North Carolina’s Bill Belichick experiment is already drawing skepticism, and Josh Pate thinks the whole thing could unravel before long.
The Tar Heels are heading into training camp with real turbulence around the program after general manager Michael Lombardi was placed on paid administrative leave last week. Lombardi, who is college football’s highest-paid general manager, has come under scrutiny as North Carolina tries to build what it hoped would be a 33rd team capable of hanging with the ACC’s best.
So far, the results have not matched the ambition. UNC went 4-8 in Belichick’s first season and missed a bowl game, a rough debut for a program that tried to borrow heavily from an NFL model.
On his show Sunday, Pate said he expects the school to move on from both Belichick and Lombardi sometime this year.
“I think they will wash their hands of this entire experiment at some point this year," Pate said. "I think that will happen, and I think the North Carolina job will be open. I don't know how else to tell you this."
The schedule won’t do North Carolina many favors early. The Tar Heels open against TCU in Dublin on Aug. 29, then get ETSU before a brutal stretch that includes Clemson, Notre Dame, Pitt, and Duke by Oct. 17.
Pate argued that 2025 was Belichick’s best shot, largely because the schedule was more manageable than what’s ahead now. He also said Belichick and Lombardi badly underestimated how difficult it is to win in college football.
"A guy that smart so badly miscalculated the situation of what it would take to win in college football, it blows my mind.... And I'm not saying, oh Bill Belichick shouldn't have taken the job," Pate said. If someone's going to offer you the job of North Carolina, if they're stupid enough to do it, yeah, take it.
“My point is I can't believe they were dumb enough to think winning in college football was going to be easier than winning in the NFL. But I think that's the arrogance a lot of guys who coach in the NFL for a long time have when they look at college football.
They think, 'Well, this is professional football, that's college. That's like a light version of what we do.
Those are the minor leagues down there.'”
Pate said that kind of thinking might fit at places like Texas, Ohio State, and Notre Dame, but not at North Carolina.
His bottom line was blunt: Belichick needed to arrive and instantly energize the program, especially with younger players. Instead, Pate said, North Carolina has leaned too hard into a pro-style approach and lost its footing.
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