Athlon Sports grades coaching hire of Bill Belichick at North Carolina

It hasn’t been easy to set an expectation for Bill Belichick ahead of his first season as head coach at North Carolina. With nearly 50 years of coaching experience in the NFL, Belichick is one of the most decorated coaches in football history.

Some believe his coaching resume speaks for itself, and it will show on the field. Others anticipate his run with the Tar Heels as a flop. Ahead of the 2025 college football season, Althon Sports took a stab at grading the top college football hires of the offseason. Despite the uncertainty surrounding their expectations, they gave North Carolina an ‘A’ for the hire.

“Belichick isn’t likely to stick around long in Chapel Hill, and it’s fair to have concerns about how he will adapt to the college game,” Athlon Sports writes. “However, for a North Carolina program that has struggled to consistently at a high level, taking the opportunity to hire arguably the greatest coach in NFL history is a no-brainer.”

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Overall, the publication placed Belichick’s hire at No. 3 overall by head coach-needy programs this offseason. West Virginia‘s Rich Rodriguez and Utah State‘s Bronco Mendenhall both received ‘A+’ grades for their hires.

The new Tar Heels head coach is taking over a college football program for the first time in his career, and at 73, will be tasked with navigating to the new way of college athletics centered around NIL and the NCAA transfer portal. For any criticism he’s received, Belichick has hit the ground running on the recruiting trail since arriving in Chapel Hill.

Because of the coaching turnover, North Carolina lost a total of 41 players to the NCAA transfer portal this offseason. Belichick answered with 42 portalers committing to his Tar Heels program — the No. 8 class in this year’s team transfer rankings. He’s also bringing in 30 true freshmen to his roster, good for a top 50 recruiting class.

In addition, Belichick overhauled the coaching staff largely in his image. Only a handful of familiar faces remain in Chapel Hill from last season.

It’s now on Belichick to prove his doubters wrong ahead of the 2025 season. That effort begins on Monday, Sept. 1 against the TCU Horned Frogs inside Kenan Stadium. Kickoff is slated for 8 p.m. ET and will air live on ESPN — primetime for Belichick’s college football coaching debut.