Bill Belichick‘s UNC’s assistant football coach Armond Hawkins has been suspended after allegations surfaced that he gave players’ families extra benefits, which is against NCAA rules. The news came out on Monday after The Athletic and WRAL published reports about problems within Bill Belichick’s first year as head coach of the University of North Carolina football program.

According to the reports, Hawkins allegedly gave a player’s family sideline passes during a game earlier this season. While this might seem small, it counts as an improper benefit under NCAA rules because not all families or players received the same opportunity. The WRAL story also suggested that some players who transferred to UNC — and were recruited by Belichick himself — may have received special treatment. These players, including Khmori House and Thaddeus Dixon, supposedly had preferential parking, extra tickets, and even field access for family members. No other families were believed to have these privileges.

Hawkins joined UNC’s staff after working at the University of Washington as a defensive analyst in 2024. He also previously coached at Arizona, Colorado, and USC. He followed Steve Belichick, Bill Belichick’s son and UNC’s defensive coordinator, from Washington to North Carolina. This suspension adds to the growing criticism and scrutiny surrounding Bill Belichick’s leadership at UNC. Many reports have described the football program as dysfunctional during his first season, with frustration among players and staff.

The length of Hawkins’s suspension has not been announced yet, and it is unclear whether the NCAA will launch a broader investigation into the alleged rule violations. For now, the situation raises more questions about how Belichick and his staff are managing the program and whether further disciplinary actions could follow.

The North Carolina Tar Heels football team is having a tough season. Their record is 2 wins and 3 losses as they go into their second break of the year. Their two wins came against Richmond, a smaller college team, and Charlotte, one of the weakest teams in major college football. These wins don’t mean much because neither team is top tier.

North Carolina has lost to TCU, UCF, and Clemson, and in those games, they were outscored by 77 points. That shows how much they have struggled against Power 4 teams. Their worst loss was against Clemson in Week 6. Clemson quickly took a big lead, going up 28–3 in the first quarter, and went on to win 38–10 in Chapel Hill. Overall, the Tar Heels have had a rough start. And national analysts are calling Bill Belichick to hold accountable of his program.

National analyst calls Bill Belichick out for lack of initiative

College football insider Dan Wolken decided to call out what’s really going wrong in Chapel Hill. While he didn’t blame everything on Bill Belichick, he said the struggles go beyond just coaching. According to Wolken, the people around Belichick either “don’t get it or don’t care,” and that lack of unity has turned the Tar Heels into a national laughingstock halfway through the season.

Wolken didn’t hold back when addressing Belichick directly. “Bill, here’s some free advice: In North Carolina, they don’t care about you enough to put up with all this. You’re not one of them. They merely hired you to do a job. And if you don’t want to do it, rest assured they will find someone else who will,” he said. His comments came after Belichick was spotted in Nantucket, Massachusetts, spending his team’s bye week vacationing with his girlfriend, Jordon Hudson. Photos of the 73-year-old coach walking the boardwalk while his program struggled only fueled criticism that he’s disconnected and not focused on fixing the team.

Wolken went on to explain that what makes great college coaches stand out isn’t just their game plans and on-field sorcery, it’s how they build connections with their players and the school’s legacy. “It’s perhaps a small thing, but it’s just part of what you do as a college coach to connect past with future, to deepen relationships and to show you care about guys who wore the uniform even if you didn’t coach them,” Wolken said. His point was simple: being a college coach means more than winning games; it’s about building trust and community. And with other analysts like Josh Pate joining in, Belichick’s leadership at UNC is now under serious question.