ACC · Chapel Hill, North Carolina
North Carolina Football
2026 college football program hub
The short version
North Carolina football in 2026
North Carolina is 2-2 through 4 completed games: 2 wins, 2 losses.
Latest confirmed result: North Carolina lost to Notre Dame Fighting Irish, 26-37, on Saturday, October 3, 2026.
North Carolina plays next against Duke Blue Devils on Saturday, October 17, 2026, on the road. Kickoff is 3:30 PM EDT. TV coverage is TBD.
Program center
North Carolina football pages
2026 season
ACC football
2-2 current recordHead coach
Bill Belichick
Leading the North Carolina Tar Heels through the 2026 season.
Program profile
Chapel Hill, North Carolina
North Carolina
In pictures
UNC on game day
Program background · Reviewed 2026-09-01
The experiment, with a year of evidence
No hire in modern college football has less precedent than this one. Bill Belichick won six Super Bowls with the New England Patriots and had never coached at the college level when North Carolina appointed him in December 2024, at the age of 72. The first season produced a 4-8 record, two wins fewer than Mack Brown's last, and a great deal of coverage that had little to do with football.
Year two starts with a result that looked like the plan: a 15-10 win over TCU in Dublin, low-scoring and settled by defence. One game proves nothing, but it is the first evidence in the column that matters.
Program background · Reviewed 2026-09-01
A real coordinator hire and a harder schedule
The substantive change is Bobby Petrino, hired to run an offence that scored too little last season, replacing Freddie Kitchens. Stephen Belichick stays as defensive coordinator for a second year. Billy Edwards has emerged as the starting quarterback, and the incoming recruiting class ranks inside the top twelve nationally, which is a genuine departure from the scramble that followed Belichick's late arrival in 2024.
The schedule is harder than last year's. North Carolina's opponents went a combined 103-55 in 2025, ten of them played in bowls, and only six of the twelve games are at Kenan Stadium. Five of the fixtures are rematches of defeats.
Explore
More on UNC
Players
Roster
Published player records by position group, with available class years, measurements, and hometowns.
Staff
Coaches
Bill Belichick and the published staff directory.
Numbers
Season stats
Confirmed results, points scored and allowed, and per-game scoring averages.
Archive
Program history
Championships, milestones, and the program’s history.
League
ACC
The rest of the conference and how the title race is shaping up.
Nearby
Teams in North Carolina
Other programs in the same state, if you follow more than one.
FAQ
UNC frequently asked questions
What is the UNC 2026 football record?
North Carolina is 2-2 through 4 completed games: 2 wins, 2 losses.
When does UNC play next?
North Carolina plays next against Duke Blue Devils on Saturday, October 17, 2026, on the road. Kickoff is 3:30 PM EDT. TV coverage is TBD.
Who coaches North Carolina?
Bill Belichick is the head coach.
What conference does UNC play in?
North Carolina competes in the ACC.
Is Bill Belichick still North Carolina's coach?
Yes, and he is in his second season. He was appointed in December 2024 as the 35th head coach in program history, having won six Super Bowls with the New England Patriots and never previously coached at the college level.
Why is North Carolina's Belichick hire considered unprecedented?
No hire in modern college football has less direct precedent. Belichick arrived with six Super Bowl rings and zero college coaching experience of any kind, at any level, which made his first season as much an experiment in whether an NFL coaching mind translates to the college game as it was a rebuilding project.
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