North Carolina has not opened any talks with Bill Belichick about changing his contract or mapping out his future, even as the Tar Heels have taken a clear step forward in his second season.
UNC Chancellor Lee Roberts said Wednesday that the school has not discussed adding guaranteed money or revisiting Belichick’s deal. “We continue to strongly support the football program and, obviously, evaluate how things have gone at the end of the season, not in the middle of the season,” Roberts told WRAL on Wednesday.
Belichick’s Tar Heels are 5-4 overall and 2-3 in the ACC, a marked improvement from last year’s 4-8 finish. The schedule has also played out more favorably than expected, even though UNC still took home losses to top-10 Notre Dame and Miami in 2026.
The Hall of Fame NFL coach, who won six Super Bowls with the New England Patriots, is in the second year of a five-year contract that runs through the 2029 season. The deal pays him $1 million in base salary and $9 million in supplemental income annually. The first three years of that money are guaranteed, while 2028 and 2029 are not.
“We haven’t had any of those conversations,” said Roberts, who hired Belichick and has remained a firm backer.
UNC can lock up bowl eligibility Saturday night against Louisville, which comes in at 6-3. The Tar Heels finish the regular season at Virginia on Nov. 21 and then host NC State on Nov.
- Both of those rivals are 4-5.
Belichick has pointed to the chaos of his first season as part of the reason things went sideways. He said the program got a late start with high school recruiting and the transfer portal, then dealt with major turnover between spring practice and preseason camp that prevented summer workouts and left the team behind in learning the playbook.
He also says the culture around the program has changed.
“This team is more engaged,” Belichick said. “They work harder.
They’re more dedicated and they put more into it, and so they get more out of it. And it’s important to them.
Some of the players that left here, I don’t know how important things were to them. There were other things that were important.
I mean, I get that. But these guys, they’re pretty dedicated to being good, to their craft.
They want to be good, and they work hard. We have an opportunity to coach them.
They want to absorb it. I love that.
That’s why I love coaching.”
Brian Belichick said the staff has also found its footing after a year of adjustment. The defensive backs coach, who is Bill Belichick’s son, said, “We’ve all settled in a little more just to how we want to operate and collectively just understanding what we’re trying to accomplish - schedules, stuff like that, how it all comes together,” said defensive backs coach Brian Belichick, Bill’s son. “Some of us, like me and him, we’re more used to the NFL schedule or NFL processes and there’s things that are a little different and you get used to it more.”
UNC also made changes on offense and special teams in the offseason, replacing both coordinators. Under new offensive coordinator Bobby Petrino, the Tar Heels are averaging 27.1 points per game, a sharp jump from last season’s struggles on that side of the ball.
Earlier this year, the university carried out an investigation into Belichick’s football program that cost nearly $1 million. That probe led to the resignations of general manager Michael Lombardi, a close Belichick confidante, and defensive coordinator Steve Belichick, Bill’s son.
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