The North Carolina football program has been all over the media throughout the offseason, sometimes for not all the best reasons. The Tar Heels signed legendary NFL head coach Bill Belichick to be the program's next head coach, which instantly put UNC in the same conversation as contenders. However, it appears college football fans are starting to figure out that North Carolina was probably being overrated after the Belichick hire.
As of now, UNC is the third-most bet team in the country in terms of betting under its win total. The Heels' win total over/under per FanDuel is 7.5. It's not even that the betting markets are expecting Carolina to be an elite program with that total, but fans are still out on UNC.
After UNC signed Belichick, the Heels were seen as a program destined to improve drastically after a fairly disappointing 2024 season. Over the last six seasons, UNC has been a respectable program and sent lots of talent through Chapel Hill, but the constant that fans want to forget is how atrocious the defense has been. In three of the last four seasons, UNC has finished 94th or worse in total defense.
Belichick, one of the greatest minds in NFL history, was sent to change that. The hype train continued to surge Carolina's way after a plethora of transfer commitments following Belichick's signing. However, as time went on and more off-the-field drama surrounded the program, fans began to halt the excitement.
At this point, UNC is viewed as a middle-of-the-pack team in the ACC, which isn't expected to do very much.
The most intriguing storyline to follow around UNC is the program's battle for the starting quarterback spot, which Belichick has announced he plans to let play out between Gio Lopez, a transfer from South Alabama, and Max Johnson, a sixth-year senior who missed almost all of the 2024 season with injury.
Duke fans have had it out for Belichick ever since his first interview as UNC head coach, as the NFL legend called out the Blue Devils. Duke will head to Chapel Hill to take on the Heels in the second-to-last week of the regular season, and Manny Diaz's club will be looking to prove what fans are starting to figure out: that UNC may not have been worth the hype after all.