When Bill Belichick makes his North Carolina coaching debut in the fall of 2025, the 73-year-old will be pacing the sidelines of his first collegiate game just like the 18- and 19-year-old freshmen on his team.
But unlike those freshmen, Belichick will enter Week 1 with five decades of professional coaching experience and eight Super Bowl rings. Those rings were won against the likes of John Elway’s Denver Broncos, the “Greatest Show on Turf” St. Louis Rams and the 2016 Atlanta Falcons via a historic comeback.
In the fall of 2025, Belichick will be facing far different opponents.
North Carolina’s nonconference schedule is set for 2025, and the Tar Heels’ slate of ACC opponents is known, though the dates of those games won’t be finalized until later this winter.
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Here’s a first look at the Tar Heels’ 2025 schedule, which will serve as backdrop for a fascinating coaching carousel experiment:
TCU — Aug. 30
Belichick will make his collegiate coaching debut at home against the Horned Frogs, who are coming off an 8-4 season. In 2023, Sonny Dykes’ TCU team opened its season against another splashy new hire: Deion Sanders at Colorado. The Buffaloes’ 45-42 upset win over the Horned Frogs, who were fresh off an appearance in the national championship game, cranked up the hype on Sanders’ debut season.
Charlotte — Sept. 6
Belichick’s first road game will come in Week 2, roughly two hours away from Chapel Hill at Jerry Richardson Stadium. The 49ers went 5-7 in 2024, their second season as an American Athletic Conference member, with two of those wins coming after head coach Biff Poggi was fired.
Charlotte visited North Carolina in 2024. The Tar Heels won 38-20 and racked up 490 total yards of offense. Sitting at 110th in The Athletic’s most recent weekly ranking of all 134 FBS teams, Charlotte ranks as the worst of North Carolina’s opponents based on this season.
Richmond — Sept. 13
The Tar Heels will host Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) program Richmond back at Kenan Stadium in Week 3. The Spiders faced one FBS team in 2024, losing to Virginia 34-13 in Week 1, but went on to finish 10-3 overall and 8-3 in Coastal Athletic Association play, losing to Lehigh in the first round of the FCS playoff.
North Carolina has played Richmond 14 times but not since 1978, when the Spiders stunned the Tar Heels 27-18.
UCF — Sept. 20
The final game of Belichick’s first nonconference slate will also be his first college game outside North Carolina, a trip to Orlando to take on UCF, which just went 4-8 in its second Big 12 season.
The Knights recently made a coaching splash of their own by bringing back former coach Scott Frost following the resignation of Gus Malzahn. Frost led UCF to its most memorable season in history, going 13-0 in 2017 before leaving for Nebraska.
ACC schedule
North Carolina’s conference opponents were determined by the ACC schedule modeling system in 2023. The Tar Heels’ annual protected matchups are against rivals Virginia, Duke and NC State. In the model, all 17 teams in the conference play each other at least twice in seven years.
Home games:
- Clemson: The 2024 ACC champions went 10-3 and will take on Texas in the first round of the College Football Playoff.
- Duke: The Tar Heels’ hated rivals went 9-3 in 2024, their first season under Manny Diaz, including a win over North Carolina in September in which they scored 21 unanswered points in the second half after falling behind 20-0.
- Stanford: The Cardinal had a bumpy first year in the ACC, going 3-9 for the fourth consecutive season. Stanford surprised Syracuse in September and Louisville in November but finished 2-6 in conference play.
- Virginia: The Cavaliers have only beaten the Tar Heels once in the past four years. North Carolina defeated Virginia 41-14 at home this year.
Away games:
- California: The Golden Bears went 6-6 in 2024, highlighted by a win over Auburn and a tight loss against Miami with “College GameDay” in Berkeley, but were the only ACC team to lose to Florida State.
- NC State: The Wolfpack went 6-6 in 2024 and finished its regular season with a 35-30 win over North Carolina to become bowl eligible.
- Syracuse: Led by Ohio State transfer quarterback Kyle McCord, the Orange had their best season in years, going 9-3 in 2024.
- Wake Forest: An ACC bottom-feeder for the second year in a row, Wake Forest went 4-8 in 2024 and 2-6 in ACC play. The Tar Heels defeated the Demon Deacons 31-24 in November, their fourth consecutive victory in the series.
Required reading
(Photo: Ethan Miller / Getty Images)
