Josh Pate pours cold water on Bill Belichick and UNC's chance to win ACC championship over Dabo Swinney's Clemson

College football analyst Josh Pate has played down UNC's chances of dominating the Atlantic Coast Conference under Bill Belichick. Pate, a UNC alumnus, expressed skepticism at the prospect of Belichick leading the program to the playoffs in a video on his YouTube channel on Tuesday.

“Is Bill Belichick going to win more? Is he going to win on the level it takes to make the playoffs, compete with Clemson, compete to win the ACC championship? Well, no. I don’t think he is,” he said.

Pate explained his reasons for lowering his expectations of Belichick at UNC, despite his NFL track record. According to him, the UNC football program has not consistently had 10-win seasons. He pointed out that the last time the program had a 10-win season was in 2015, and before then, it was in 1997.

“I don’t think this is going to be a great big success," Pate added. "For all the people talking about how much Belichick is about to teach college football, I’m of the opinion college football may be about to teach Belichick a lot more than he’s going to teach college football.”

Bill Belichick’s arrival at UNC and fans’ expectations

UNC hired Bill Belichick following Mack Brown’s departure after the 2024 season. The seven-time Super Bowl-winning coach signed a five-year deal, with his base salary set at $10 million for the first three years.

The veteran coach has since set to work improving the Tar Heels roster with recruits out of high school and some players from the transfer portal.

Notwithstanding, speculations have been rife about Belichick’s potential return to the NFL even before he coaches his first college game. Perhaps this prompted the $10 million buyout clause included in the deal for his first six months at the program. However, this reduced drastically to $1 million in June.

Despite the high expectations among fans to see Belichick transform their team, Fox Sports’ Joel Klatt has claimed he is not under serious pressure.

“Let’s be honest, Belichick isn’t going to feel a lot of pressure at UNC," Klatt wrote on Tuesday. "If this doesn’t go his way, he’s not going to lose a lot of sleep over this. Rather, the pressure is on the fan base.”

Belichick will have his college coaching debut on Sept. 2 with the season opener against TCU.

About the author

Kayode is a College and High School Sports writer at Sportskeeda since June 2023. Hailing from Nigeria, he has an undergraduate degree in Linguistics and African Languages, and has previously had stints as an entertainment and politics writer for around 7 months. Adept at creating content around historical perspectives, he strives to report stories based only on verified information. His mantra is - truth is always more important than sensationalism.

A fan of the Alabama Crimson Tide football team, Kayode admires how Nick Saban developed talent at the team and delivered consistent results, and hopes that the post-Saban era is just as fruitful. He is thoroughly impressed by Johnny Manziel’s talent, and feels that Shedeur Sanders is massively underrated. Nick Saban is his all-time favorite college coach.

While Kayode believes there is little to separate college and mainstream sports, pro leagues absorbing the best athletes leads to their quality being higher. Witnessing the Colorado Buffaloes’ hot streak at start the 2023 football season was one of his all-time favorite college sports moments.

When not writing, Kayode enjoys reading and watching sports documentaries. His most recent watch was "Sir Alex Ferguson: Never Give In."

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Edited by Ribin Peter