Tar Heels players embrace new world as part of coach Bill Belichick’s first college team

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (AP) - Jordan Shipp remembers the conversation with his roommates after learning Bill Belichick was North Carolina’s new coach.

"It was just like, ‘That’s the greatest coach of all time,'” the receiver recalled, "’and he’s about to be a coaching us.’"

Belichick’s arrival has triggered plenty of change for the Tar Heels, who are making a big bet on the man who won six Super Bowls as an NFL head coach to spark their football program. No one knows that better than the players - both the holdovers and the transfer-portal arrivals - after months of Belichick overhauling the roster and building the foundation on his first college team.

North Carolina players hadn’t spoken to reporters since last year’s team ended its season with a Fenway Bowl loss to UConn three days after Christmas, all of which came after Belichick had been hired as coach for the 2025 season.

So Tuesday marked the first time UNC had made players available to reporters since then to discuss Belichick’s arrival. That has meant being coached by someone with a long track record of success at the sport’s highest level, along with getting a peek behind the terse and grumpy persona he was known for with the New England Patriots.

Defensive back Will Hardy said the players are used to curiosity that comes with being coached by the NFL lifer now giving college a try.

"There’s a lot of that, you get a lot of 'How is Coach Belichick? What's new? What’s different?'” Hardy said. "So I’ve rehearsed these questions a lot with family and friends."

The school hired Belichick in December to elevate the program at a time when football’s role as the revenue driver in college sports has never been bigger.

He and general manager Michael Lombardi have described their goal as building a pro-style model at the college level. It’s been a key pitch as the 73-year-old Belichick made his first foray onto the recruiting trail, as well as the volume of players transferring in and out of the program.

Belichick’s first on-field work in Chapel Hill came during spring workouts, lodged between portal windows in December and April.

"Look, these are great kids to work with, they really are," Belichick said Tuesday. “We’ve had great buy-in. There have really been no problems at all. These guys are on time, they’re early, they work hard, they put in the work in the weight room, out on the field. They spend time on their own, whether it’s doing extra training or coming over and watching film and that type of thing.

"They’ve made a ton of improvement and these guys are a lot better than they were when we started in January, on every level. So it’s exciting to see where that’s going to take us.”

For the players, part of the adjustment had been the reality that their coach was winning Super Bowls with quarterback Tom Brady while they were growing up and watching on TV.

Intimidating much?

"I mean, maybe at first when you see him, all you see is the Super Bowls that he's won," said offensive lineman Christo Kelly, a Holy Cross transfer and Belichick’s first portal commitment. “But when you get here and you see the way he cares, you see the way that he approaches the game, you see how hard he works, there's no question why he has the success that he has.

"The attention to detail, the emphasis on fundamentals, and really just kind of creating competition for the guys, that's what's getting built here. Guys are embracing it. He treats everybody with tremendous respect and it's been great.”

Defensive back Thad Dixon had met Belichick before when he was at Washington, playing under Belichick’s son Steve - now the Tar Heels’ defensive coordinator and linebackers coach. The two shared a few conversations then, and he jumped at the chance to head east.

"I really just wanted the opportunity just to learn from somebody like that, that had did it in the league for so long,” Dixon said.

Yet not every surprise has been about X’s and O’s. Sometimes it’s simply when Belichick has dropped the all-business facade to expose an unexpectedly humorous side.

"I feel like that’s the biggest curveball, you’re coming to the first meeting and you’re expecting it to be serious, 100% locked in,” said Shipp, who played 12 games for UNC last season. "He comes in and he introduces himself and then he busts a joke. That’s the second thing he said."

Hardy pointed that vibe, too.

"There are times when he’ll just crack a joke out of nowhere," he said. “And just him being kind of monotone sometimes will make those jokes so funny."

Still, Hardy noted it’s mingled amid the work, such as film sessions when "there’s no hiding" when Belichick highlights a mistake.

UNC opens the season on Labor Day against TCU in a college version of Monday Night Football.

"I’ve loved having 1-on-1 conversations with him,” Hardy said. “It’s cool to see and meet him personally, because you grow up and see him on TV and everything. And he’s just a completely different coach and guy when you get to be around him all day. It’s cool."