Inside recruiting visits with Bill Belichick, who leaves the hoodie at home

North Carolina’s Providence Day School is used to seeing the biggest names in college football roam its halls.

In the 2024 class, the school’s starting quarterback signed with Michigan. This cycle, one of its offensive tackles is the nation’s No. 7 overall recruit and will play at Tennessee in the fall. Georgia’s Kirby Smart, Clemson’s Dabo Swinney, South Carolina’s Shane Beamer and Virginia Tech’s Brent Pry have all made visits to campus in the past month.

But there was something different about the morning of Jan. 7.

From the parade of coaches in their polos, quarter-zips and Air Force 1s, one coach stood out. Bill Belichick, winner of eight Super Bowls and renowned for his makeshift sleeveless hoodies, was the first coach any player had seen show up wearing a suit and square-toed dress shoes.

“The jacket and tie he wore was different — I got a lot of funny comments on Twitter about that,” offensive tackle Leo Delaney, ESPN’s No. 62 recruit in the 2026 class, told ESPN. “But I think that represents the style of his recruiting and coaching. It’s formal. It’s straight-forward. It’s old school. He’s exactly how you expect him to be.”

Great to meet Coach belichick! #GoHeels pic.twitter.com/B8mD9ZkHlm

— Leo Delaney (@LeoDelaney110) January 7, 2025

If Belichick’s arrival at North Carolina represents one of college football’s most fascinating stories in 2025, the first chapter has been written on the recruiting trail over the past 54 days. And it has offered insight into an overhauled Tar Heels program and early answers to a central question surrounding Belichick’s hiring: How will a 72-year-old who has coached in the NFL since 1975 deal with recruiting teenagers for the first time?

Belichick inherited a recruiting class in tatters upon landing at North Carolina on Dec. 12. Less than two months later, his remade class enters Wednesday’s national signing day at No. 48 in ESPN’s class rankings, up from its place outside the top 75 in late November, when the school fired Mack Brown. Since Dec. 20, Belichick’s staff has added 15 pledges to the program’s 2025 class. The class is headlined by ESPN 300 quarterback Bryce Baker.

North Carolina has also built a modest transfer portal class of 18 additions for Belichick’s debut season, highlighted by Thaddeus Dixon (Washington), Daniel King (Troy) and Pryce Yates (Connecticut). Meanwhile, the Tar Heels managed to retain a number of starters who initially entered the portal this offseason with linebacker Amare Campbell and offensive linemen Austin Blaske and Aidan Banfield among the team’s key returnees.

Belichick might seem like an unlikely recruiter. But he’s leaning into an unmatched strength and delivering a clear pitch on the trail.

“The focus with this new staff is on preparing everything for the next level,” North Carolina quarterback commit Au’Tori Newkirk said. “Everything is being run like it’s the next level. The motto is that we’re going to be the 33rd team in the NFL.”

The full extent of Belichick and his staff’s ability to recruit, identify talent and construct a roster at the college level will be better measured in the 2026 cycle and beyond. But Belichick’s immediate recruiting appeal has been evident, built on decades of NFL success and a clear plan for what he intends to build in Chapel Hill.

“The opportunity to play for Bill Belichick? It’s hard to pass up,” said defensive tackle commit Nicco Maggio, a former Wake Forest signee who committed to the Tar Heels on Jan. 24.

BELICHICK MADE NORTH Carolina’s Rolesville High School — home to four-star ESPN Junior 300 defensive end and former Tar Heels pledge Zavion Griffin-Haynes — his first official stop as a college coach on Jan. 6, kicking off an initial sprint across North Carolina, with other recruiting trips to New Jersey, Massachusetts, Maryland and Tennessee.

During the 90 minutes in the office of Rolesville coach Ranier Rackley, Belichick broke down Griffin-Haynes’ film, offered the same pass-rush pointers he used to coach Hall of Famer Lawrence Taylor with the New York Giants in the 1980s and detailed a multiyear plan for Griffin-Haynes’ future at North Carolina.

“He told Zavion straight up: You’re going to college, but you’re an NFL player,” Rackley said. “I see you as a first-rounder already based on who you are and what you bring to the table.”

Rackley was recruited by Brown during the coach’s first run at North Carolina, which ran from 1988 to ’97. When Brown returned to the school in 2019, Rackley built a strong relationship with a Tar Heels staff that based its recruiting pitch on the program’s family atmosphere. It’s different now.

“This staff has been in the NFL,” he said. “Going through the building a few weeks ago, you can just tell it’s a different feel there. It’s more structured in the sense of what they’re trying to do there and they needed that.”

In his introductory news conference, Belichick outlined the “pro program” he planned to implement, a regimen geared to the NFL in everything from training to development to technique and verbiage. On Jan. 28, he carried the same message with him into the living room of five-star 2026 quarterback Jared Curtis.

“They’re bringing their NFL playbook to North Carolina,” said Curtis, ESPN’s No. 4 overall prospect in the 2026 cycle. “It’s going to be the exact same as the NFL and it’s the place you’re going to go to get prepared for the league.”

Before three-star 2025 running back Joseph Troupe — a one-time Temple pledge — committed to North Carolina on Jan. 26, he spent a weekend with the program. One theme was threaded through meetings with Belichick, running backs coach Natrone Means and general manager Michael Lombardi.

“I couldn’t believe how often they talked about development throughout the visit,” Troupe said. “This staff has gotten to experience what I want to experience. If you want to be the best, why not learn from the best?”

Among Belichick’s still-to-be-completed coaching staff, offensive coordinator Freddie Kitchens, defensive coordinator Steve Belichick and assistants Matt Lombardi, Garrick McGee, Billy Miller and Mike Priefer have all spent time coaching in the NFL. Strength and conditioning coach Moses Cabrera joined the UNC program last month after working with the Patriots from 2011 to 2023.

Mike Lombardi spent nearly 30 working in NFL front offices, then went into media work before joining Belichick to lead the Tar Heels’ player personnel operation.

“Lombardi was the first contact I got from North Carolina,” Maggio said. “My dad realized who he was after the call and said he used to watch him on TV for fantasy football advice. That made you realize how crazy all this is.”

The Tar Heels were able to fill out their 2025 class by plucking a series of late-cycle commitments, including Maggio and two other Wake Forest recruits who moved on after Dave Clawson’s retirement in December. Three-star defensive end Chinedu Onyeagoro, an SMU signee who parted ways with the Mustangs, marks another intriguing addition. In the 2026 class, North Carolina has already secured four commitments since Belichick’s arrival.

Programs across the state are feeling a stronger presence from the Tar Heels. And among the Class of 2026, Belichick’s arrival has stoked renewed interest from top in-state recruits, such as Delaney, who were not previously considering the program.

“I honestly felt like North Carolina wasn’t home for me under the previous staff,” Delaney said. “But I’m excited to take a deeper look at them now. Everyone knows when he walks in the door that you’re looking at one of the greatest to ever do it.”

Of course, North Carolina is not the first or only school to sell itself in the mold of an NFL-style program.

From Alabama to Georgia to Ohio State and across the Power 4, coaching staffs market themselves as elite developers of talent, boasting rings and long lists of NFL alumni who have sprouted from their programs to support the claim. The edge North Carolina has on all those other programs in recruiting in 2025, at least until the Tar Heels play a game under their new coach, is Belichick himself.

“It’s Bill,” Griffin-Hayes said. “That separates him from every coach in the country. Being coached by a guy who has been there and done the thing? He can get you where you need to be.”

THE TAR HEELS have hit the trail with vigor in 2025. And Belichick appears to genuinely enjoy the opportunity to drop in on schools to talk football, pepper coaches with questions about their programs and mix with prospects.

“It’s been great to get out on the road and see some of the great high school coaches and programs and players,” Belichick said on “The Pat McAfee Show” on Jan. 24. “Still got a lot more to hit but it’s been fun connecting with so many people. Some new, some old. It’s been a great process. There’s a lot of really good kids out there.”

However fun it might be, Belichick will face many of the same hurdles Brown was met with from 2019 to 2024, including heavy competition within the state and from nearby programs such as Georgia, Clemson and South Carolina. North Carolina’s lack of history as a consistent winner in football has also dragged recruiting in the past.

Brown initially elevated the Tar Heels’ recruiting, identifying future ACC Rookie of the Year Sam Howell in the 2019 class and signing three consecutive top 20 classes from 2020 to 2022. But of the eight top-100 prospects Brown landed in the 2021 and 2022 classes that ranked 12th and 10th overall, respectively, only one — two-year starting quarterback and first-round NFL draft pick Drake Maye — developed into a significant contributor for the Tar Heels, with another six transferring to play elsewhere in 2025.

Belichick will have more resources to work with than Brown did. Under the contract Belichick signed Jan. 23, the football program will have access to $13 million of the $20.5 million schools will be permitted to use for revenue sharing under the prospective House settlement. Salaries for assistant coaches ($10 million) and support staff ($5.3 million) outlined in the deal will keep Belichick and the Tar Heels among the most competitive programs in the recruiting and personnel spaces.

More importantly, in a short span of time, North Carolina has laid the foundation of what it expects its program to be and a clear picture to sell in recruiting.

That plan will be tested next in the 2026 recruiting cycle. The Tar Heels are aiming high, extending offers to a slew of top-100 prospects, including Curtis, fellow top quarterbacks Ryder Lyons and Keisean Henderson and five-star offensive tackle Immanuel Iheanacho. Within the state, Griffin-Haynes remains one of the Tar Heels’ top targets within a talented local class, which includes 13 recruits inside the ESPN Junior 300. North Carolina has already added 2026 commitments from athlete Jaden Jefferson and cornerbacks Justin Lewis and Marcellous Ryan, and running back Crew Davis in 2025, while three-star Providence Day quarterback Zaid Lott remains as a holdover from Brown’s tenure.

“There’s a lot of talent in this state right now,” said Edwin Campbell, the head football coach at North Carolina’s Southeast Raleigh High School. “And Belichick has put the state on notice in recruiting.”