Countdown: Expectations for Bill Belichick and Carolina Football in 2025

Inside Carolina’s Taylor Vippolis and Evan Rogers kick off their Countdown to Kickoff series by breaking down the expectations for Carolina Football in 2025 as Bill Belichick takes over in Chapel Hill.

Vippolis argues that the best word to preview UNC Football this season is unprecedented, as the arrival of Bill Belichick marks a bold new era unlike anything the program has ever seen.

“Not only are you bringing in one of the best coaches in NFL history as he makes the transition to college football, but you have this North Carolina team that sent a lot of players out of the program and are bringing in a ton of players,” Vippolis says. “The incoming transfer count finished at 40+ players. The incoming freshman count is in the high 20s so you’re looking at roughly 70 new players to your program.

“How quickly can that group become a cohesive unit? It’s not a video game where you can add players in a seamless transition. There’s going to be a learning curve for this group, but that comes with having arguably the best football mind the sport has ever seen in Belichick coaching your team.”

Rogers believes the biggest difference this year is that this Carolina football team won’t beat itself like we’ve seen in the past.

“When you think of Bill Belichick and his run in the NFL as a head coach with six Super Bowls, his teams were known for not beating themselves — with well-coached teams. That’s what I believe this UNC team has to be. That doesn’t mean they will go out there and win every game, but I don’t see a world where the faults of the previous staff carry over to this team with the late-game blunders against teams you can’t lose to.

“The hope is you see one of the better coached teams in the conference and one that avoids the self-inflicted mistakes late. There’s absolutely going to be teams more talented then them, but this shouldn’t be a team that goes out and drops one to a bottom tier program. The coaching hire is an experiment and it’s going to be fascinating. That first game against TCU is going to be an incredible spectacle.”