North Carolina needed a fast start in 2026 after last year’s rough 4-8 finish, and Bill Belichick has given them one. The Tar Heels are 2-0 heading into their first ACC game, which puts them somewhere nobody expected a few weeks ago. Watch What’s Trending Now! Now Saturday’s trip to Clemson could decide whether that already-scheduled Notre Dame visit turns into something much bigger.
If North Carolina beats the Tigers, the Tar Heels would walk into their October 3 home game against No. 3 Notre Dame undefeated, with the spotlight fully on them. The anticipation is already building around that matchup, too. North Carolina announced that its October 3 game against Notre Dame is sold out, giving the Tar Heels another sign of just how much interest there is in the matchup before the season’s biggest stretch has even arrived.
Even last year, all six UNC home games at Kenan Stadium were sold out, starting with the season opener against TCU. There was genuine excitement and curiosity among fans about Bill Belichick’s first year with the program. However, the buzz soon cooled down. And while official box scores logged full capacity throughout the 2025 campaign, the actual physical attendance late in the year painted a different picture. In UNC’s game against rival Duke, Kenan Stadium had large pockets of empty seats. And when Clemson led 35-3 at halftime in early October, many fans simply walked out rather than seeing the entire game. But the 2026 campaign has surprisingly been good so far.
In Week 3, Bill Belichick’s team is traveling to face Clemson. Kirk Herbstreit believes that matchup could put Chapel Hill at the center of the college football world. During an appearance on The Pat McAfee Show, the ESPN analyst suggested UNC would be the leading candidate to host College GameDay if Belichick’s team beats Clemson. “If North Carolina beats Clemson… I would think, I’m not involved in that, I would think that Notre Dame, that North Carolina, is probably a leader in the clubhouse,” Herbstreit said. The statement gives Saturday’s game a little more weight. Clemson isn’t the team that could bring College GameDay to Chapel Hill.
The Tigers are simply the hurdle UNC has to clear before the already-scheduled Notre Dame matchup becomes a serious GameDay possibility. Now, plenty of intrigue already surrounds that October 3 game because Notre Dame is ranked No. 3, while UNC has looked completely different from the team that struggled to a 4-8 record last season. A 15-10 win over TCU in Dublin started the year, and the Tar Heels followed it with a convincing 35-3 victory over East Tennessee State. Suddenly, Belichick has his team sitting at 2-0. That matters even more because North Carolina has spent much of the last few weeks dealing with headlines away from the field.
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General manager Michael Lombardi resigned earlier this month after being placed on paid administrative leave. On Thursday, defensive coordinator Steve Belichick, son of Bill Belichick, also resigned after being on medical leave since August 6. For a program coming off a 4-8 season, that’s a lot of noise. But the team has continued to win, and that gives Belichick something far more useful than another explanation at a press conference: results. Clemson’s tough start to the 2026 campaign Clemson has struggled to find their footing early this season. LSU dominated the Tigers 51-10 in Week 1, and Dabo Swinney’s team then managed only a 22-7 win over Georgia Southern.
Quarterback Christopher Vizzina is also dealing with an elbow injury, with freshman Tait Reynolds expected to start if Vizzina cannot play. That doesn’t guarantee anything for North Carolina, especially on the road.
But it does give the Tar Heels a real opportunity to move to 3-0. And if they do, the calendar becomes extremely interesting. UNC has a bye on September 26 before Notre Dame arrives in Chapel Hill on October 3.
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That means Belichick could have two weeks to prepare his team for one of the biggest home games of his tenure. Herbstreit even offered an alternative if North Carolina doesn’t get the job done against Clemson.
“But if North Carolina loses to Clemson, I would venture to guess that the next one on the board could be Ohio State at Iowa,” he said. That makes the Clemson game the dividing line in Herbstreit’s scenario. Beat the Tigers, and the already-scheduled Notre Dame game becomes a leading College GameDay option. Lose, and the spotlight could move elsewhere. For Belichick, that would be a remarkable shift from where this program stood entering the season. A victory would not erase everything that has happened around the program.
It would, however, give Belichick a 3-0 team heading into a home date with the No. 3 team in the country.
