The first season for Bill Belichick as a college football coach didn’t go well. Belichick’s North Carolina Tar Heels went 4-8 (2-6 in ACC play) in the 2025 college football season, and expectations aren’t much higher for year two. There’s been more talk about Belichick and his 25-year-old girlfriend than there’s been positive talk about the UNC football program since last August.
And ESPN college football talk show host and analyst Paul Finebaum thinks Belichick is wasting his time at North Carolina.
Appearing on ESPN’s Get Up on Friday morning, Finebaum said that the six-time Super Bowl champion head coach ending his career like this is “really embarrassing, and sad, and in many ways, pathetic.”
Finebaum added that Belichick “won’t get fired, but he should seriously consider retirement.”
Paul Finebaum: “Ending like [Bill Belichick] is going to end is really embarrassing, and sad, and in many ways, pathetic… He only took [the UNC] job because he was bitter that he couldn’t get an NFL job… He won’t get fired, but he should seriously consider retirement.” pic.twitter.com/ag6eFIRHyO
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) July 17, 2026
Get Up host Peter Schrager asked Finebaum, “What do you think’s at stake for Belichick this year?”
“I think his college future,” Finebaum responded. “No one’s taking away his six Super Bowls, But, ending like he is going to end is really embarrassing, and sad, and in many ways, pathetic, Peter. Because this didn’t have to happen. He only took this job because he was bitter that he couldn’t get an NFL job. He chose the wrong place. He has tried to use the magic of yesteryear, and it simply hasn’t worked.”
“I’ll break it to everyone who’s curious how many games they’re going to win this year,” Finebaum continued. “Their [win total over/under] in Vegas is 4.5. Five wins would be considered a success. And that would mean another embarrassment.”
“And yes, [Heather Dinich] is right,” Finebaum added. “He won’t get fired, but he should seriously consider retirement.”
Belichick and UNC will open the 2026 college football season against TCU in Dublin, Ireland, on August 29. It’s a rematch of last season’s UNC opener in Chapel Hill, when TCU pummeled the Tar Heels 48-14.
About Matt Clapp
Matt is an editor/writer at The Comeback and Awful Announcing.
He can be reached by email at mclapp@thecomeback.com.