UNC had plans to build a 33rd NFL team in college football when it hired Bill Belichick. However, the former New England head coach’s first year at Chapel Hill was far from that. The Tar Heels couldn’t even make it to the bowl game and finished with a 4-8 record. Now, he is seeing the consequences of that in the latest ranking of ACC head coaches.

Bill Belichick ranked bottom among all 17 ACC head coaches, according to USA Today Sports’ July 8 list. Considering UNC’s 2025 season under Belichick, no one expected a high ranking, but 17th means he’s last in his conference.

Expectedly, Miami’s Mario Cristobal topped the list after taking the Canes to the national championship game last season. He is followed by two-time national champion Dabo Swinney. James Franklin is already in 3rd place in the ACC despite the Hokies not playing a single snap under his watch yet.

Surprisingly, USA Today had even Boston College’s Bill O’Brien (16th) ahead of Belichick despite the former finishing the 2025 season with a 2-10 record. The same goes for Florida State’s Mike Norvell (13th), who continues to have some credit in the bank despite back-to-back disappointing seasons. Even coaches with no games under their belt (Tosh Lupoi and Tavita Pritchard) rank ahead of Belichick, a sign of how low expectations have fallen. The publication didn’t release a similar ranking last year, but it predicted UNC to finish 12th in the conference.

The ranking aligns with CBS Sports analyst Brad Crawford’s bleak 6-6 projection for 2026. It is definitely an improvement over last year. Crawford has UNC winning against teams like NC State, Virginia, and Duke. But the Tar Heels are predicted to falter against Notre Dame, Clemson, TCU, and Miami. Crawford’s reasoning is simple.

“After last season’s failure to launch in Bill Belichick’s first campaign, simply getting the Tar Heels back to bowl eligibility would represent tangible progress in this staff’s second year,” Crawford wrote this week for CBS Sports. “North Carolina’s hire of Bobby Petrino to reconfigure the offense and improve execution will help a program that is still trying to establish the discipline, toughness, and consistency Belichick has demanded since arriving in Chapel Hill. Rebuilding a culture takes time, particularly in today’s transfer portal era.”

There’s a definite hope for UNC’s improved performance statistics. But that won’t meet the expectation that led Belichick to sign a $10 million/year contract with North Carolina. Investment always enhances expectation. If Belichick fails to lead UNC to a bowl game in his second season, his job could be at risk.

Sports Illustrated’s Brooks Austin, in his June top-10 list of head coaches to be fired in 2026, ranked Belichick at No. 8. While Belichick’s future is uncertain, the coach isn’t worried just yet.

Bill Belichick knows where things went wrong for UNC

In 2025, when Bill Belichick took the reins as head coach, he inherited a roster built by his predecessor. And to lead a team successfully, a relationship between a coach and a student-athlete matters a lot. In fact, Belichick asserted that following UNC’s 4-8 season.

“The group last year, I mean, I wouldn’t say they were, like, disrespectful, that’s not the right word, but it was just different. It was like they were recruited by somebody else; they came here for somebody else,” Belichick said on Pardon My Take in May 2026. “I was new, they were leaving, you know. It wasn’t a bad relationship, but it wasn’t a great one. There wasn’t the same kind of adhesion that there is to guys that you bring in.”

Belichick has now brought in players like Jordan Shipp, Carnell Warren, and Kaleb Cost. Then, at QB, the Tar Heels have options in Billy Edwards Jr. and Miles O’Neill. Regardless of the QB1, the coach set his expectations clearly for this season.

“Well, what I expect is for us and them to get better every day, you know, to get stronger, to get faster, to be more explosive, to be better fundamentally, to be, you know, better technique football players,” said Belichick.