Belichick’s first season at North Carolina ended in a rivalry loss to NC State

RALEIGH, NC – Bill Belichick stood at the microphone in a room full of reporters. North Carolina’s season ended with just one close loss to a tough close rival to snap a four-win season.

And the six-time Super Bowl-winning head coach wasn’t in much of a mood to talk about it.

A little more than four minutes, in fact.

“Look, the season just ended a few minutes ago, okay?” Belichick said after Saturday night’s 42-19 loss at NC State. “So now we’re going to go into the offseason. That’s what we’re going to do.”

UNC began the year with buzz and the national spotlight, filled with hope — or maybe just hope — that the NFL icon could do more for the program as a first-time college coach. By the end of the season, Belichick had fielded a team that had losses by more than a double-digit margin (five) than total wins, while offering frequent contributions of unwanted off-field headlines.

The final blow came in Raleigh, where the Wolfpack and coach Dave Dorian were all too eager to call it quits for the fifth straight year on the Tar Heels in front of a typically raucous home crowd. And he sent a 73-year-old Belichick into the offseason with a final chill, armed with any silver lining assessments that followed modest gains shown in close losses or wins against some of the worst teams in the Atlantic Coast Conference.

He offered some insight, too, following the message he gave to his first college team, after a promising season ended in ugly fashion.

“I put my message between the team and the team,” Belichick said.

The Tar Heels (4-8, 2-6) closed the season with three straight losses to in-state league opponents, first at Wake Forest on Nov. 15 and then last weekend at home against Duke.

That capped a season that saw the Tar Heels lose five games by 16 or more points, starting with a 48-14 loss to TCU on Labor Day — which drew ESPN’s “College Game Day” to Chapel Hill and countless headlines about Belichick’s arrival at the college level.

That only turned into trouble early on, opening month with blowout losses at UCF and at home to a Clemson team that would finish with the program’s lowest winning output in 15 years. UNC’s three wins were against Bowl Subdivision programs with a combined 8-28 record (Charlotte, Syracuse and Stanford).

That hardly lives up to expectations after the school hired Belichick on a deal that includes a guaranteed $10 million in base and extra play each of the first three seasons, along with higher investments in the program for personnel and elsewhere. Specifically, general manager Michael Lombardi said the Tar Heels “consider themselves the 33rd (NFL) team” in their pro-heavy influence and style.

“It’s hard to put into one word,” receiver Jordan Shipp said when asked how he would describe the season. “We didn’t expect the season to go this way, of course.”

The headlines weren’t just limited to game days.

There Belichick was banning scouts from the New England Patriots — the team he led to six Super Bowls with Tom Brady — as part of his strained relationship with his former franchise.

There was a suspension of an assistant coach linked to a violation of NCAA rules. The school released a scathing statement from Belichick and athletic director Boba Cunningham confirming the marriage between Belichick and UNC, itself a sign of how the first few weeks of Belichick’s tenure were shaping up.

Mid-season reports by WRAL-TV of Raleigh painted a picture of behind-the-scenes tension and several players being cited for speeding or reckless driving. And there was tabloid-level interest in Belichick’s relationship with 24-year-old girlfriend Jordan Hudson, a frequent sideline presence before games.

All of that creates plenty of fodder for opponents to scramble over the man many consider the greatest NFL coach of all time, who has 333 regular-season and playoff wins to surpass only Don Shula (347) for the NFL record. And it was often Belichick fielding news conference questions that took away from the game he knows so well.

Doeren knows Belichick’s history well. But he also understands the UNC-NC State rivalry among schools that share the 919 area code and are separated by about a 30-minute drive along Interstate 40.

It showed in the way his team jumped all over the Tar Heels, scoring touchdowns on all four first-half drives to lead 28-10 by the break.

Doeren, for the record, has now beaten UNC for five years and is 9-4 against the Tar Heels in Raleigh. He’s now 1-0 against Belichick, who on this 34-degree night was zipped up in a puffy navy blue winter coat bearing a light blue interlocking-UNC logo bear.

Belichick gave Durian a quick midfield handshake, leaving no chance for chit-chat.

“It’s definitely something that motivates me,” Doreen said of the matchup. “I have a lot of respect for Bill. I mean, how could you not? He’s one of the greatest NFL coaches of all time. … I was definitely sure in my step this week. I want that win, to be a part of my competition against him, it means a lot.”

Once Belichick met with reporters, he dismissed any big-picture questions about the season as a whole.

“We’re working on a team every week,” Belichick said. “I’m sorry, I don’t have a weather record for you. I don’t, we haven’t done it.”

Rather, it left Shipp and linebacker Khmori House to take the lead in answering what went wrong and what happened next.

“We showed flashes, we just didn’t do enough to win something,” Shipp said, adding: “We know internally that we’re not as bad as our record shows.”

Both took questions from reporters longer than Belichick, with Shipp nearly twice as long (7 1/2 minutes). In it, House was asked how he would make the most unusual statement of the season.

“I would describe it as a roller coaster, ups and downs,” he said, “but a lesson.”