Bill Belichick had a less-than-stellar first season as the head coach of the North Carolina Tar Heels football program. The Tar Heels went 4-8 on the season, and the university also had to manage the scrutiny that came from Belichick’s romantic relationship with the younger Jordon Hudson.
Now, one of Belichick’s players last year is speaking about his time with the program, and he doesn’t have a lot of positive words to share.
“Back at the other school, it felt like there’s no air,” Gio Lopez, who transferred to Wake Forest, said, per Logan Lazarczyk of SI.com. “Here, it’s fun again. They’re moving us in the right direction, energized, and guys are enjoying football. It’s like fresh air. I’d never had to respond to tough situations like that on that loud of a scale.”
“It was more like work,” Lopez explained. “After that first game, it felt like getting through the day. You don’t want to live like that, where you’re up at night thinking about the next day.”
Fans reacted to Lopez’s words on social media.
“In other words, today’s kids aren’t comfortable with accountability and the grind it takes to advance to the NFL. Belichik comes off as the ultimate red ass and is proven to be petty, but if you want to go pro, he’s the guy who knows the deal better than most,” one fan wrote on Twitter.
“Megaconferences without a sense of geography deprived us of a revenge game this fall,” someone else said, noting that North Carolina and Wake Forest won’t play each other this season.
“That culture doesn’t work in college anymore. He is just tarnishing his name at UNC. They are struggling in recruiting,” another fan added.
It’ll be interesting to see how Belichick’s second season in charge of the program goes.
About Qwame Skinner
Qwame Skinner has loved both writing and sports his entire life. In addition to his sports coverage at Comeback Media, Qwame writes novels, and his debut; The First Casualty, an adult fantasy, is out now.