Heather Dinich out on Bill Belichick, North Carolina after blowout loss vs. Clemson

By halftime of Saturday’s blowout loss to Clemson, the North Carolina Tar Heels fans were already emptying out of the stadium. There wasn’t anything for them to cheer about after all. Certainly, ESPN’s Heather Dinich doesn’t see much worth keeping an eye on moving forward.

Dinich appeared on SportsCenter the Monday after the Clemson game. There, she admitted that she’s out on the Tar Heels too, following the latest blowout loss.

“I am out like a UNC fan before halftime,” Heather Dinich said. “Because these guys are not doing it. I mean, it doesn’t matter that Bill Belichick is a six-time Super Bowl-winning head coach. That’s not what they want to see. The fans want to see six wins. They want to go to a bowl game, and they are just not delivering right now in Chapel Hill.”

Clemson jumped North Carolina, scoring on a double pass on their very first offensive play. By halftime, the final score was 35-3. Belichick and North Carolina were well on their way at that point to a second straight loss and a 2-3 record overall. All three of those losses came in the games that they’ve played against Power Four opponents, now including their first ACC game.

Nationally, Dinich seems to be a part of the common opinion. This year’s North Carolina team, coached by Belichick or not, simply isn’t good enough to be competitive in these games. That doesn’t mean there isn’t a chance this works out long term, though. In fact, he recently went on College GameDay and shared his excitement for the future because of how the Tar Heels are recruiting.

“We got a big recruiting class coming in,” Belichick said. “We missed a couple recruiting classes from the last two years. We only got just, you know, a handful of players that are playing so, you know, we’ll get some try to build through the recruiting classes and then supplement that with some transfer guys. But we need a couple good recruiting classes, and I think we’re on the way to getting those… So you know, it’s gonna be a little bit of a process, but we’re grinding away. We’re definitely getting a lot better each week, and I’m sure we’ll get better each year.”

Dabo Swinney is confident Bill Belichick gets things going

Dabo Swinney has now had a good chance to look at the North Carolina program under Bill Belichick. It’s obviously not operating at its best just yet, but he did walk away confident that the six-time Super Bowl champion will get things rolling in the future.

“What a unique opportunity to compete against — I mean how many wins does he need to be the all-time winningest NFL coach? Maybe like four, 10? Can’t be many [Belichick is third all time, with 302 wins. Don Shula is first at 328]. To be the winningest coach in the history of the NFL. Listen, they’ll get it going. I mean, he’s a great coach. They are where they are right now, and they’re trying to build it and get it going, and he’ll get them going,” Swinney said.

“But I’ve got a lot of respect for him. It’s an honor to be able to compete against him today.”

Next week, North Carolina travels to Cal. There, the Tar Heels are hoping to snap that two-game losing streak and earn their first ACC win of the season.