back of an NFL titan’s layers. From spring workouts to media silence lifted, the tide is turning in Chapel Hill, with Belichick’s relentless work ethic and unflinching standards setting a new bar. Curious about what life under the Pats legend really looks like in the college ranks? It’s a blend of fierce discipline, surprising humor, and a fresh kind of grind that has UNC buzzing with anticipation as they gear up for a season opening in the national spotlight. LEARN MORE

“Look, these are great kids to work with, they really are,” Belichick said Tuesday. “We’ve had great buy-in. There have really been no problems at all. These guys are on time, they’re early, they work hard, they put in the work in the weight room, out on the field. They spend time on their own, whether it’s doing extra training or coming over and watching film and that type of thing.For the players, part of the adjustment had been the reality that their coach was winning Super Bowls with quarterback Tom Brady while they were growing up and watching on TV.So Tuesday marked the first time UNC had made players available to reporters since then to discuss Belichick’s arrival. That has meant being coached by someone with a long track record of success at the sport’s highest level, along with getting a peek behind the terse and grumpy persona he was known for with the New England Patriots.North Carolina players hadn’t spoken to reporters since last year’s team ended its season with a Fenway Bowl loss to UConn three days after Christmas, all of which came after Belichick had been hired as coach for the 2025 season.Yet not every surprise has been about X’s and O’s. Sometimes it’s simply when Belichick has dropped the all-business facade to expose an unexpectedly humorous side.

“The attention to detail, the emphasis on fundamentals, and really just kind of creating competition for the guys, that’s what’s getting built here. Guys are embracing it. He treats everybody with tremendous respect and it’s been great.”Belichick’s arrival has triggered plenty of change for the Tar Heels, who are making a big bet on the man who won six Super Bowls as an NFL head coach to spark their football program. No one knows that better than the players — both the holdovers and the transfer-portal arrivals — after months of Belichick overhauling the roster and building the foundation on his first college team.

Formative stages

Defensive back Thad Dixon had met Belichick before when he was at Washington, playing under Belichick’s son Steve — now the Tar Heels’ defensive coordinator and linebackers coach. The two shared a few conversations then, and he jumped at the chance to head east.“I’ve loved having 1-on-1 conversations with him,” Hardy said. “It’s cool to see and meet him personally, because you grow up and see him on TV and everything. And he’s just a completely different coach and guy when you get to be around him all day. It’s cool.”“There’s a lot of that, you get a lot of ‘How is Coach Belichick? What’s new? What’s different?’” Hardy said. “So I’ve rehearsed these questions a lot with family and friends.”Still, Hardy noted it’s mingled amid the work, such as film sessions when “there’s no hiding” when Belichick highlights a mistake.Belichick’s first on-field work in Chapel Hill came during spring workouts, lodged between portal windows in December and April.

Enticing opportunity

He and general manager Michael Lombardi have described their goal as building a pro-style model at the college level. It’s been a key pitch as the 73-year-old Belichick made his first foray onto the recruiting trail, as well as the volume of players transferring in and out of the program.“They’ve made a ton of improvement and these guys are a lot better than they were when we started in January, on every level. So it’s exciting to see where that’s going to take us.”The school hired Belichick in December to elevate the program at a time when football’s role as the revenue driver in college sports has never been bigger.“I mean, maybe at first when you see him, all you see is the Super Bowls that he’s won,” said offensive lineman Christo Kelly, a Holy Cross transfer and Belichick’s first portal commitment. “But when you get here and you see the way he cares, you see the way that he approaches the game, you see how hard he works, there’s no question why he has the success that he has.“I really just wanted the opportunity just to learn from somebody like that, that had did it in the league for so long,” Dixon said.“There are times when he’ll just crack a joke out of nowhere,” he said. “And just him being kind of monotone sometimes will make those jokes so funny.”

Behind the curtain

“I feel like that’s the biggest curveball, you’re coming to the first meeting and you’re expecting it to be serious, 100% locked in,” said Shipp, who played 12 games for UNC last season. “He comes in and he introduces himself and then he busts a joke. That’s the second thing he said.”Intimidating much?Defensive back Will Hardy said the players are used to curiosity that comes with being coached by the NFL lifer now giving college a try.CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — Jordan Shipp remembers the conversation with his roommates after learning Bill Belichick was North Carolina’s new coach.UNC opens the season on Labor Day against TCU in a college version of Monday Night Football.“It was just like, ‘That’s the greatest coach of all time,’” the receiver recalled, “‘and he’s about to be coaching us.’”Hardy pointed that vibe, too.