Bill Belichick has more major championships on his résumé than any of the other coaches in the ACC, but college football is new to the eight-time Super Bowl winner, and he was quick to acknowledge he has plenty of learning to do in Year 1 at North Carolina. The New England Patriots legend does not have to look far for advice, as one of the top active coaches in the sport resides one state over and in the same conference. Belichick said he aims to model his Tar Heels program, to an extent, after Dabo Swinney’s Clemson operation.
There are few better examples of a winning program than Clemson. Swinney led the Tigers to a pair of national championships in 2016 and 2018, and after a brief slide out of the ACC’s catbird seat, his 2025 squad looks poised to make a run at a second-straight conference crown and perhaps even a College Football Playoff title.
“I’m the rookie of the room,” Belichick said, referencing meetings with other ACC coaches. “I’m not as familiar with things as a lot of other coaches, especially like Coach Swinney here. He’s got way more experience in doing a lot of the things that we do in the ACC than I do. Way more.”
Belichick already made his own mark on the UNC program with a sizable recruiting class and detached from the Swinney model this offseason with a colossal 41-man transfer portal haul. But while the talent acquisition comparison is not apples-to-apples, the similarities between their coaching styles could be apparent on the field this fall.
“I’m watching him,” Belichick said. “I’m looking at his program. It’s a great program. I want to try to copy and do some of the things that he’s been very successful with and understand why he does them, and they make sense. He’s turned out a great product year after year after year after year. That speaks volumes.”
Swinney may be hesitant to fully embrace the myriad changes that swept college football in recent years, but the consistency of high-level success at Clemson speaks for itself and vindicates his process. The Tigers remain the squad by which every other team in the ACC is measured. And in order to eventually climb to the top of the league, Belichick might have to go directly through Clemson.
The Tar Heels and Tigers are set to meet early in conference play this season. Belichick’s ACC debut lands Oct. 4 in a home date with a Clemson team that figures to enter the campaign ranked inside the top 10.
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