Pressure being ratcheted up on Billy B now. Leaks everywhere. The latest ones, to WRAL, a local TV station in Raleigh, are particularly juicy.
Apparently, the locker room is divided, the players and parents are mad, the program is in a shambles.
Divided locker room, disastrous results: Players, parents blame Belichick culture for UNC problems
Multiple sources with knowledge of the inner workings of Bill Belichick's program say that UNC football's losses are a product of a divided locker room, a disorganized coaching staff and a failure to communicate.
Posted 5:29 PM Oct 6, 2025 Updated 11:52 AM yesterday
By Pat Welter, WRAL sports anchor/reporter
Bill Belichick sold his UNC football program as the "33rd NFL team." Through five games as a college football coach, the Tar Heels rank 128th in points per game out of the 136 NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) teams. Pick a stat right now, it's not good. A 38-10 loss to Clemson on Saturday was Carolina's latest embarrassment. A few weeks earlier, the stadium and student section were buzzing and brimming with optimism. Saturday versus Clemson, the stadium began to empty at halftime.
So how has the six-time Super Bowl champion coach, who many consider the greatest of all time, fallen so far from grace? WRAL has spoken to parents of UNC players, members of the staff, the athletic department and the UNC Board of Trustees. Multiple sources with knowledge of the inner workings of Belichick's program say the results on the field are a product of a divided locker room, a disorganized coaching staff and a failure to communicate.
"It's an unstructured mess," a source with first-hand knowledge of the program told WRAL. "There's no culture, no organization. It's a complete disaster."
According to a player's parent, the leadership (i.e. Bill) has created a toxic, individualistic environment, which has cascaded down through the team.
Belichick was named UNC head coach on Dec. 11, 2024, in a search led by UNC Chancellor Lee Roberts and John Preyer, who was the Board of Trustees chair at the time. According to sources, the divide in Belichick's locker room started right away.
"It's all starting at the top, and the boys are being affected," a parent of a current UNC player said under the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation. "I don't fault the players; I fault the leadership that created this toxic environment. There's an individualistic mindset. The boys are young, and they are feeding into it."
According to WRAL's sources (parents? players?) the divide formed between the holdovers from the Mack Brown era and the new players that Bill and Michael Lombardi recruited. Bill's players were apparently given preferential treatment. Shades of Michigan's basketball team when the Fab Five were recruited and the ones who were already there felt they were second class citizens?
The transfer portal opened Dec. 9, 2024. Together, Belichick and Lombardi would bring in 70 new players between the portal and their high school signing class. According to sources, it was there that a divide organically formed between the Mack Brown-recruited players and the transfers.
"It started with recruits coming in acting entitled to certain things," a source said. "It was about them individually, not the team. It was about me and what I was going to do."
It's common in college football for players who transfer to get paid more than players who stay, but according to multiple sources, Belichick and his staff haven't done enough to unite the players. There are multiple examples of preferential treatment for transfers that have added to the discord in the team.
According to several sources, some Belichick-recruited transfers have preferential parking for themselves and their parents, as well as more tickets for games. Khmori House and Thaddeus Dixon played for Belichick's son, Steve Belichick, at the University of Washington. Their names come up repeatedly when talking to sources about preferential treatment. Dixon's family has field access on game days, something that no other family is believed to have.
According to sources, there's a board in the UNC football facility that lists people who have missed workouts and class. Some Belichick-recruited players repeatedly show up on the list but have not had their playing time affected.
Apparently (some of) the players (probably the holdovers) are not happy with the lack of communication and experience from the coaches, who they consider to be nepo babies (Bill's kids Brian and Steve, Michael Lombardi's son Matt).
Failure to communicate with players and parents has also furthered the divide. According to sources, the players who chose to stay at UNC after Mack Brown's firing didn't meet Belichick for weeks after he was hired. Parents were told not to approach Belichick. They didn't meet Belichick and his staff until the "Practice like a Pro" spring game.
"There's been no communication with coaches and parents, period," a parent of a current UNC player said. "None, zero, zilch. Not one email from a coach, one text, phone call, nothing."
Under Mack Brown, parents had relationships with coaches and their phone numbers. Coaches might call a parent if they felt something was going on with their son. Multiple sources have said that Belichick's son, Brian, the defensive back/safeties coach, is very personable. Belichick's son Steve, the defensive coordinator, they said, is the opposite.
"He has not talked or had a conversation with most of the guys on defense," a source said. "They don't even have his number."
The experience level and perceived nepotism with Bill Belichick's staff have been frequently called into question in the media. Internally, it is being questioned by players and parents too.
"The lack of experience the coaches have, it's ridiculous," a source said.
Apparently the issue is not with Bill's coaching ability, but his ability to run a program.
Belichick himself has been praised by multiple sources for his one-on-one coaching; it?s his ability to run the program that's being questioned by parents and players.
"Bill shuts people out. He's limited in what he says," a source said.
Belichick will say "hi" when he sees players in the building. His GM, Michael Lombardi, has been described by multiple sources as "rude" and "nasty."
"Nobody likes him," a source said.
In a recent letter to donors during Carolina's bye week ahead of the Clemson game, Lombardi positioned the UNC program as a rebuild.
"Twenty years of sustained success in New England was due to investing in the long term, establishing continuity within the program, which allowed growth and development of the players," Lombardi wrote. "This is the formula we intend to use by signing a large high school class. There must be a blend of old and new which provides short and long-term answers.?
Apparently part of the issue is that they are trying to run the program like an NFL program when it's not. Little things like non-travel roster players not getting to dress at home games, making them feel excluded.
"The disconnect comes from this is not NFL," a source said. "There are certain ways to operate in the NFL that you can't do in college."
The points of division are small, but the feeling among sources is that the little has become big. Things like the non-travel roster are not getting to dress in uniform at home games. Former UNC quarterback Bryn Renner, who played for the Tar Heels from 2009-2013, said he'd seen that done with practice squad players in the NFL, but not in college football.
"I think part of the tradition and in part of college sports is you are involved with a team at a high level, and game days are special, and you don't know how many you're going to get," Renner said. "Sometimes these kids are only going to put on a Carolina uniform that Saturday. And you've got to think about that. And I just have never seen it. I think it's really good for morale."
Former UNC QB Renner says that ultimately the players have to be held accountable.
WRAL talked to a source on the UNC football staff who said they did not believe the locker room was divided or that the staff was dysfunctional.
Renner said that the players need to be held accountable for their play as well.
"I think there's a lot of guys looking around and seeing who, who's going to lead," Renner told WRAL. "When you create a roster with 70 guys that are coming from all different areas, and you really haven't had time to mesh and gel, it's hard to hold somebody accountable that you don't know, and I think that's the biggest thing."
"At a certain point, the players have to go and make plays, and they're accountable for what happens on the field. The coaches can't go play," Renner continued.
Full article at https://www.wral.com/sports/belichick-coach-culture-chaos-oct-2025/?_sp=219e8770-fc43-44cd-918a-9d16198b1c36.1759879193736
There's a number of ways to parse this, any or all of which can be true - a) angry holdover players and parents mad at the new regime looking for someone to blame leaking to the media; b) Bill is out of his depth; c) Bill needs more time to learn; and d) their team sucks. But the fact that it's all come to this so early shows that Bill's doing a terrible job with the PR. His monosyllabic replies and disdain for media probably aren't helping him when he needs a longer rope from them.
Topic: 2025-2026 College Football Season (Read 12160 times)