After an up-and-down regular season in which the North Carolina Tar Heels finished 6-6, they are preparing to play one final football game on Saturday morning.
UNC will face UConn on Saturday, December 28 at 11 a.m. in the Fenway Bowl. North Carolina enters bowl season with losses in its past two contests, while the Huskies (8-4) beat UMass in their regular season finale on November 30.
Freddie Kitchens will coach the Tar Heels in their bowl game, then stay on staff in 2025, as UNC made a massive splash by hiring Bill Belichick to be its next head coach.
You might be wondering: is Belichick traveling to historic Fenway Park with his new players?
We learned Belichick’s answer on Friday, December 27, as ESPN’s Pete Thamel reported Belichick is not expected to attend the Fenway Bowl.
North Carolina athletic director Bubba Cunningham elaborated on Belichick’s decision to skip the bowl game, which is for good reason.
“He’s totally dialed into building the roster,” Cunningham said. “He didn’t want to go to practice or be a distraction to the kids or the coaches for the bowl game.”
We would all love to see Belichick in the city he called home for 2-plus decades, but as Cunningham pointed to, Belichick is busy building the Tar Heels’ 2025 roster. UNC already has several transfer portal commitments, interest from top prospects in the 2026 recruiting class and visits lined up.
Who knows: maybe Belichick will show in Boston? He wasn’t expected to be at the North Carolina-La Salle basketball game, but appeared unexpectedly, much to the delight of Tar Heel Nation.
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