‘Horrible’: Stephen A. Smith Publicly Gives Up on Bill Belichick in Concerning UNC Verdict

Bill Belichick and Michael Lombardi arrived at UNC to make the North Carolina Tar Heels “the 33rd NFL team.” The practice featured pro-drills, and the tape room was filled with Patriots’ tape, watching Tom Brady, as Gio Lopez himself said. But in return, in Week 1 in Chapel Hill, when TCU came and steamrolled UNC 48-14; that promise looked like nothing more than a pipe dream. And now, after that loss, Belichick has still maintained his NFL-esque stance, with news coming out that NFL scouts are getting banned from the UNC campus. All of these recent developments have led to Stephen A. Smith fanning some old Belichick wounds.

“Bill Belichick has banned #Patriots scouts from attending UNC practices to scout their players…. NFL scouts in general have faced hurdles in scouting UNC players so far under Belichick’s tenure at North Carolina,” reported Ari Meirov, host of the NFL Spotlight on X. Notably, Belichick at the Patriots tended to maintain restricted media access and players were instructed to avoid social media platforms as they created “distractions” according to the 6 times super bowl winning head coach. After Dan Orlovsky weighed in with his take on Belichick’s approach, Stephen A. Smith pushed back, questioning both Orlovsky’s take and Belichick’s handling of the team.

Stephen A. Smith, along with Ryan Clark and Dan Orlovsky, appeared on ESPN College Football’s 5th September episode and openly bashed UNC without hesitation. “How can I truly believe that? Like, if I’m a high school recruit and you don’t allow NFL scouts to come watch me practice, he is just not New England,” said Dan Orlovsky. Of course, college football is far different from the NFL, and putting restrictions on scouts would mean losing major talents, who have the NFL as their ultimate aim. That said, Stephen A. Smith didn’t agree with Orlovsky and provided a completely different theory.

“I don’t care. Did you watch North Carolina last week? Yeah, I’m sorry. Monday, last Monday. They were horrible. I am sitting here marveling over the fact that scouts actually were interested in watching them. Come on, man. They were awful. Awful. There’s no way around this,” declared Stephen A. Smith. Of course, that TCU performance was “awful” to put it bluntly, and it showed Belichick’s NFL blueprint might not work fully in college football.

Bill Belichick has banned #Patriots scouts from attending UNC practices to scout their players, as @JohnMiddlekauff reported on his show.

NFL scouts in general have faced hurdles scouting UNC players so far under Belichick’s tenure at North Carolina. pic.twitter.com/2Ea6KJq0iN

— Ari Meirov (@MySportsUpdate) September 4, 2025

To put the loss in context with UNC’s history, it was the worst season-opening loss for UNC in its history, with the other one being their loss against Oklahoma in 2001. Not just that, even for Belichick, it was awful as the head coach in his 511 games of footballing career has never allowed 48 points. “They outplayed us, outcoached us, and they were just better than we were tonight,” said Belichick about the loss after the game. To discuss what went wrong in the game, listing positives would be far easier.

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