Bill Belichick isn’t pretending North Carolina’s first year on the job was anything close to good enough. After a 4-8 debut that left the Tar Heels with just two ACC wins - against Syracuse and Stanford - the six-time Super Bowl champion made it clear Friday that he expects a very different product this fall.
Speaking at the ACC Kickoff media event, Belichick pointed to a stronger roster and a better operation around the program as reasons for optimism. He also made sure opponents heard the message.
"Most of the national publications ... ranked us in the top 15 in your recruiting class," Belichick said, via ESPN. "So I think if you recruit good players, you're going to have good teams.
"If you don't recruit good players, then you're probably going to have a hard time breaking into that level. So I think we have to consistently bring in good players, continue to work hard, improve and develop them.
And I'm confident that we'll be there. It's a process."
That process, though, comes with pressure. North Carolina has to show real progress this season if Belichick wants future recruits to believe in what he’s building. The Tar Heels looked outmatched far too often last year, and the results showed it.
Belichick didn’t sugarcoat that either. North Carolina failed to produce a draft pick in April, and he said the team simply wasn’t where it needed to be.
"We took some steps, but we're nowhere close to where we wanted to be," Belichick said. "We had too many penalties, we had too many turnovers. We couldn't convert on third down, fourth down defensively.
"We had too many fourth-down conversions where we had to stay on the field."
There are reasons Belichick believes the outlook is better now. The roster appears stronger on paper, and the staff got a notable boost with offensive coordinator Bobby Petrino joining the mix.
But the schedule won’t make life easy. TCU, Clemson, Notre Dame, and Pitt are all on the slate in four of UNC’s first five games.
That means the Tar Heels will have to prove the upgrade is real, and quickly. Another season stuck in the loss column would be a major setback for a program that moved on from Mack Brown after a much better run.
Belichick’s message Friday was simple: the foundation is supposed to be better now. The results need to follow.
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