Bill Belichick’s long-anticipated debut with the North Carolina Tar Heels couldn’t have gone worse. What started with a quick 7-0 lead against TCU quickly unraveled into one of the ugliest nights in UNC’s history, a 48-14 humiliation. After that opening drive, Belichick’s side was outscored 41-7, with the Horned Frogs gashing them for 258 rushing yards at 7.4 yards per carry.
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The highlight of TCU’s dominance came on a 75-yard touchdown run from Kevorian Barnes to open the second half, turning the game into a runaway. Meanwhile, on the other side of the ball, Tar Heels QB Gio Lopez completed just four passes all night, and the offense managed only 50 rushing yards, their second-worst output since 2016.
Simply put, for a coach whose name is synonymous with defensive brilliance and structure, it was the kind of collapse that will haunt Belichick for a while. And yet, in the cruellest twist of irony, UNC’s cheerleaders had already set the tone hours earlier.
A video posted before kickoff, which has since gone viral, showed the male cheerleaders doing light football drills with pom-poms, joking in the caption: “Warming up in case Bill needs us.”
As it turned out, by the end of the night, that tongue-in-cheek line felt uncomfortably on point.
TRENDING: The UNC cheerleaders posted that they were warming up last night just in case Bill Belichick needed them to play.
North Carolina lost 48 to 14…
pic.twitter.com/FD12MUWEyY— MLFootball (@_MLFootball) September 3, 2025
That said, while the cheerleaders provided the comic relief, Colin Cowherd delivered the hard truth. On an episode of The Herd, the analyst argued that the writing was on the wall for the Tar Heels long before kickoff.
“Of all the discussion about Bill Belichick, the big concern I had was… remember I talked about this: 40 transfers. It’s like a friends and family coaching staff,” Cowherd started.
“There’s three Belichicks, Mike Lombardi and his son, Belichick’s girlfriend, and Jamie Collins, who’s never been a coach but played with Belichick. It kind of feels like a friends and family staff,” he added.
From there, Cowherd compared the head coach’s approach to that of Nick Saban, who never shied away from hiring strong personalities like Lane Kiffin if it meant getting the best coaching possible. Belichick, in contrast, seemed to opt for comfort.
“You can’t coach in a gated community,” Cowherd warned, criticizing the choice of Freddy Kitchens as offensive coordinator simply because he was already on staff.
Ultimately, Cowherd’s assessment cut to the heart of the issue: Belichick hasn’t evolved:
“He’s become the chef that won’t change the menu… Across the Browns, the Patriots, and Carolina last night without Tom Brady, he’s averaged 19 points in his career. Forget the record, which is unimpressive. He doesn’t move the ball. He doesn’t take offense seriously enough,” Cowherd concluded.
From Bill Belichick’s point of view, his first game in charge resulted in a historically bad debut, which also turned out to be UNC’s largest season-opening defeat, and the most points his team has ever allowed in any game he’s coached.
But on the flip side, this makes Belichick 0-3 in his head-coaching debuts across his career, which gives some hope that the program’s luck can still be turned around. That said, unlike his previous debuts, the Tar Heels were absolutely unprepared, undermanned, and overwhelmed.
