Head Coach: Bill Belichick is entering his first season as the head coach of the Tar Heels. He comes in with a wealth of experience from the NFL including leading the New England Patriots to 6 Super Bowl victories. This was by far the boldest move of the offseason because he doesn’t have much college experience but it’s very clear he’s one of the best coaches of all time.
Program Outlook: North Carolina is a problem with a lot of potential, their football program may be overshadowed by basketball but they still have the resources to compete on every level. The issue is they haven’t done so yet. The Har Heels have a few good seasons but haven’t truly emerged as a consistent ACC championship threat. Can Belichick get them there?
How does the 2025 Roster look?: North Carolina ranks 81st in the country returning 51.5% of their production per Punt and Rally’s returning production rankings.. The Tar Heels have a few key players including most notably South Alabama transfer Gio Lopez who seems poised to be a star for this team. There’s not a ton of experience around him, Omarion Hampton was so good that UNC couldn’t take carries away from him but they had a pretty loaded RB room Davion Gause had some carries throughout the year and Caleb Hood played solid in the bowl game. The receivers are inexperienced, Kobe Paysour is the most experienced player of that group. The Tar Heels have a veteran Oline but some of them came from the portal. They aimed to revamp a struggling defense from last year. They got a stud in Andrew Simpson who comes over from Boise State and corner Thaddeus Dixon from Washington. Overall the Dline is heavy on portal players but I feel good about the defensive front in general. The secondary outside of Dixon will be a question mark and we’ll have to see how that develops.
Screenshot from FBSchedules.com
2025 Schedule Thoughts: North Carolina has a favorable schedule overall but it’s not without it’s challenges. They open with a tough TCU team that won 9 games a season ago, plus they have road games against UCF and Charlotte teams with new head coaches. Richmond is a FCS team that will likely reach the playoffs so they could be a formidable foe if the Heels aren’t careful. The ACC schedule is extremely favorable. Yes, the Heels play Clemson but they do get them at home sandwiched between two bye weeks. Overall outside of a road game at Syracuse, North Carolina faces a lot of teams projected to finish toward the bottom of the ACC while avoiding the likes of Louisville, SMU, Miami FL and even Georgia Tech. The Heels could see a record improvement simply because of how their schedule shakes out.
Final Thoughts: North Carolina is embarking on one of the most fascinating experiments in the sport. Sure, nobody else has the resume of 6 Super Bowl rings, but College is a different game. How Belichick will adjust to having less practice time available to develop players will be a major key for not just this year but the entire tenure. North Carolina could surprise and be in playoff contention right away but hovering around 8 wins is the expectation off the bat.
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