UNC coach Bill Belichick calls talk of contract buyout ‘categorically false’

North Carolina football coach Bill Belichick said Monday any reports of him looking for a buyout or trying to leave the program are “categorically false.”

“There’s zero truth to any of that,” the six-time Super Bowl-winning coach said at his Monday morning press conference. “I’m glad I’m here. We’re working towards our goals and the process.”

On Monday, in front of a crowd that featured North Carolina athletic director Bubba Cunningham, incoming AD Steve Newmark, Chancellor Lee Roberts, and football general manager Michael Lombardi — as well as expanded seating to accommodate the swarm of local and national media — Belichick defended the state of the UNC football program under his leadership.

The news conference, a regularly-scheduled event held ahead of UNC’s Friday game at Cal, came after a tumultuous bye week marked by controversy and a swell of off-the-field topics that have dominated the conversation around Belichick’s first season in Chapel Hill. The Tar Heels’ on-field performance hasn’t provided much of a distraction. UNC’s disappointing start on the field — 2-3 overall, 0-1 in ACC play after a 38-10 loss to Clemson — has since snowballed with an avalanche of negative press.

The rumor mill reached such a crescendo that, last Wednesday at 9:36 p.m., UNC released a pair of statements reasserting Belichick’s commitment to the program and the athletic department’s support of the new head coach. Belichick said it was a “joint decision” along with UNC athletic department leadership to release those statements.

“There were some things that were reported that were just, factually, totally inaccurate,” Belichick said, “so I wanted to make sure we cleared those up.”

For much of Monday’s session, reporters pressed Belichick not on game strategy ahead of the Cal game, but for comment on the past week’s barrage of headlines.

On Oct. 6, UNC’s football program faced criticism on social media after a report surfaced of an alleged directive from Belichick not to post Patriots-related content on official accounts, despite the team featuring prominent Tar Heel alum Drake Maye. The same day, WRAL dropped a report with a litany of unnamed sources who described a divided locker room, inconsistent communication from the coaching staff and overall discord within the program.

When asked to respond to the alleged culture issues, Belichick pushed back.

“Our guys work hard,” Belichick said Monday. “They have a great attitude, great energy. And we we’ve shown a lot of improvement. I think that’s exciting for all of us to see... I don’t know what kind of perspective some of those people have that are saying that [there are locker room issues], but I think anybody that’s around it on a daily basis would see that [the improvement].”

Belichick continued to defend the team’s progress, saying the Tar Heels are “a lot better than we were at the end of spring ball,” and the process is working “100 percent.”

“It’s a learning curve,” Belichick said. “We’re all in it together but we’re making a lot of progress. The process will eventually produce the results that we want to produce — like they have everywhere else I’ve been. So I’m very confident in that.”

North Carolina’s 87-point aggregated margin of defeat in its three losses to Power 4 programs (TCU, UCF, Clemson) marks the program’s worst start since UNC began fielding a team in 1888. The Tar Heels rank 117th nationally in scoring offense and 131st in total offense out of 136 FBS teams.

Belichick admitted there were “things we could’ve done better,” but largely praised Lombardi, who has come under fire recently. The Athletic, for instance, reported last week Lombardi was “abrasive” and “dismissive” in several interactions with college agents.

Lombardi’s 1,400-word letter (first published by FootballScoop and later confirmed by a source to the N&O) in which he invoked rebuilding rhetoric has been circulated across the internet since it was sent to high-level donors in late September. Belichick repeated several of the talking points found in Lombardi’s letter in his Monday press conference — including, but not limited to, 49ers Hall of Fame coach Bill Walsh, his coaching experience in Cleveland and a lack of players inherited from the Mack Brown era.

“I can’t put a time table on it... it is what it is,” Belichick said of the team’s success this season. “We looked at what we did. Are there some things we could do better going forward? Sure, of course. Just like anytime you go through something a second time.

Again, from where the team was when it got here to where it is now — we’ve made tremendous improvements.”

UNC faces significant financial implications for any potential coaching change. Belichick, currently in the first year of a five-year contract worth $10 million annually, is guaranteed payment for three years — roughly $30 million total — if fired without cause.

North Carolina will try to shift the focus back to the field when it returns to action against Cal on Friday night in Berkeley. Kickoff is scheduled for 10:30 p.m. on ESPN.

This story was originally published October 13, 2025 at 1:37 PM.