Kirk Herbstreit offers his view of North Carolina entering second year of Bill Belichick era

Year No. 1 of Bill Belichick at North Carolina entered the season with a ton of hype, only to come crashing down. Eventually, the Tar Heels finished 4-8 for an overall disappointing campaign. Now, everyone wants to know what the future looks like in Chapel Hill under Belichick.

ESPN’s Kirk Herbstreit gave his outlook, spending most of his focus on the offensive side. Everybody knows how good a coach Belichick is defensively. But Herbstreit is looking for them to be active in the NCAA transfer portal to find better offensive talent.

“I’m sure North Carolina is going to be incredibly active on trying to bring in quarterbacks and skill players and offensive linemen,” Herbstreit said via Nonstop. “They’ve got to get their offense going.”

Luckily for those prospective transfers, a new offensive coordinator is coming to town. Bobby Petrino is reportedly joining the North Carolina staff after spending seven games as the Arkansas interim head coach. Herbstreit and his co-host, Joey Galloway, did mention how it’s easy to joke about Petrino but both look past it all.

They understand how well-respected Petrino is in the coaching circles. Expectations were not put on the North Carolina offense by the two ESPN analysts, who only boasted about the capabilities Petrino has in his locker when it comes to calling plays.

“As far as drawing up plays, Bobby Petrino — you talk to the coaching fraternity across the country, there’s skill people that look at him as one of the better offensive minds in the game,” Herbstreit said.

North Carolina was home to one of the worst scoring offenses in the entire FBS, regardless of level. Twelve games saw them average 19.2 points, good enough for 121st out of 136. Only once did UNC surpass the 30-point threshold, coming against FCS Richmond. Five of eight ACC games saw the Tar Heel finish with less than 20 points.

An interesting offseason is certainly ahead for everyone involved with the program. Belichick was brought in to help bring North Carolina to a new level, something we saw during his days with the New England Patriots. Fixing the offense is going to be priority No. 1 to make sure the job gets done.

Aug. 29 is when we will officially see if progress has been made by Belichick and his new-look coaching staff. North Carolina goes abroad, facing the TCU Horned Frogs in Ireland for another international showdown.