When North Carolina hired Bill Belichick, it was one of the strangest college football stories in years.

Some people thought it was genius.

Some people thought it was a publicity stunt.

Some people thought he would stay one year, realize college football is a totally different world now, and head back to the NFL to chase the all-time wins record.

Then came the off-field noise. The girlfriend storyline. The awkward interview. The headlines that had very little to do with football.

And while all of that got attention, the actual football part got ugly.

North Carolina went 4-8.

The Tar Heels were 2-8 against Power Four opponents, and the two wins came against Stanford and Syracuse. Stanford was bad. Syracuse was out of quarterbacks. Those two teams went a combined 7-17.

So forget the name on the headset for a second.

North Carolina was just not good.

Now the question is whether Belichick can make this look like a real build in Year 2.

HEAD COACH:

• Bill Belichick, entering year two at North Carolina
• UNC went 4-8 last season.
• North Carolina had a negative turnover margin.
• UNC averaged 6.8 penalties per game, ranking near the bottom nationally.

The weirdest part about last year was that North Carolina did not look like a Bill Belichick team.

If you hire Belichick, you may not expect the best talent in the ACC right away. You may not expect North Carolina to line up and out-athlete Miami, Clemson or some of the top teams in the league talent-wise.

But you do expect a few things.

You expect the team to be organized.

You expect it to avoid beating itself.

You expect fewer penalties.

You expect better situational football.

You expect the defense to be smart and annoying.

That did not happen enough.

North Carolina had a minus-0.5 turnover margin per game, which ranked 109th nationally. The Tar Heels averaged 6.8 penalties per game, which ranked 99th.

That is not what people pictured when Belichick walked into Chapel Hill.

To be fair, the defense did improve as the season went on. You could see that. The numbers got better. The team started looking more competent on that side of the ball.

But the offense was a mess.

And if the offense does not get fixed, it is hard to see how this team takes a big step forward.

QUARTERBACK:

This is where the season starts.

Gio Lopez is gone to Wake Forest, so North Carolina is choosing between Billy Edwards and Taron Dickens.

And it is a very interesting quarterback battle because the two options feel completely different.

Edwards is the safer, more experienced choice. He came from Wisconsin, but he barely played last year because of a PCL strain. He appeared in only two games and went 6-of-17 for 113 yards, with no touchdowns and no interceptions.

Before that, he spent three years at Maryland, where he threw for more than 3,000 career yards.

So there is experience there.

But I think we kind of know what Billy Edwards is. That is not meant as an insult. He can be a useful quarterback. He can manage a game. If North Carolina plays good defense and just needs a quarterback who does not give the ball away, maybe he is the right guy.

But is he going to carry an offense?

That feels like a stretch.

The number that stands out is how he handled pressure in his only full season. He completed just 41% of his passes under pressure, compared to 72% from a clean pocket, according to PFF.

That is a big difference.

And North Carolina may not have the kind of offense where everything is clean and easy.

Then there is Taron Dickens, the transfer from Western Carolina.

He is the more intriguing option.

He was not playing ACC defenses. He was not playing Power Four competition every week. But the production was wild.

Against Mercer, the best team Western Carolina played last year and the eventual SoCon champion, Dickens went 32-of-49 for 551 yards, seven touchdowns and one interception.

Seven touchdown passes against the best team on the schedule gets your attention.

He also once completed 46 straight passes in a game against Wofford.

That is ridiculous at any level.

So the choice is pretty clear.

Edwards probably gives you the higher floor.

Dickens gives you the more interesting ceiling.

And for a North Carolina offense that ranked near the bottom of the country last year, I understand why the higher ceiling should be tempting. Even if Dickens doesn’t win the job for the opener against TCU, you could see him taking the field early if Edwards struggles.

THE REST OF THE OFFENSE

North Carolina’s offense was bad last season.

Really bad.

The Tar Heels ranked 126th in points per game, averaging just 17 points. They were 125th in yards per game, at only 287 yards. They were 110th in red zone scoring.

That is brutal.

This is why Bobby Petrino matters.

Petrino is now the offensive coordinator, and whatever people think of him, the man can call offense. Arkansas had plenty of problems last year, but the offense was not the issue.

At North Carolina, Petrino has to bring life to a unit that had almost none.

The top returning pieces are Demon June at running back and Jordan Shipp at wide receiver.

June ran 84 times for 464 yards and two touchdowns last season. That is a decent starting point, but North Carolina needs more than decent. It needs a reliable run game that can protect whichever quarterback wins the job.

Shipp is the best proven offensive player.

He caught 60 passes for 677 yards and six touchdowns last year, despite playing in an offense that struggled to throw the ball consistently. He was an honorable mention All-ACC player.

If Petrino can get the passing game moving at all, Shipp should benefit.

North Carolina also added WR Trech Kekahuna from Wisconsin and Jordan Washington from Texas. Washington was a highly recruited tight end, but he had only seven catches last year with the Longhorns.

So there are some pieces.

But there is not enough proven production to just assume this offense is fixed.

That is why the quarterback decision matters so much.

If Edwards wins the job, this probably becomes a controlled, manage-the-game offense that tries to lean on June, Shipp and avoiding mistakes.

If Dickens wins the job, maybe North Carolina tries to unlock something more explosive.

Either way, Petrino was hired to solve the biggest problem on the team.

He does not have much time to ease into it.

DEFENSE

This is the side of the ball where North Carolina can actually talk itself into improvement.

UNC allowed 26 points per game, which ranked 70th. The Tar Heels gave up 349.4 yards per game, which ranked 41st.

That is not elite.

But compared to the offense, it looks pretty good.

And as the season went along, the defense did get better. Part of that was the schedule. Playing teams like Syracuse, Stanford and Wake Forest late helped the numbers. But it was also clear that North Carolina started to look more comfortable defensively.

The key returning names are defensive lineman Leroy Jackson and defensive backs Kelly Cost and Jaiden Patterson.

The biggest name, though, might be Melkart Abou-Jaoude.

He had 10.5 sacks last season, and if North Carolina is going to take a step forward, it needs that pass rush to be real again.

Because the defense cannot just be “better than the offense.”

It has to actually help win games.

Belichick’s reputation is defense. His entire football identity is built on taking away what an opponent does best and forcing teams to play left-handed.

That did not show up enough last year.

It has to show up this year.

North Carolina also brought in some transfer help, including Donovan Hoylette and Peyton Siler from Richmond, who were all-conference players. Siler had multiple interceptions last season.

Those are the kinds of additions that may not make national headlines, but they matter for a roster that needs more dependable players.

The defense does not have to become dominant overnight.

But it has to be good enough to keep North Carolina in games while the offense figures itself out.

SCHEDULE

The schedule is a weird mix.

The good news is North Carolina does not play Cal, Stanford or SMU.

In this version of the ACC, that matters.

No trip to the West Coast. No trip to Dallas. No long, strange travel spot where you are adjusting time zones and playing a team that slept in its own bed.

That is a win.

The bad news is the front half of the schedule looks rough.

North Carolina opens with TCU on a neutral field. Then it gets East Tennessee State, which should be a win. But after that, things get ugly fast.

The Tar Heels play at Clemson, host Notre Dame, go at Pitt, and then go at Duke.

That is a brutal first six.

And four of those first six games are away from home.

So even without the long ACC travel, North Carolina is not getting an easy runway into the season.

After that, the Tar Heels host Syracuse, then host Miami on Halloween.

That Miami game could get a lot of attention depending on how North Carolina looks by then. Miami might be the ACC favorite and maybe even a national title contender.

Then UNC goes to UConn, before finishing with Louisville, Virginia and NC State.

The closing stretch is more manageable than the start, but that only matters if the Tar Heels survive September and October.

The first six games could shape the entire season.

If North Carolina starts badly, the pressure and noise around Belichick will get loud fast.

OUTLOOK

I understand why some people still want to believe in this.

It is Bill Belichick.

It is Bobby Petrino running the offense.

There are a few intriguing transfers.

The defense improved late last year.

And maybe the roster had to be turned over after a 4-8 season.

But I also think we have to be honest.

North Carolina was not unlucky last year.

North Carolina was bad.

The Tar Heels were 126th in scoring, 125th in total offense, 110th in red zone scoring, 109th in turnover margin and 99th in penalties per game.

Those are not little problems.

Those are program problems.

The best-case scenario is that Petrino fixes the offense quickly, Belichick gets the defense playing more disciplined football, Edwards protects the ball or Dickens gives the offense a spark, and Shipp becomes one of the better receivers in the ACC.

If that happens, North Carolina can be much more competitive.

The worst-case scenario is that the quarterback battle never gets settled, the offense still cannot score, the penalties and turnovers continue, and the early schedule buries the Tar Heels before they ever get comfortable.

North Carolina should be better.

It would be hard not to be better offensively, bBut I need to see it before I buy it.

Belichick’s name makes this fascinating. Petrino’s offense makes it even more interesting. The quarterback decision gives it some real intrigue.

But at some point, this cannot just be a story about famous coaches.

North Carolina has to win football games.

And after Year 1, there is still a lot to prove in Chapel Hill.

Full disclosure: I use AI tools to format my research into an article encompassing all of the information.