As North Carolina enjoys a bye week and prepares for a massive game against Notre Dame on October 3, the university has given a vote of confidence to head coach Bill Belichick.
Speaking to the media at the UNC Board of Trustees meeting this week, North Carolina chancellor Lee Roberts declared that Belichick has the support of the administration and the trustees. Roberts added that Belichick understand that the support comes with “expectations around conduct and behavior.”
“Coach Belichick continues to have our support, the support of the administration and of the board [of trustees],” Roberts said, via Brian Murphy of WRAL. “He understands that that support comes with expectations around conduct and behavior.”
That last remark was no doubt a reference to the recently-concluded investigation into former UNC general manager Michael Lombardi and Belichick’s son and now-former defensive coordinator Steve Belichick for conduct. The university found that the incidents in question were “isolated in scope and not a systemic failure” of Belichick’s program.
Even so, Belichick is believed to be on thin ice if the team doesn’t show significant growth in the program during his second at the helm.
Fortunately, things have looked pretty good so far.
Tar Heels on the Climb?
UNC began the year with a win over TCU in Ireland and followed that up with a dominant display against ETSU to start the season 2-0. They got off to a hot start against Clemson last week and nearly beat them on the road, but the Tigers managed to rally in the fourth quarter and beat them.
The next three games will be pretty telling of the state of the program though. While nobody is too impressed by what TCU or Clemson are doing right now, October will feature games against Notre Dame, Pittsburgh and Duke – three teams with a combined 9-0 record.
Everyone expects North Carolina to lose against the Fighting Irish, so those games against Pitt and especially Duke will be critical. If North Carolina isn’t 4-2 or even 3-3 after those games, they might find it hard to stack wins on the latter half of the schedule.
Will Belichick justify the trust that UNC has placed in him, or will the “vote of confidence” jinx him the way it’s jinxed so many other coaches in the past?
