CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (WNCN) – Excitement is filling the air at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill as football fever begins to grip the campus community.
Entering the first year under new head coach Bill Belichick, the university is already reaping the rewards from its headline-making offseason hire.
All season and single-game tickets for home games at Kenan Memorial Stadium are sold out, nearly one month before the UNC football team officially kicks off the 2025 season, the school announced Wednesday.
This announcement marks the earliest that all tickets for an entire season have ever been sold out in program history.
UNC hired Belichick last December, signing a three-year, $30 million contract in hopes of reinvigorating its football program. Belichick, whose 302 career coaching wins rank third in NFL history, has undoubtedly created a stir. He limited access to practices during spring camp and had players working out in numberless jerseys.
“Bill’s been great to work with,” UNC athletic director Bubba Cunningham said in late May. “He’s a celebrity figure, and he’s doing a great job for us.”
It’s now on to fall camp for Belichick and the Tar Heels after a spring with numerous personnel issues to handle. UNC general manager Michael Lombardi said long before spring practices that the goal was for the six-time Super Bowl championship-winning head coach to establish an NFL team on the collegiate level.
“We want to play to the strengths of our players and that’s what we’ll do,” Belichick said in March. “That part takes a little while to figure that out, but nevertheless, we’ll run a pro system on both sides of the ball and the kicking game. That’s where the foundation of it is.
“And all the training videos that we’ve shown them on how to do things, how to do certain techniques, how to run certain things are really from NFL players – the guys who are great at it, the guys who did it better than anybody. I think that’s still a great way to teach, because our players are seeing some of the best guys who have played do what they do.”
Belichick, along with UNC wide receiver Jordan Shipp, defensive backs Thaddeus Dixon and Will Hardy, as well as quarterback Gio Lopez, will preview the upcoming season at the 2025 ACC Kickoff on Thursday in Charlotte.
The Tar Heels’ opener is a Monday night clash with TCU, as Belichick starts his tenure under the Kenan Stadium lights in Chapel Hill on Labor Day.
— The Associated Press contributed to this report