Paul Finebaum blasts UNC, Bill Belichick halfway through first season: 'They have been failed'

The North Carolina Tar Heels opened their season in a packed stadium at home against TCU. Expectations had seemingly never been higher for UNC football, as legendary NFL coach Bill Belichick took to the field. Then, the game started and it was a blowout loss. Now, at the midway point of their season, the Tar Heels are just 2-4 and haven’t beaten a Power Four team yet.

While making an appearance on SportsCenter on Sunday morning, Paul Finebaum addressed the UNC program. There, he gave the Tar Heels an “F” grade, while in his Professor Finebaum character, for how they’ve played to this point in the season.

“That was another inane question,” Paul Finebaum said. “Go ahead and head to the bathroom right now, young man, while I answer very intelligently. No, they do not get a good grade. They have been failed. They have been expelled. So have you. So, please, no more questions.”

Given that Belichick is still the coach who won six Super Bowls as a head coach and another two as a defensive coordinator, it’s easy to understand why expectations were so high. It’s also, given the massive roster turnover UNC has battled, easy enough to understand why things have been a struggle on the field. After all, this is a roster with around 70 new players from last year’s team. That’s a roster that Belichick has defended, given the circumstances in which it was recruited.

“Look, when we got here, we had three defensive linemen,” Belichick said. “You can’t practice with three defensive linemen. We went out and signed a lot of players. We signed players who didn’t have offers or offers that they didn’t want. Kind of slid through the cracks in terms of the recruiting process. We signed players in the transfer portal that were available. We were late in the running on a lot of them. We were late on relationships. We were late on it in contacts. We ran out of time. We did the best we could.”

Still, what has been shocking is how UNC is losing. Belichick has seen his Tar Heels blown out by TCU, UCF, and Clemson. Then, in their most recent loss to Cal, UNC suffered a costly fumble going into the end zone that likely cost them the win.

Worse than the losses, there have been reports that the program has become toxic under Belichick. That includes that it’s unstructured as a program, an individualistic mindset, and that it’s all affecting the players. Belichick also made headlines during this same time by banning New England Patriots personnel from UNC facilities, seemingly frustrated with how his tenure ended there.

Amid all of the on-field struggles, there have been plenty of off-the-field distractions. The has obviously included Jordon Hudson, Bill Belichick’s ever-present girlfriend. That’s also recently extended to UNC GM Michael Lombardi, though, and a reported trip he took to Saudi Arabia to fundraise.

Now, Belichick and UNC do still have time to turn the season around, but with just six games left, they need to do it quickly. The Tar Heels return home next week to host Virginia. They won’t have another bye week this season.