Greg McElroy debates whether North Carolina can make noise in Year 1 under Bill Belichick

Nobody quite knows what to make of North Carolina heading into the 2025 season, and for good reason. Legendary coach Bill Belichick is taking over a program that went just 6-7 a year ago.

ESPN analyst Greg McElroy sees the Tar Heels playing an interesting role in the ACC going into the year. Not necessarily a contender, but a program that could make a real difference.

“One of the biggest offseason storylines of the entire season has centered around the North Carolina Tar Heels,” McElroy said on the Always College Football podcast. “And I think they are in the spoiler category this year. Once we get to the schedule here in just a minute, they might even be able to do a little more than be just a spoiler in the ACC. The big thing is we don’t know.”

The offense has to figure quite a lot out. For one, the program needs to settle on a starting quarterback, with a handful of options.

South Alabama transfer Gio Lopez might be the best bet there, but veteran Max Johnson will have something to say about that after getting healthy again. McElroy pointed out that whoever it is will have the luxury of working behind some experience on the North Carolina offensive line.

“The offensive line has a bunch of pieces back, that should be helpful,” he said. “They can kind of lean on that. But the big questions are how do you replace Omarion Hampton? Who’s going to be your quarterback? Last year it was kind of Jacolby Criswell that kind of filled in there down the stretch. You have Gio Lopez who comes over from South Alabama, had a pretty nice year, threw for over 3,000 yards and 25 touchdowns. You also have Max Johnson, who got hurt in Week 1, he’s going to be vying for the position as well.”

McElroy pointed out that for all the defensive knowledge Belichick brings to the table, there might still be an adjustment getting used to the style of offenses he’ll face on a weekly basis. The personnel is also up in the air defensively.

“They have endured a complete overhaul on the defensive side of the football,” McElroy said. “They brought in some key players, they lost some key players. They get his son, Steven Belichick, who is expected to bring kind of an aggressive and disciplined defensive identity. That’s a big question mark. If they can take strides on defense it should be very intriguing.”

But where McElroy really sees some room for positivity on North Carolina going into 2025 is the schedule. The personnel may or may not be there; the schedule should afford plenty of opportunity, though.

“Then will there be a bit of a learning curve for Bill Belichick as he gets to college? New offenses, different offensive identities. Will he maybe take a year for him to kind of figure out exactly where things are going to go?” McElroy said. “So I look at where things are right now for North Carolina, I look at the roster, I’m like, ‘I don’t know.’ I look at the schedule, I think they can make some noise.

“They’re playing most of the bottom tier of the ACC. So we could very easily fast forward to the end of the year and think, ‘Man, North Carolina’s got two or three losses, which is kind of amazing.’ They might not have beaten a whole lot of high-quality teams, but they might not have very many losses to show for it because they avoid Florida State, they avoid Miami, they avoid Louisville, they avoid SMU. So this might be a team whose record is actually better than the quality of their personnel. But their personnel might actually be pretty good too, but there’s just too many unknowns, too many new faces.”