Bill Belichick built his football empire on one phrase – “Do your job.” But right now in Chapel Hill, a growing number of people are wondering whether anybody inside North Carolina is actually listening. After all, this is no longer just about a couple of speeding tickets or college kids making dumb decisions behind the wheel. 

According to a new WRAL investigation, nearly 20 percent of UNC’s football roster has been cited for driving-related offenses ranging from speeding to reckless driving to parking in disabled spots. They’re serious enough for longtime university officials to openly call the behavior “an embarrassment” to Carolina athletics. This was never what UNC imagined could happen when it made Bill Belichick in charge of the football program. 

The school hired the eight-time Super Bowl-winning coach in December 2024, hoping his NFL success would turn the Tar Heels into a national brand. Instead, one season into the experiment, the program is unraveling not just on the field but off the field, too. Bill Belichick’s reputation has always been built on discipline and structure. Yet WRAL found UNC players accounted for 31 speeding tickets and 10 reckless-driving charges last year alone. 

Multiple transfers and key returners celebrated by the program this offseason were cited repeatedly after arriving in Chapel Hill. The most alarming example might be the transfer TE Jelani Thurman, who was part of Ohio State’s national championship roster. He arrived in January with big expectations. But within weeks, he started making a pattern.

First, police caught him going 63 in a 35 mph zone. Then came another stop just two weeks later, where Thurman was cruising 66 in a 35, reckless driving, expired registration, and no insurance. By April, things boiled over even further when he was allegedly caught driving 101 mph in a 65 mph zone. Even then, he was hit with another speeding citation and registration issue less than a month later. 

Then there’s RB Demon June, the team’s leading rusher and one of the players UNC proudly promoted as returning to the roster. He was reportedly cited three separate times since February, including an allegation of driving 101 mph in a 65 mph zone in a lime green Dodge Charger. 

You can imagine the visuals. Loud muscle cars on parking decks with revving engines and triple-digit speeds. It’s almost like a movie scene from Fast & Furious, but with an ACC edition. Bill Belichick acknowledged the concerns months ago.

“Our conduct outside of the building, outside of the program, is important to us, and we stress that,” he told WRAL back in November. “We’ve addressed multiple things, not just that. Other things go on, besides driving, that we’ve talked about absolutely.”

The problem is that people on campus say the behavior never really stopped. And that’s how institutional frustration was born. 

Complaints keep coming about Bill Belichick’s program

For months, UNC professor Mark Peifer, since 1992, has been the unwilling watchdog of football parking behavior around the Bell Tower Deck near Kenan Stadium. He emailed administrators, parking officials, ADs, and university leadership multiple times. 

“Is there no one who can rein in these players, probably only a subset of the football team, who are tarnishing the reputation of our school and of all Carolina athletes?” He emailed UNC AD Bubba Cunningham. 

In another email, he added, “These folks do not seem to think they need to follow the rules the rest of us follow.”

According to WRAL’s reporting, players allegedly parked in disabled spots, ignored parking rules, sped through narrow campus decks, and even cursed at employees. One incident described by Peifer gives an idea of how frustrating it must be. After asking a player to slow down, he says the driver revved the engine so aggressively that flames came out of the exhaust pipes before cursing him out and speeding away.

And what makes this even worse for UNC is that administrators clearly knew about it for months. But they sound defeated, too. 

“I don’t know how many more times I can apologize,” Cunningham wrote in April. “Disappointing, to say the least.”

Now, all this comes back to Bill Belichick, who actually has control of the program. He arrived in Chapel Hill as arguably the most accomplished football coach, carrying a $50 million contract. But the state that UNC is in only adds more questions to his already controversial image in college. Speeding isn’t a new thing for college students. The concern is its repeated nature and the understanding that consequences either aren’t happening or aren’t working.