The Bill Belichick era in Chapel Hill isn’t off to the smoothest start, and the hits just keep coming for the Tar Heels. After a tough 4-8 debut season that featured more lopsided losses than competitive moments, North Carolina is now facing a different kind of challenge - one that’s becoming all too familiar in the modern college football landscape: attrition in the transfer portal.
The latest departure stings. Freshman quarterback Bryce Baker, a former four-star recruit and one of the more highly touted members of UNC’s 2025 class, has decided to enter the portal. This comes on the heels of losing standout edge rusher Tyler Thompson, a key piece of the defense and one of the few bright spots in an otherwise forgettable season.
Baker’s exit is particularly notable. At 6-foot-3 with a strong prep pedigree, he was viewed internally as a potential long-term solution at quarterback - possibly even the successor to Gio Lopez, who struggled to find consistency throughout the 2025 campaign.
Baker was introduced with fanfare just last February, even getting a halftime spotlight at a Tar Heels basketball game. Less than a year later, he’s on his way out.
This leaves North Carolina in a precarious position under center. Lopez showed flashes in the back half of the season, but overall, his performance didn’t inspire full confidence moving forward. If the coaching staff doesn’t see him as the guy heading into 2026, they may need to dip into the portal themselves to find an answer - and quickly.
Baker was ranked as the 12th-best quarterback and the No. 155 overall player in the 2025 class, per 247 Sports’ composite rankings. That’s not the kind of talent you want walking out the door, especially when you’re trying to rebuild a program from the ground up.
Of course, it’s important to remember that Belichick walked into a tough situation. He took the job last December with little time to assemble a roster or implement his system.
The result was a season that often looked like a team still trying to find its footing - because it was. Still, this is unfamiliar territory for Belichick, whose resume includes eight Super Bowl titles but no prior experience navigating the college game or the ever-fluid world of the transfer portal.
The good news? Help is on the way.
North Carolina has a top-20 recruiting class lined up for 2026, and while no one can say for sure how those players will pan out, it’s a sign that Belichick’s name still carries weight on the recruiting trail. But building a winner in Chapel Hill - a place that’s never exactly been a football powerhouse - is going to take time, patience, and, perhaps most importantly, roster stability.
Right now, that last part is proving elusive.
The Tar Heels have seen several players announce their intentions to transfer this winter, and while that’s not unusual in today’s college football climate, it adds another layer of complexity for a program trying to establish a new identity under one of the most iconic coaches in football history.
Losing Baker isn’t a death blow - but it is a setback. And it puts even more pressure on Belichick and his staff to find answers, whether through development, recruiting, or the portal. The clock isn’t ticking just yet, but the rebuild is officially on - and the road ahead looks anything but easy.