With arguably the greatest coach of all time at the helm in Bill Belichick, the North Carolina Tar Heels hoped to get off to a good start in their 2025 opener when they hosted the TCU Horned Frogs.
The Heels struck first, but the Horned Frogs dominated the rest of the night, taking home a 48-14 victory and setting the tone for what would be a 4-8 season.
TCU and North Carolina will hit the field again on Saturday. The Heels would obviously love to begin their turnaround with a victory in Ireland, but some believe things will only get worse before they can begin to get better.
CFB Writer Predicts Bill Belichick’s In-Season Exit After UNC Struggles
As we enter week 0 and college football returns to our screens, journalists and analysts are firing off their final previews and predictions, and the highly respected college football crew at The Athletic gave a few bold predictions.
For instance, Bruce Feldman believes “Miami receiver Malachi Toney will become the first FBS player to notch touchdowns rushing, receiving, passing and on a return in the same game,” while Joe Rexrod thinks the defending champion Indiana Hoosiers will miss the playoffs.
“Indiana will miss the Playoff — an upset loss to Washington will clinch it, but that won’t be as stunning as the earlier stumble at Nebraska (with Ohio State accounting for the third loss),” Rexrod explained. “Curt Cignetti is elite, but so was Fernando Mendoza, and that’s simply not IU’s quarterback situation in 2026.”
That would mark the first time Cignetti has missed the playoffs at Indiana.
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Matt Brown offered him another bold forecast for the 2026 season.
“Bill Belichick resigns after North Carolina loses at UConn on Nov. 7 to fall to 2-7,” Brown wrote.
ESPN’s Heather Dinich also believes Belichick could hang things up not only at North Carolina, but he could call it a career for good.
“When we talk about hot seats and Bill Belichick, to me it’s more about retirement seat, retirement watch,” Dinich said in July. “He’s going to be [turned] 74 years old in April, and look, the guy is a winner; he’s a competitor.”
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After the Heels’ season last year, if they do start 2-7, it would be hard for either side to justify remaining together (of course, there is justification in the money, but it would be obvious the match wasn’t working). At that point, Belichick would be 6-15, a number no one outside of Tallahassee can seemingly survive.
According to PFN’s CFB Offense Impact Metric, North Carolina posted an impact score of 73.3, ranking 85th in the nation. Defensively, they weren’t much better either, ranking 58th on PFN’s CFB Defense Impact Metric with an impact score of 76.8.
Of course, it isn’t just the results on the field.
Many have been critical of Belichick’s relationship with 25-year-old Jordon Hudson as well.
Despite all of that, Belichick and the Heels have a chance to begin silencing their critics when they take on the Horned Frogs from Aviva Stadium in Dublin, Ireland, on Saturday.
