UNC football can't catch a break this preseason. Pete Thamel broke the news that Steve Belichick, Bill's son and the Tar Heels' defensive coordinator, is on medical leave right in the middle of preseason camp.
More tough news for UNC, as defensive coordinator Steve Belichick is on medical leave.
Bill Belichick confirmed it himself, though he kept it vague. "It's a medical situation so I really can't make any further comment on that," he said, adding only that the team hopes to have Steve back "as soon as possible." No timeline, no diagnosis, just a program bracing for its second season opener at TCU without the guy who runs the defense.
Context matters here. Steve, 39, followed his dad to Chapel Hill in 2025 after running the defense at Washington, and he's entering his second year as UNC's DC. Losing him for any stretch during camp — with the season opener against TCU set for Aug. 29 in Dublin, Ireland — is a real hit, not a minor scheduling wrinkle.
And it's not happening in a vacuum. UNC's offseason has already been messy: Bill hired Bobby Petrino as offensive coordinator to little fanfare, the roster has churned, and a former staffer reportedly filed an HR complaint against GM Michael Lombardi that's now under investigation. Steve's absence is just the latest domino in a preseason that keeps finding new ways to go sideways for Chapel Hill.
Bill's answer for now is that the defensive staff will work "collectively" to cover the gap, which is coach-speak for we'll figure it out. That might be fine against a lesser opponent, but opening the year against a TCU team on a neutral field overseas is not the spot to be running a defense by committee.
The Tar Heels are already being framed as a make-or-break test of whether the Belichick experiment translates to college football. Now they're heading into it shorthanded on the side of the ball that was supposed to be the strength, with the head coach's own son on the sideline in question and the clock ticking toward Dublin.