No. 3 Notre Dame Visits Bill Belichick's North Carolina Saturday on ESPN
The short version
- No. 3 Notre Dame (4-0) plays at North Carolina (2-1) Saturday at noon on ESPN.
- It marks the first time Notre Dame faces Bill Belichick as a college head coach.
- Belichick is 6-8 at UNC, including 4-8 in 2025; the Tar Heels are 2-1 this season.
- UNC's wins this season came against TCU (15-10) and East Tennessee State (35-3).
- Notre Dame is 21-2 all-time vs. UNC and won the last meeting 45-32 in 2022.
No. 3 Notre Dame (4-0) faces Bill Belichick in a college game for the first time when the Irish visit North Carolina (2-1) at noon Saturday on ESPN.
No. 3 Notre Dame travels to face Bill Belichick and North Carolina on Saturday, with kickoff set for noon on ESPN. The game gives the Fighting Irish their first look at Belichick as a college head coach after his long run in the professional ranks. Notre Dame enters the weekend 4-0 and third in the US LBM Coaches Poll, while the Tar Heels are 2-1 in Belichick's second season leading the program.
Belichick's NFL résumé is among the most decorated in football history. He won six Super Bowl titles as head coach of the New England Patriots and added two more as an assistant coach with the New York Giants. He collected more than 300 coaching wins and multiple Coach of the Year awards over the course of that career, accomplishments expected to carry him to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
His results at the college level have not yet matched that standard. Belichick has gone 6-8 since taking over the North Carolina program, a mark that includes a 4-8 record in the 2025 season. The current campaign has opened on a stronger note, with the Tar Heels winning two of their first three games to begin Belichick's second year on the job.
That start includes a 15-10 season-opening victory over TCU, a team that entered the season with College Football Playoff expectations. North Carolina's most complete performance of Belichick's second season came a couple of weeks ago, when the Tar Heels beat East Tennessee State 35-3.
Belichick offered his assessment of the Irish on Wednesday during his Coach's Corner segment, telling Tar Heels Sports Network play-by-play announcer Jones Angell that the team has been "full speed ahead now" in its preparation for the weekend's matchup.
"(The Irish) are a good football team obviously," Belichick said. "They're undefeated and have been pretty impressive in all their wins, particularly two of them where they were ahead 35-0 at halftime. They're a strong team, they don't make many mistakes and they make you earn everything."
History is heavily on Notre Dame's side. The Irish own a 21-2 record against the Tar Heels all-time, and the two programs have not shared a field since Sept. 24, 2022, when Notre Dame pulled out a 45-32 victory.
The Tar Heels' most recent victory over Notre Dame came on Oct. 11, 2008, when they prevailed 29-24 in a game that was later vacated because of NCAA violations. Their only other win in the series was a 12-7 final on Oct. 15, 1960.
A Notre Dame victory would push the Irish to 5-0 and drop North Carolina to 2-2, while a Tar Heels win would move them to 3-1 and hand the Irish their first loss of the season. The noon kickoff airs on ESPN.
