Bill Belichick’s 1st season at North Carolina ends with just 4 wins and plenty of off-the-field headlines – Chicago Tribune

RALEIGH, N.C. — Bill Belichick stood at the microphone in a crowded room of reporters. North Carolina’s season had just ended with a lopsided loss to a fierce close rival to cap a four-win season.

And the six-time Super Bowl-winning head coach wasn’t really in the mood to talk about it.

A little over four minutes, in fact.

“Look, the season just ended a few minutes ago, okay?” Belichick said after the 42-19 loss at NC State on Saturday night. “So now we’re going to move into the offseason. That’s what we’re going to do.”

UNC began the year with buzz and national attention, brimming with optimism — or maybe just hope — that the NFL icon could elevate the program to something more as a first-time college coach. By the end of the season, Belichick had fielded a team that had more losses by double-digit margins (five) than total wins, while providing frequent servings of unwanted off-the-field headlines.

The final blow came in Raleigh, where the Wolfpack and coach Dave Doeren were all too eager to hold off the Tar Heels for a fifth straight year in front of a typically raucous crowd. And this one sent Belichick, 73, into the offseason with a final thud, armed with none of the positive evaluations that had followed modest gains demonstrated by close losses or victories against some of the worst teams in the Atlantic Coast Conference.

He also gave little insight into the message he gave to his first college team after a season of expectations ended in ugly fashion.

“I’ll keep my message to the team between me and the team,” Belichick said.

Struggles on the ground

The Tar Heels (4-8, 2-6) closed the season with three straight losses to state league opponents, first at Wake Forest on Nov. 15 and then at home against Duke last weekend.

It capped a season that saw the Tar Heels lose five games by 16 points or more, starting with a 48-14 loss to TCU on Labor Day — which had drawn ESPN’s “College Gameday” in Chapel Hill and countless headlines about Belichick’s arrival at the college level.

That was just the start of the troubles, with the opening month including blowout losses at UCF and at home to a Clemson team that would finish with this program’s fewest wins in 15 years. All three of UNC’s wins came against Bowl Subdivision programs with a combined record of 8-28 (Charlotte, Syracuse and Stanford).

That hardly matches expectations that followed the school’s hiring of Belichick in a deal that included each of the first three seasons with a guaranteed $10 million in base and supplemental play, as well as high investments in the program for staff and elsewhere. That notably included general manager Michael Lombardi, who said the Tar Heels “consider themselves the 33rd (NFL) team” in their pro-heavy influence and approach.

At the end?

“It’s hard to say one word,” wide receiver Jordan Shipp said when asked how he would describe the season. “We didn’t expect the season to go like this, of course.”

Hiccups off the field

The headlines weren’t just limited to match days.

There was Belichick banning scouts from the New England Patriots — the team he led to those six Super Bowls with Tom Brady — as part of his own acrimonious relationship with his former franchise.

There was the suspension of an assistant coach related to NCAA rule violations. The school released terse statements from Belichick and athletic director Bubba Cunningham reaffirming the marriage between Belichick and UNC, itself a sign of how rocky the first weeks of Belichick’s tenure had been.

There were midseason reports by WRAL-TV on Raleigh painting a picture of behind-the-scenes unrest as well as several players being cited for speeding or reckless driving. And there was tabloid interest in Belichick’s relationship with his 24-year-old girlfriend, Jordon Hudson, a frequent presence on the sidelines before games.

All of this has generated plenty of fodder for opponents to attack the man many consider the greatest NFL coach of all time, one who holds 333 regular-season and playoff wins, second only to Don Shula (347) for the NFL record. And Belichick often fielded questions at news conferences that strayed from the sport he knows so well.

Saturday’s defeat

Doeren knows Belichick’s story well. But it also includes the UNC-NC state rivalry between schools sharing the 919 area code and separated by about a 30-minute drive along Interstate 40.

It showed in the way his team jumped all over the Tar Heels, scoring touchdowns on all four first-half drives to lead 28-10 at the break.

Doeren, for the record, has now beaten UNC for five straight years and is 9-4 against the Tar Heels in Raleigh. He’s now 1-0 against Belichick, who wore a puffy navy winter coat with a light blue intertwined UNC logo on that 34-degree night.

Belichick then gave Doeren a quick handshake at midfield, offering no chance for small talk.

“It’s definitely something that motivated me,” Doeren said of the match. “I have a lot of respect for Bill. I mean, why not? He’s one of the greatest NFL coaches of all time. … There was a pep in my step this week, for sure. I wanted that win, the competitive part of me against him. It’s very meaningful.”

The players take the lead

Once Belichick met with reporters, he sidestepped any general questions about the season as a whole.

“We work as a team every week,” Belichick said. “I’m sorry I don’t have a season recap for you. I don’t, we didn’t.”

If anything, it let Shipp and linebacker Khmori House take the lead in responding to what went wrong and what’s next.

“We showed glimpses, but we just didn’t do enough to get some wins,” Shipp said, adding, “We know internally we’re not as bad as our record shows.”

Both took questions from reporters longer than Belichick, with Shipp speaking almost twice as long (7 1/2 minutes). This included asking House how he would describe this most unusual season.

“I would describe it as a roller coaster, ups and downs,” he said, “but a lesson.”