UNC Football Players’ Attitude, Effort May Answer Key Belichick Questions
By David Glenn
Attitude and effort.
Coaches — in all sports, at all levels — like to remind their players that, in a world overflowing with outside influences, unpredictable variables and unexpected adversities, those are the two things that are always in their control. Good parents often remind their children, whether young or older, of the same concepts.
Attitude and effort.
As the North Carolina football team takes the roughly 2,400-mile trek to California for a nationally televised, late-night contest on Friday (10:30 p.m., ESPN), the Tar Heels’ attitude and effort should be under scrutiny by university officials, along with the team’s overall competitiveness, execution and final result against the Bears.
Why? Because, after Carolina’s ugly 2-3 start — which, from a purely statistical standpoint, ranks among the worst of any Power Four conference team over the last decade-plus — the future of legendary coach Bill Belichick in Chapel Hill should depend on all of those things.
Belichick, 73, is an eight-time Super Bowl champion (counting two as an assistant coach), and no serious person doubts his football knowledge or his intensely competitive spirit.
However, after almost a half-century in the professional ranks, Belichick is brand-new to college football, and there are already legitimate questions about his ability to surround himself with high-quality people and transfer his skill set to the university level.
North Carolina head coach Bill Belichick, left, discusses a call with an official, right, during the second half of UNC’s game against TCU. (Photo via AP Photo/Chris Seward.)
Belichick’s hand-picked general manager, long-time National Football League executive Mike Lombardi, spent $13 million of Carolina’s revenue-sharing money but ultimately failed to deliver much (if any) NFL-caliber talent, a fact that was obvious to some observers even before the 2025 season started.
Belichick’s choice for offensive coordinator — perhaps the most important hire for a head coach with a defensive background — also has been a disaster. Freddie Kitchens, a Mack Brown holdover with minimal experience as a coordinator or play-caller during his 27-year coaching career, has directed the Atlantic Coast Conference’s most anemic unit, including an inept and seemingly directionless passing game.
At his weekly press conference, which had an extremely unusual, star-studded list of attendees on Monday, Belichick both reinforced his personal commitment to UNC and reminded fans of his process- and culture-oriented approach to building the Tar Heels’ program.
“Everybody’s most interested in the final score, and I’m at the top of that list, but it’s a process,” Belichick said. “You build a culture, you build a program, and eventually the results will come. When will that happen? Hopefully, as soon as possible. We’re working hard to get there.”
In theory, an unusual schedule quirk that included two open dates in the past three weeks should enable the Tar Heels to improve enough to have at least a chance against most of the teams in this latter portion of their fairly manageable schedule: at Cal, Virginia, at Syracuse, Stanford, at Wake Forest, Duke, at NC State.
The Bears, while 4-2, were blown out by their two most accomplished opponents, San Diego State (34-0) and Duke (45-21).
In the Blue Devils’ victory over Cal, during a game played in Berkeley, they trailed 21-7 early in the second quarter. But Duke’s players never panicked, never pointed fingers, never let their attitude or effort wane, and the Devils scored the next 38 points in a row against a Cal team with mediocre line play and a talented but error-prone true freshman at quarterback.
That kind of poise, togetherness and ultimate success through adverse circumstances has a chance of happening only if there’s a rock-solid trust factor between players and coaches and an underlying pride and mutual respect among the players themselves.
Is this UNC squad, with so many first-year coaches and 70 new players, and amidst credible reports of locker-room division, capable of such things?
It’s a fundamental part of Belichick’s job description to make sure that’s the case, even in a year when the Tar Heels obviously have a below-average talent base and now a losing record.
UNC receiver Jordan Shipp is one of the team’s few returning players from 2024 and has emerged not only as one of Carolina’s better offensive options, but as a vocal leader of how the team needs to be playing. (Photo via UNC Athletic Communications/Jeffrey A. Camarati.)
In the professional ranks, most multi-million-dollar athletes will continue to play hard, even for a losing team, because they know their future paychecks directly or indirectly depend on the perception of their effort level and productivity. Video doesn’t lie, and half-hearted attempts rank among the ultimate sins in the eyes of coaches and general managers.
At the college level, things are inherently different in that regard, among many others. Most seniors simply aren’t good enough to play professionally, and most realize that fact. Underclassmen, especially in the transfer portal era, can be vulnerable to checking out mentally and emotionally and looking forward to a fresh start somewhere else next season.
Carolina’s players are staring in the face of true tests of their attitude, effort and competitive spirit, and for most of those players there’s a completely different incentive structure than the one Belichick observed for his almost five decades in the NFL.
Regardless of the final score at Cal or even their ultimate record this season, the 2025 Tar Heels will serve as an intriguing litmus test for Belichick.
If they stay engaged and show improvement, it will reflect well on their coach.
If things get worse, and their attitude and effort levels decline, it will reflect very poorly on their coach.
In the latter scenario, either Belichick will quickly grasp the unique nature of the college game and make the necessary adjustments with his general manager, his coaching staff and his youthful locker room, or it would be best for all involved if he found something else to do.
David Glenn (DavidGlennShow.com, @DavidGlennShow) is an award-winning author, broadcaster, editor, entrepreneur, publisher, speaker, writer and university lecturer (now at UNC Wilmington) who has covered sports in North Carolina since 1987.
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