One of Bill Belichick’s biggest selling points when he took over at North Carolina was that he could prepare players for the NFL. He sold his Tar Heels program as the “33rd NFL team.” But five games into his first college football season, the results have been anything but professional: 2-3. The Tar Heels rank 128th in points per game out of 136 FBS teams. Their 38–10 loss to Clemson on Saturday should have been the week’s biggest embarrassment. Instead, the suspension of assistant coach Armond Hawkins managed to top even that.

North Carolina cornerbacks coach Armond Hawkins was suspended, a university source confirmed Tuesday. The first-year assistant’s suspension stems from a WRAL report detailing growing dysfunction within Bill Belichick’s UNC program. The report alleges that Hawkins violated NCAA rules by providing a player’s family with sideline passes during a game,  a seemingly small gesture that counts as an extra benefit under NCAA policy.

Hawkins joined UNC after serving as a recruiting analyst and secondary coach at the University of Washington, where he worked under Steve Belichick, Bill’s son and now North Carolina’s defensive coordinator. But as WRAL described, Hawkins remains “among the most inexperienced coaches” on staff, a label that now feels even heavier amid the team’s mounting struggles and internal chaos. But how did the six-time Super Bowl champion, once revered for his discipline and structure, end up in this kind of chaos?

Sources who spoke to WRAL, including parents of players, members of the staff, and university officials, painted a picture of a program in disarray. They described a fractured locker room, unclear communication, and a leadership style that feels detached from the college game. One insider put it bluntly: “It’s an unstructured mess. There’s no culture, no organization. It’s a complete disaster.”

The problems, they say, start at the top. Belichick arrived at UNC in December 2024, months after Mack Brown’s firing, promising to bring an NFL-level approach to Chapel Hill. But that same approach has reportedly alienated players and staff. Parents claim they’ve had little to no contact with the coaching staff since the transition, and some say the rigid, business-first mentality has stripped away the community feel that once defined the program. “It’s all starting at the top,” one parent said. “The boys are young and they’re being affected. I don’t fault them, I fault the leadership that created this toxic environment.”

Many say that he needs more time to settle in, but even at this early stage, cracks in Belichick’s program have become impossible to ignore. Sources told WRAL the rift between players recruited under Mack Brown and the flood of transfers has deepened over time. One insider said it “started with recruits coming in acting entitled to certain things. It was about them individually, not the team. It was about me and what I was going to do.”

Trust appears to be evaporating quickly. Belichick’s defensive staff has become a focal point of criticism. “He has not talked or had a conversation with most of the guys on defense,” one source told WRAL. “They don’t even have his number.” Meanwhile, Michael Lombardi, Belichick’s general manager, earned his own negative description: one source labeled him “rude,” adding simply: “Nobody likes him.”

Amid all this, Belichick’s coaching technique still draws praise, but only in isolation. Some within the program acknowledge he remains sharp when working directly with players; it’s everything else around him that’s faltering. The optics haven’t helped. Belichick acted unilaterally in shutting out the New England Patriots from UNC’s facilities, following reports that the Patriots had similarly blocked him. “It’s clear I’m not welcome there at their facility. So, they’re not welcome at ours,” he said.

He’s not short on defense: Belichick has publicly taken responsibility for some of the losses and insisted the staff will “keep working and grinding.” But for many inside Chapel Hill, this is no longer just about a shaky start. And national analysts are calling on Bill Belichick to hold him accountable for 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 point the finger solely at Bill Belichick, he said the struggles go beyond just coaching. Wolken stated that the people around Belichick either “don’t get it or don’t care.” This 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 further explained 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. With other analysts like Josh Pate joining in, Belichick’s leadership at UNC is under the microscope.