There were no fewer than a dozen cameras positioned just outside the men’s restroom on the third floor of the Hilton Charlotte Uptown on Thursday afternoon. A similar scene played out near a closed conference room door. Even more lined the hotel breezeway, waiting for a 73-year-old rookie college coach to come out and meet the press.
Everywhere Bill Belichick went on Thursday, a cascade of cameras and iPhones followed, eventually leading into a jam-packed ballroom for his first big ACC Kickoff press conference. After taking the stage, the University of North Carolina Tar Heels head football coach shielded his eyes, surveyed the crowd and chuckled.
“Appreciate everybody coming out today. It’s really exciting for me to be here,” Belichick said.
This is what happens when you hire one of, if not the, greatest coaches in the history of football, who can’t seem to stop going viral for his off-the-field personal relationship.
“It’s just a different vibe this year and we all know why,” Jeff Taylor, the sports director at WCCB in Charlotte, mused.
“Bill Belichick in the house. Hall of Fame coach, plus all the other stuff that’s gone down in his short reign at UNC. There is just an energy here that has not been here in the past.”
Reporters who had been at the host hotel all week noted the difference in media scrum sizes and security at the hotel, which has hosted media events for coaches and players for each of the 17 ACC football teams.
Belichick’s Carolina blue buzz is real – at least right now. His immediate impact on the program is far greater than just the media swarm within the building. UNC announced this week it had sold out all of its season tickets and single-game tickets for the upcoming football season.
The big question now, for journalists and Tar Heel fans, is whether he will be able to transform the product on the field for the Tar Heels? Belichick, a splashy December hire by a university known for its basketball program, took dozens of questions from members of the press. And, for the first time in months, it was all about football.
Belichick, who was famously short with the press during his NFL days, gave lengthy answers to the press on recruiting, the transfer portal and roster changes. He acknowledged challenges, like having a roster full of talent who haven’t played a single game together. Belichick said Thursday he has 70 players who were not part of the 2024 team.
“Right now, the big thing for us is just stacking good training days one on top of another, one at a time, and being ready to go, not only for the opener but for the entire regular season and the ACC schedule,” Belichick said.
The man with eight Super Bowl rings, six as the head coach of the New England Patriots and two as an assistant with the New York Giants, told reporters he’s working to introduce NFL schemes and concepts to college players without overwhelming them. He peppered his answers with star-studded name drops like Tom Brady, Julian Edelman, and Rob Gronkowski, noting that he is “fundamentally” trying to cultivate the same culture in Chapel Hill that he did in New England.
Senior defensive back Will Hardy told reporters that his coach has “brought former players to talk to us just about what else there is outside of just football.”
No sign of Belichick’s noisy start
The “Chapel Bill” era at UNC got off to a bit of a dramatic start in the offseason.
Conspicuously missing from the interview room on Thursday was the second most famous Jordon in Chapel Hill these days. CNN did not see Belichick’s girlfriend, 24-year-old Jordon Hudson, in attendance at his press availabilities.
The off-field attention the couple drew hit a fever pitch following an awkward moment during a Belichick interview on “CBS Sunday Morning,” which aired in April. The interview featured a now-viral moment where Hudson quickly interrupted after the head coach was asked by reporter Tony Dokoupil how the couple had first met.
Afterward, Belichick defended Hudson, saying that she was “not deflecting any specific question or topic but simply doing her job to ensure the interview stayed on track.”
Belichick later explained on Good Morning America that his seemingly omnipresent girlfriend handled “the business things that don’t relate to North Carolina that come up in my life, so I can concentrate on football.”
In May, the University of North Carolina denied that Hudson was prohibited from the team’s football facility after reports suggested she’d been banned.
UNC will open the season at home on a Monday night in front of a national broadcast audience. The Tar Heels face the TCU Horned Frogs on September 1.