Bill Belichick's North Carolina Tar Heels suffered yet another crippling loss this weekend, falling 38-10 to Dabo Swinney's Clemson Tigers in front of an underwhelming crowd at Chapel Hill's Kenan Stadium. Before the contest even started, however, one of Belichick's former players delivered a blunt assessment on the 73-year-old's once thought to be untouchable legacy.
As part of CBS Sports' college football coverage, former Patriots running back Damien Harris weighed in on the tumultuous start to the coach's stint at North Carolina—and more specifically, spoke about how poorly his team's offense has been to open the season.
"When you talk about the legacy of Bill Belichick, it is just going down, and down, and down, and down," he began. "Listen to this ... their offense has been atrocious. You wanna talk about quarterback play? It's been bad. They are almost dead last out of almost 136 FBS teams in points per game, yards per game, yards per play, and third down conversions."
"Now luckily, they cracked the top-70 in red zone scoring, but guess what the problem is? They can't get to the red zone," Harris continued. "They only have 11 trips in the red zone ... it is not good."
"When you talk about the legacy of Bill Belichick, its just going down, and down, and down..."@DHx34 on the coaching legacy of Belichick and needing to build a brand at UNC. pic.twitter.com/vody1mRs1I
— CBS Sports College Football 🏈 (@CBSSportsCFB) October 4, 2025
Sunday against Clemson wasn't any better, as they scored just 10 points—seven of which came in the fourth quarter when the game was out of reach—and converted just two of 11 third down opportunities.
As Harris finished his segment, he didn't mince words about the damage Belichick is doing to his image as one of football's greatest teachers.
"When I look at Bill Belichick, and I look at his coaching legacy, and I look at what he has brought to the game of football, it is not what we are seeing is being played in Chapel Hill right now," he explained. "If Bill Belichick is going to remain the head coach at North Carolina—which, as of right now, it looks like that's gonna be the case... you've gotta start to build a brand ... this isn't just gonna come in and be the North Carolina Patriots. You have to do, and act, and coach, and lead in a way that is gonna produce wins, because we know this is a production-based business."
Now 2-3 on the 2025 season, Belichick and the Tar Heels travel to Cal next weekend to take on the 4-2 Golden Bears from Berkeley's California Memorial Stadium.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Former Patriots RB Relays Harsh Reality About Bill Belichick's Crumbling Legacy.
