Belichick’s college experiment looks very different from the NFL
Bill Belichick was a legendary head coach in the NFL. As he prepares for his first season as coach of the UNC Tar Heels, it looks completely different.
Bill Belichick is putting his stamp on UNC football in his first season as the Tar Heels’ head coach, and it looks nothing like the NFL. With no preseason games to lean on, the 73-year-old Hall of Famer has cranked up full-contact drills and padded practices to toughen his new team before their September 1 opener against TCU.
The Bill Belichick era is here. 🏈🐏 pic.twitter.com/sOSbzEJWgk
— Great Day Tar Heel (@GreatDayTarHeel) August 8, 2025
Belichick explains why UNC practices are tougher than the NFL
In the NFL, Belichick won eight Super Bowls. And to prepare for each season, he had at least three preseason games with his team. As he gets ready for his coaching debut at UNC, he doesn’t have that security blanket, and has had to prepare his players in a different, more intensely physical way.
Belichick says UNC has practiced with more live hitting than any NFL team he’s ever coached, but praised his players for handling the intensity while avoiding serious injuries.
#UNC head coach Bill Belichick here on Wednesday inside the Kenan Football Center.
— Ross Martin (@RossMartinNC) August 20, 2025
Preparation for TCU is ramping up. It’s all about fundamentals, he said. pic.twitter.com/I5iuQFxIBi
“We’ve done a lot more live work here than we ever did in the NFL, than any team I was ever on. That part of it has been an interesting thing to see,” Belichick said. “Some of the coaches that are on our staff that have had a lot of college experience have talked about the necessity to do that. Obviously, without preseason games, we do need to do it, and we’ve done it.”
“The players have done a really good job of adapting to that. We really haven’t had too many issues,” he said. “Very few injuries to deal with, even though we’ve had quite a bit of contact in our padded days. I think that part’s been really, really good. The amount of contact that we’ve had with the very few guys losing any playing time at all because of it, has been good.”
As Labor Day night approaches, the Tar Heels are adjusting quickly to Belichick’s trademark demand for physicality and precision, setting the tone for a new era in Chapel Hill.
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