David Hale
Multiple Authors
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — There’s a custom at the University of North Carolina that, at the begin of every new faculty 12 months, college students drink from the faculty’s famed Old Well, then make a promise to ship a 4.0 GPA. This 12 months, Tar Heels soccer coach Bill Belichick joined college students for the occasion.
“The 4.0 doesn’t always come,” pupil physique president Devin Duncan mentioned, “but being out there is nice.”
This, maybe, greatest symbolizes the place the North Carolina soccer program is at the threshold of a new season, Belichick’s second in Chapel Hill. His tenure started with immense hope for a wildly profitable future, fell far quick in a tumultuous first 12 months, and now, as the Tar Heels put together to take the discipline in Ireland in opposition to TCU (noon ET on Saturday, ESPN), there’s little extra to depend on than Belichick’s phrase that this season will likely be completely different.
“We made a lot of progress, and we continue to do that,” Belichick mentioned at the begin of fall camp. “The program is headed in a positive direction.”
What Belichick has delivered to this point, nevertheless, has been a depressing 4-8 file in his first season and a tradition inside the soccer constructing that numerous present and former athletics division employees members known as “a circus,” “a mess” and “a disaster.”
Just moments earlier than that first information convention of fall camp started, the faculty introduced an official investigation into Michael Lombardi, Belichick’s longtime consigliere and handpicked GM and, in accordance to one UNC staffer, “the most hated man in the building,” following a grievance filed by a former worker with the faculty’s human sources division.
Belichick and all different UNC employees members had been barred from discussing the investigation, the faculty mentioned in a launch.
Every week after the Lombardi investigation started, Belichick introduced that his son Steve, who serves as the workforce’s defensive coordinator, could be taking a leave of absence due to an undisclosed medical subject. There isn’t any timeline for the youthful Belichick’s return, and the head coach has provided no indications as to who’s operating the protection in Steve’s absence.
Meanwhile, inside the soccer constructing, greater than a half-dozen present and former UNC employees members levied allegations of bullying subordinates, ignoring primary compliance pointers, and sustaining a near-surveillance-state degree of oversight of employees and assistant coaches that felt akin to a fixed check of loyalty.
When North Carolina opened the 2025 season on Labor Day night in entrance of a packed home at Kenan Stadium that included dignitaries like Michael Jordan, Mia Hamm and Lawrence Taylor, it appeared, for a few moments anyway, that Belichick’s rent had been a stroke of genius. On UNC’s first drive, QB Gio Lopez led the Heels down the discipline for a landing, and the stadium erupted in a close to delirium. TCU scored the subsequent 41 factors en route to a 48-14 blowout, and little has gone proper for the Tar Heels since.
In the previous 12 months, Belichick and Lombardi continued to insist each new misstep and each ugly loss was all a part of the plan, whereas all the enthusiasm that got here with the begin of this experiment dissipated into a laborious actuality: The clock is ticking on Belichick’s time in Chapel Hill if the outcomes do not come quickly.
“This,” one former UNC participant informed ESPN, “is the least excitement I’ve seen for a season in a decade.”
IT WAS LOMBARDI who kicked over the first domino that led to Belichick’s rent, reaching out to UNC directors in November 2024, weeks earlier than the Tar Heels had formally parted methods with Mack Brown, and made it identified that Belichick could be concerned with the job. The attract, Lombardi informed them, was that Belichick wouldn’t have to report to an proprietor. (Belichick’s feud with New England Patriots proprietor Bob Kraft has develop into public fodder, with Belichick going as far as to ban Patriots scouts from UNC practices final 12 months.) Lombardi would spin these efforts into a $1.5 million-per-year wage for himself, the highest amongst public universities for a faculty soccer normal supervisor.
Quite a few key UNC athletics directors, together with then-AD Bubba Cunningham, had reservations, however Lombardi and Belichick, by means of relationships with native and nationwide politicians and at the urging of then-UNC board of trustees chairman John Preyer, pushed ahead regardless, leaning on these starstruck by the concept of a legendary coach on the sideline in Chapel Hill.
Lombardi and Belichick blew into Chapel Hill assuming they had been a step forward of the remainder of faculty soccer due to the head coach’s immense NFL success. As faculty sports activities developed towards a skilled mannequin, Lombardi theorized, UNC could be getting the greatest the execs had to provide. Lombardi famously labeled UNC “the 33rd NFL team” earlier than the Heels had taken a single follow rep below Belichick.
Instead of a skilled atmosphere, nevertheless, what unfolded in the ensuing months wavered between a rudderless ship, a battle of egos and repeated assessments of loyalty, greater than a half-dozen individuals with firsthand entry to the program informed ESPN.
Lombardi jetted off to Saudi Arabia on an impromptu fundraising endeavor. He oversaw a scouting and participant acquisition course of that, in accordance to two sources, had nearly no coherent philosophy and resulted in a roster bereft of Power 4 expertise. Another former staffer mentioned Lombardi operated with a “ready, fire, aim” strategy to guidelines and protocols regardless of a cascade of emails, memos and solutions from an overwhelmed compliance division and longtime staffers. One individual mentioned he witnessed a number of events by which Lombardi verbally berated employees and assistant coaches who tried to warn him about potential NCAA violations, with Lombardi telling one coach, “This is my f—ing show.”
A former participant at a rival faculty recounted getting a name from Lombardi in spring 2025 urging him to enter the switch portal and are available to UNC. The name got here with a warning, nevertheless: If the participant made anybody conscious of the tampering, he might lose his eligibility.
“He was not going to let anyone tell him what to do,” one other supply mentioned.
One former staffer described a splintered solid of assistants and assist employees, a faction employed by Lombardi instantly undercutting staffers employed by Belichick, with one supply saying Lombardi typically went out of his means to isolate Belichick from different coaches and assist employees, insisting on one-on-one conferences between him and the head coach as an alternative.
Another former staffer mentioned they witnessed what they perceived as NCAA violations, together with offering free meals to junior recruits on unofficial visits — a comparatively minor transgression, however indicative of an overarching ignorance of the guidelines. When the staffer made Lombardi’s workplace conscious of the subject, the staffer mentioned they had been informed to “be a team player.”
And a third former employees member who stored contemporaneous notes on the early recruiting course of, which had been reviewed by ESPN, wrote that new employees had fired personnel who had been dealing with “multiple necessary positions” and changed them with “people who [don’t] have the necessary experience to keep the program operational.”
That similar staffer’s synopsis in notes they later shared with UNC administration: “This new regime is doing things any way but ‘The Carolina Way’ and there is a need to be very concerned about future investigations, sanctions and being stripped of wins or privileges,” including that “morale is at an all-time low.”
AS THE 2025 season devolved, there was rampant hypothesis that Belichick had misplaced management of the workforce, targeted as an alternative on his 24-year-old girlfriend, Jordon Hudson. At one level, after a 2-5 begin to the season, stories recommended Belichick was on the brink of resignation. None of this was true, in accordance to practically a dozen individuals who spoke with ESPN.
“People are like, ‘Oh, we’ve seen Coach at the beach,’ and I’m sitting in a meeting with him,” receiver Jordan Shipp mentioned.
Hudson’s presence was “annoying,” a former UNC employees member mentioned, however “I don’t think she distracts Bill at all from what he needs to do.” Several individuals shut to the program recommended the controversies had worn skinny with a donor base uncomfortable with scandalous headlines even earlier than the workforce flatlined on the discipline. This offseason, Hudson roiled directors once more by filing a slew of open records requests to acquire entry to communications from UNC employees members she deliberate to use in a potential lawsuit in opposition to podcaster Pablo Torre.
Still, practically each supply who spoke to ESPN famous that Belichick was hands-on with gamers, an insightful instructor, accessible and pleasant with employees, and an affable determine round campus who attended sporting occasions and delivered pizzas to fraternity homes and cruised round campus in a 20-year-old sedan.
“The guy drives, like, a 2000s red Volvo,” heart Christo Kelly mentioned. “When you get to see the real Belichick, see who he really is — it’s a red Volvo. He’s a simple man.”
Instead, the blame for UNC’s struggles largely targeted on Lombardi’s off-field tradition and, on the discipline, on an offensive coordinator “in over his head.”
Freddie Kitchens was a holdover from Brown’s employees who, in accordance to a number of individuals with direct data of the internal workings of the program throughout that point, had cultivated deep relationships with BOT chair Preyer and influential donors. When Brown was fired, those self same energy brokers insisted Kitchens function the workforce’s interim coach and pushed for him to get an interview for the full-time job. When Belichick was employed, it was conveyed that he ought to preserve Kitchens on employees.
“No one said he had to be retained as the offensive coordinator, though,” one supply mentioned.
Kitchens had not known as performs since a stint with the Cleveland Browns in 2018, however his NFL pedigree match with the picture Belichick and Lombardi needed to curate. On the discipline, nevertheless, the issues had been apparent nearly instantly.
The faculty invested closely in Lopez, an undersized however cell QB with good downfield imaginative and prescient and a capability to improvise who had success at South Alabama. The Tar Heels used none of those skills. Lopez later mentioned the tradition at UNC “felt like there was no air,” and his father, Barney Lopez, mentioned his son could be “ridiculed” if he did not execute performs precisely as they had been known as.
Multiple sources echoed related variations of that situation, saying Lombardi and different staffers routinely ridiculed gamers’ expertise and efficiency in conferences. This included backup QB Max Johnson, who a number of sources mentioned deserved a lengthy look as the starter however was largely exiled as a result of Lombardi had invested $2 million in Lopez.
At season’s finish, UNC parted ways with Kitchens, the lone public instance of Belichick and Lombardi admitting a mistake.
With Kitchens gone, UNC turned to Bobby Petrino, a longtime coach together with his personal historical past of scandal, from makes an attempt to usurp jobs from different coaches to a motorbike accident with a feminine staffer at Arkansas that in the end resulted in his termination. He coached Lamar Jackson to success at Louisville earlier than that program fell on laborious occasions, with one member of the incoming employees that changed him calling the Cardinals “the most damaged locker room I’ve ever been around” after Petrino’s tenure.
“It’s loopy that, in the previous 12 months, the neatest thing that is occurred to this soccer program is we hired Bobby Petrino,” one member of the UNC athletics employees mentioned.
In latest years, Petrino has develop into one thing of a employed gun for coaches on shaky footing. He served a 12 months as offensive coordinator at Texas A&M in 2023, solely to see head coach Jimbo Fisher fired halfway by means of the season. He then returned to Arkansas, calling performs for Sam Pittman in 2024 and 2025 and dramatically bolstering the offensive output, however in 2025 Pittman, too, was fired halfway by means of the marketing campaign.
Now, Petrino is in Chapel Hill, with Belichick’s future doubtful, and he could be the workforce’s greatest hope.
This offseason, UNC invested in a new QB, Billy Edwards Jr., who will begin in opposition to TCU. A gifted freshman, Travis Burgess, waits in the wings. The offensive line obtained an overhaul, and Shipp and tailback Demon June are established contributors. But most importantly, there’s perception that the man calling performs for them has the pedigree to design an efficient recreation plan.
“If Belichick turns this around,” a former UNC employees member mentioned, “it will be because of Petrino.”
IF PETRINO’S ARRIVAL signaled a new lifeline for UNC, the seemingly finish to Lombardi’s tumultuous tenure as GM would possibly provide much more trigger for optimism.
Athletics director Steve Newmark mentioned July 30 that he hoped the Lombardi investigation could be dealt with “as quickly as possible,” although information shortly adopted that the College Sports Commission — the year-old entity created to function a clearinghouse for NIL — was investigating UNC, too. Multiple individuals with direct data of the proceedings informed ESPN they didn’t anticipate Lombardi to return to UNC, a notion bolstered when the often understated chancellor, Lee Roberts, provided, unprompted, a bleak summation of the scenario following a July board of trustees assembly.
“I’m disappointed that we’re talking about this,” Roberts mentioned. “We should be focusing on our student-athletes and on their success. … It’s distressing to me and everyone else in the administration entrusted with leadership at this remarkable university that this is something we have to spend time on.”
Belichick has deflected questions on who was filling the sizable void left by Lombardi’s absence, saying solely that “we’re taking it day to day and working through the things that are on the table right now.”
An individual with data of the investigation mentioned that the faculty’s counsel has interviewed Lombardi as soon as already for greater than an hour and that one other deposition was seemingly forthcoming. The faculty’s pointers say HR investigations are sometimes resolved inside 30 days, however UNC has already gone previous that benchmark with no clear finish in sight. Text messages reviewed by ESPN present a sprawling investigation that has included everybody from present employees members to the girlfriend of an assistant coach.
Lombardi’s legal professional, Tom Mars, mentioned all of it amounted to nothing apart from the faculty fishing for a means out of paying Lombardi’s $1.5 million buyout.
“This has turned into a snipe hunt with billable hours,” Mars informed ESPN. “I have an expectation that they have absolutely no grounds to terminate his employment for cause — nothing even close.”
Quite a few sources in UNC’s administration acknowledged longstanding issues about Lombardi’s administration type, however every has insisted the investigation is being dealt with objectively, together with UNC hiring exterior authorized counsel as a advisor.
Several individuals nonetheless both working in administration or shut to the present management who spoke with ESPN mentioned they believed the faculty nonetheless needed to see Belichick succeed, with one individual suggesting that, if the workforce merely confirmed enchancment, the odds had been much better that the coach could be again in 2027 than that he’d be fired.
Newmark, who served on the advisory board that beneficial Belichick for the job in 2024, informed ESPN he has confidence his coach is constructing a basis for the future, even when the current scenario appears murky.
“Coach Belichick has been incredibly supportive of all our athletic teams and has thoroughly embraced being part of the Carolina Athletics family since arriving in Chapel Hill,” Newmark mentioned. “Within the football program, he has been intentional from day one about building the foundation for the long term. As we continue to strive for improvement both on and off the field, there is a lot of optimism about the program’s potential under Coach Belichick. Our responsibility is to support [him], his staff and our student-athletes and give this team every opportunity to compete at the level we expect at Carolina.”
Regardless, one former employees member mentioned Lombardi’s departure from UNC’s soccer facility was trigger for celebration amongst the employees, and that alone gives some optimism that Belichick, untethered from his closest ally, might now chart a new course.
“I think if [Belichick] had surrounded himself with better people to start out,” one former employees member mentioned, “it would’ve been a different outcome.”
INSIDE THE FOOTBALL facility, the gamers who’ve weathered the storm of tabloid rumors, brutal losses and rampant hypothesis about their coach’s future have caught by Belichick.
Shipp described discovering Belichick watching movie on the treadmill in the early hours, then seeing the similar scene repeat itself effectively after the majority of the soccer constructing had emptied for the evening.
Belichick has made these gamers higher, Shipp mentioned, even when the win-loss file hasn’t proven it.
“We didn’t live up to expectations, but there’s no expectation that a reporter or some article can put on us,” Shipp mentioned. “We’re doing all we can within our building to be as good and push each other as much as we can. If somebody who’s never picked up a football a day in their life is saying, ‘Oh, you let me down’ — boo-hoo. We don’t care. We’re doing as much as we can daily to push each other.”
It’s a mantra pupil physique president Duncan mentioned the campus desires to embrace. If final 12 months’s outcomes dimmed once-dizzying expectations, there’s a perception that the adjustments made — at offensive coordinator, on the roster and now at normal supervisor — imply the spark can nonetheless be reignited.
“It’s no secret to say quite a few folks were disappointed,” Duncan mentioned. “But I think I’ve heard a lot of anticipation. Coach Belichick was new, and I think people are trying to give him another shot. They’ve had time to settle in, to build a system, to get on the road and recruit and establish a culture. So I think there’s hope Year 2 looks a lot better than last year.”
This continues to be Bill Belichick, in spite of everything. There could be a refrain of critics keen to witness his downfall, however inside the locker room, Shipp insisted, the most profitable coach in soccer historical past hasn’t misplaced his contact.
“People want to write that Coach is washed,” Shipp mentioned. “You don’t just forget how to coach over time. That’s not how it happens. Not everybody is going to win everything, and sometimes we forget, Coach is still human.”
Observing a coach who has spent a lot of his profession hiding behind a veneer of relentless stoicism, it may be laborious for even the most ardent of Carolina followers to see the humanity on this chaotic run, and at the same time as his private life has dominated headlines and his workforce’s efficiency has put his job standing doubtful, Belichick has provided no trace that he is troubled by any of it.
Throughout final 12 months’s struggles, Belichick would stride into the cavernous atrium the place UNC hosts its media periods and his trademark monotone grumble would echo into oblivion, his explanations barely audible to reporters sitting simply a few ft away. Beginning this fall, UNC added a new characteristic — a moveable speaker tethered wirelessly to Belichick’s mic, projecting his voice simply a bit additional into the ether.
The speaker represents at least one lesson discovered from final 12 months’s failures. The query now’s whether or not Belichick has something left to say about how to repair the relaxation.