Unusual Schedule Means Belichick,
UNC Face Mid-October Deadline
By David Glenn
North Carolina Sports Network
(last updated Sept. 12, 2025)
While Bill Belichick’s first season as North Carolina’s football coach already has had its share of circus sideshows, on and off the field, one intriguing aspect of the Tar Heels’ ongoing 2025 campaign relates to a far less provocative detail: the team’s unusual schedule.
First, only three of the 17 Atlantic Coast Conference teams have two “open weeks” (lots of practice time but no game) even before they hit the halfway point of their 12-game regular-season schedule: Louisville, Miami and UNC.
Louisville and Miami already have had significant success under head coaches Jeff Brohm and Mario Cristobal, respectively, and each is considered an ACC contender again this year.
Carolina, on the other hand, opened its season in embarrassing fashion, losing 48-14 to TCU at Kenan Stadium, before beating a rebuilding Charlotte team 20-3.
The Tar Heels also have an extraordinary number of key players (e.g., quarterback Gio Lopez, running back Benjamin Hall, tight end Jordan Owens, right tackle Jakai Moore, defensive end Smith Vilbert, defensive tackle D’Antre Robinson, linebacker Andrew Simpson) who didn’t even arrive in Chapel Hill until after spring practice, meaning they’ve had precious little time to learn the Belichick Way and build chemistry with their fellow teammates and staff members.
Coaches cherish practice time just as trees need water and sunshine, and that’s especially the case when a team has an extraordinary number (70, in Carolina’s case) of new players.
“The biggest thing for us is just stacking good training days,” Belichick said. “One on top of another, one at a time. …
“That’s our outlook. Just put good days together, take advantage of every opportunity, don’t let any days go by where we don’t continue to improve, get better and get closer to becoming the most consistent and best football team we can be when we step out onto the field.
“That’ll hopefully continue every week, that we’ll continue to improve as a team all the way through the course of the season. That’s what we’ve always tried to do, so that’ll be our goal this year.”
While that basic philosophy applies to every team every year, the 2025 Tar Heels’ learning curve — their rate of improvement — will be tied to their ultimate success (or failure) in the most intense manner possible, largely because of another unusual twist in their schedule.
All but one of Carolina’s harder-to-predict matchups this season will occur after mid-October, meaning after the team sandwiches two practice-only weeks around its Oct. 4 matchup against Clemson and after it plays all four of the most predictable games on its schedule.
There’s a lot of practice time available between now and then, giving the Tar Heels the maximum time possible to be a better version of themselves by the time the bulk of their coin-flip-style games arrive.
Here’s how it looks on the calendar:
Sept. 1, TCU, likely loss (L)
Sept. 6, at Charlotte, likely win (W)
Sept. 13, Richmond, likely win
Sept. 20, at UCF, ???
Sept. 27, OPEN
Oct. 4, Clemson, likely loss
Oct. 11, OPEN
Oct. 17, at California, ???
Oct. 25, Virginia, ???
Oct. 31, at Syracuse, ???
Nov. 8, Stanford, ???
Nov. 15, at Wake Forest, ???
Nov. 22, Duke, ???
Nov. 29, at NC State, ???
UNC faced TCU, a highly successful program under coach Sonny Dykes, in that opener after basically one full month together on the practice field. By the time the Heels’ trip to California arrives on Oct. 17, they will have had approximately two and a half months together.
There’s at least a chance the Tar Heels will be healthier for that season-defining stretch in late October and November, too.
One of the team’s top offensive linemen, center Christo Kelly (a Holy Cross transfer), has been limited by an ankle injury. Another, returning guard/center Austin Blaske, hasn’t played yet this season because of a broken foot but is expected to return at some point in October. The team’s most accomplished defensive lineman, end Pryce Yates (a UConn transfer), also hasn’t played in 2025 yet but also hopes to return soon, reportedly from concussion protocol.
In yet another scheduling quirk, remember, UNC will avoid facing a large majority of the teams that are expected to compete for a trip to this year’s ACC championship game: nationally ranked Miami and Florida State, as well as Louisville, Georgia Tech, SMU and Pitt.
That means a truly improved version of UNC, by mid-October, would have a legitimate shot at a winning season and maybe even a desirable bowl game.
A more stagnated version of the Tar Heels, on the other hand, easily could finish with a losing record and miss the postseason entirely.
For Belichick to live up to his $10 million per year price tag, he needs to make that first scenario happen, especially given the accommodating nature of the Tar Heels’ unique 2025 schedule.
“I just think we need to do a better job all the way across the board and in every area: offense, defense, special teams,” Belichick said this week. “There’s a lot of room for improvement and just our fundamentals, our execution, (in) some cases, our timing. We just keep working on that.
“I think it’s definitely getting better, but we’re certainly a long way from where we need to be.”
