North Carolina’s 2025 season left a lot to be desired, and the Tar Heels are now being projected to take a step forward in 2026.
That’s a notable shift after all the buzz that surrounded the program a year ago. North Carolina entered 2025 with expectations pushed up by the arrival of Bill Belichick, the NFL coaching icon who was hired to lead the Tar Heels in a stunning move.
But the results never matched the hype. UNC finished 4-8, struggled on both sides of the ball, and spent much of the year looking like one of the ACC’s weakest teams.
The football was only part of the problem. Belichick’s first season also came with plenty of off-field noise, with attention drifting to his relationships away from the field, questions about his job security at UNC and his snub from the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Instead of the conversation centering on wins and losses, it kept sliding in other directions.
Still, there is some optimism around what year 2 could look like. CBS’s Brad Crawford has North Carolina going 6-6 in 2026, which would at least get the Tar Heels back to bowl eligibility.
“After last season's failure to launch in Bill Belichick's first campaign, simply getting the Tar Heels back to bowl eligibility would represent tangible progress in this staff's second year,” he said.
Crawford also pointed to the addition of Bobby Petrino as a possible boost on offense.
“North Carolina's hire of Bobby Petrino to reconfigure the offense and improve execution will help a program that is still trying to establish the discipline, toughness and consistency Belichick has demanded since arriving in Chapel Hill. Rebuilding a culture takes time, particularly in today's transfer portal era. If North Carolina is more competitive in big games, avoids the self-inflicted mistakes that plagued last season and finishes strong, a six-win season becomes a foundation instead of a failure.”
That kind of jump would not put North Carolina in the ACC title picture or anywhere near the national championship conversation. But after the way 2025 went, simply getting back on track would count as real progress.
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Kevin Thomas is the kind of freshman who makes that sorting process interesting. He arrives with real talent and a chance to carve out minutes, but he is also walking into a backcourt where the early opportunities are likely to go to players with more experience. Under Michael Malone, the path forward will come down to development and whether Thomas can separate himself in the areas that tend to travel well for young guards, which is where the bigger question for UNC begins to take shape. [Read more 🡒]
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Gary Parrishs latest view of the Tar Heels reflects that balance, keeping them in the Top 25 mix despite all the change. The returning core is thinner than usual, but UNC still has enough proven production and enough fresh talent to make the next question less about whether the Heels belong in the rankings and more about how quickly Malone can turn that reworked group into a team that can actually live up to it. [Read more 🡒]
Former Tar Heel Andrew Platek Lands A Head Coaching Role
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Now Platek gets a bigger stage to shape a team in his image, and the style he wants to build should sound familiar to Tar Heel fans. He has talked about wanting his teams to play fast, get into transition, shoot often and maximize possessions, a philosophy that traces back to Roy Williams and the up-tempo approach Platek knew at North Carolina. The question now is how quickly he can turn that vision into a program identity at Shenendehowa. [Read more 🡒]