Belichick wants to make UNC football better than it’s been, but not thinking national title

The North Carolina football program hasn’t won an Atlantic Coast Conference title since 1980 when a young Lawrence Taylor tormented opposing offenses — and Bill Belichick was a young special teams coordinator and linebackers coach for the New York Giants without a single Super Bowl championship on his resume.

In the nearly half century since that title, Taylor became one of the greatest defensive players of all time, guided in part by Belichick, who became one of the greatest coaches of all time and an eight-time Super Bowl champion as a defensive coordinator and head coach, and the Tar Heels’ football program has mostly muddled through with a few brief flashes of success and a lot of average seasons.

Belichick, entering his second season as the Tar Heels’ head coach, wants to change that last part and, perhaps, put a capstone on his football career.

“Most people at North Carolina — alumni, whatever — feel like North Carolina should be better at football than what it’s been,” Belichick said in a lengthy interview with Fox News commentator Sean Hannity. “And so that’s what we want to make it.”

In one of his final questions, Hannity asked Belichick how important it would be for him to win a national championship in college. UNC, which is 281-250-3 in the 25 seasons since that 1980 ACC crown, has never won a football national championship.

“Our goals are much more short term than that, as were our goals in the NFL,” Belichick said. “We never talked about Super Bowl this year or last year. Whatever was over, whatever was done was done, and until we got to that game, it really wasn’t really relevant. There were too many steps that needed to be taken in between, and so that’s the same thing for me at North Carolina.

“Right now, our goal is to get ready for training camp in August. What do we need to do between now and then in terms of coaching and player preparation, coaching strategy, based on what we know about our team? What things do we want to modify or change from what we did in the spring and so forth? How do we have a good week and then have a good week, then what can we do to ramp up the next week to improve on that, and eventually just try to keep getting on a higher ground. Long-term goal, of course, is to be as good as you can be, but that’s so far in the distance. What’s important is to take advantage of today and tomorrow and this week and those are really our goals. How do we maximize these next few days?”

Hannity, best known for his conservative politics, questioned why Belichick, after a legendary run in the NFL, would coach college football. Belichick, who turned 74 last month, hadn’t coached in college when North Carolina hired him in December 2024 to elevate the program.

“I always wanted to coach in college and never really had the opportunity to and the opportunity came up,” Belichick said. “North Carolina is a great brand. It's a great school, academically, athletically, and, of course, even going back to LT [Taylor], the opportunity to have a great football program. They've had a number of good players there. So I like the school, certainly like Chancellor [Lee] Roberts, and the commitment that he's made to football, which I'm not sure how much was or wasn't made in the past.”

Belichick went 4-8 in his first season in Chapel Hill, including struggles against better competition. The Tar Heels offense was one of the worst in the ACC. Despite the record, North Carolina’s incoming athletics director Steve Newmark told WRAL in May that he’s “optimistic” about the program’s direction.

“When you get to see him operate on a day-to-day basis, he is maniacally focused on the details and he also cares very deeply for the kids,” Newmark said. “He’s trying to figure out how to make them better, how to reach their potential. That’s why he was so successful in the pros. You can actually see, when you watch them operate, you see how that works and how it translated to such success at the professional level.” 

Though UNC has been mocked over general manager Michael Lombardi’s comments about operating as the NFL’s “33rd team,” Belichick reiterated to Hannity that the Tar Heels are “very much trying to run an NFL model” with their front office and scouting structure. He said UNC has more than 250 years of NFL experience among its coaches and staff.

“Our thing is what it’s always been is to develop players and develop a team, to help make the players better. In a lot of cases, hopefully to help them reach their goals and dreams and play in the NFL, play on Sundays,” Belichick said.

“I’ve seen so much improvement, development from our team last year. Now we had a long way to go and still do, but we’ve made a lot of improvement. We’e developed a lot and we’ll continue to do that.”

Belichick;’s father was a longtime college football coach and scout, including a stint at UNC when Belichick was a young child. Belichick’s sons Steve (defensive coordinator) and Brian (safeties) are on his Tar Heels’ staff.

“One good thing about having your kids work for you is when you screw up, they’ll come in and tell you, like, ‘Hey, Dad, that was really stupid. Why’d you do that?’” Belichick said. “Not everybody on your staff would say that to you but sometimes you get that from your kids that will question you and we all need that.”

Hannity often referenced Belichick’s book, “The Art of Winning: Lessons from a Life in Football.” In the book, Belichick discusses the mistakes he made at times throughout his coaching career and owning those mistakes with players.

“A good team cannot overcome bad coaching,” he said. “They just can't. They just can't. And I've had that instilled in me for as long as I can remember. Bad coaching keeps teams from winning, and it's your job as a coach to put your team in a position where they have an opportunity to win. Ultimately they have to go out to make plays to win the game. You can't make those, they have to make them. But if you don't give them a chance, then they don't have a chance."

The conversation was largely dedicated to Belichick’s career in pro football and the people that shaped his career along the way. The pair discussed the Patriots at length, including Belichick’s relationship with quarterback Tom Brady, who led the Patriots to all six titles. Belichick said Brady was the best player ever.

And Belichick gushed over Taylor, the fearsome Hall of Fame linebacker whom he coached with the Giants, praising his football acumen and instincts. He called Taylor the best defensive player he ever coached and said he would have been successful in any era and on both sides of the ball.

“He could tell who was going to block him, Sean, by how scared they were,” said Belichick, who has worn UNC apparel from the Taylor era in appreciation of the 1980 team which went 10-1. 

UNC will wear 1980 throwbacks this season.

Belichick briefly addressed his Hall of Fame snub, offering a similar response to the one he gave in Chapel Hill in March.

“Out of my control, and, honestly, I've been very focused on on my job at the University of North Carolina, and the players and and the university there, so whatever happens, happens, but I'm proud of what we accomplished as teams at New England, and certainly at the Giants, and I'm proud of those relationships,” Belichick told Hannity.

Belichick also appeared on Barstool Sports’ “Pardon My Take” podcast, which aired earlier this week. He discussed, among other things, his dislike of coffee.