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Paul Finebaum: Bill Belichick is heading 'toward being the worst coach in college football history'

Untitled design (2)by: Sam Gillenwater10/07/25samdg_33
North Carolina HC Bill Belichick
Bob Donnan | Imagn Images

Five games into his tenure in Chapel Hill, it couldn’t be going that much worse for Bill Belichick. That’s as the all-time coach in the NFL is headed toward the other kind of all-time history in the NCAA, in the opinion of Paul Finebaum.

Finebaum, appearing on ‘First Take’ on Tuesday morning, reacted to Belichick’s start at North Carolina. He said that, for all that he accomplished coaching in the pros, Belichick is on his way right now to being one of the worst coaches in the history of college football, which has Finebaum feeling even some sympathy for him at this point.

“Here’s what I can’t get over. I mean, we’re talking about Bill Belichick, who is the greatest NFL coach in history? Right now, he’s working toward being the worst coach in college football history. That’s how bad he is,” said Finebaum. “There’s nothing to be happy about. I mean, it’s an abject disaster. I feel badly for the guy because it seemed like a good idea at the time. But, right now? I mean, who in their right mind would want to go play for him?”

Belichick is 2-3 so far as head coach of the Tar Heels. However, UNC has won their games only against Group of Five programs at Charlotte and against Richmond, as they’ve been blown out and looked overmatched in all three of their games against power teams in TCU, UCF, and Clemson. The Horned Frogs, Knights, and Tigers have almost quadrupled them up by beating them in a combined score of 120-33, or by an average margin of 29 points per loss.

ESPN’s Jeff Saturday, an alumni at North Carolina who’s more than familiar with Belichick from the National Football League, admitted that even he has little hope for the present as far as the Tar Heels’ program. Finebaum felt he shouldn’t have much hope for the future either, with him suggesting that Saturday himself take their job instead.

“It’s rough. It’s rough right now. I’ll be honest. It’s rough. It makes me sad. I got a lot of blue in my closet I can’t wear right now. Like, it’s hard. It’s hard out there. It’s hard out there right now,” Saturday laughed about five games under Belichick. “I will say this. We got hope. It’s just not right now. We got future hope. I’m forecasting out and we turn this thing around.”

“You have no hope,” Finebaum responded.

“I’m going to go ahead of fire Belichick right now and send Jeff Saturday to save this program,” said Finebaum later. “He is capable of doing it. I believe in you.”

There are still seven games left for Chapel Bill, as the Tar Heels will still be in search of their first power win coming out of their second bye in three weeks’ time. Still, with how they’ve looked to start, this may have backfired a bit on North Carolina in possibly making one of the worst hires in the sport’s recent history, if not ever possibly to Finebaum.