Bill Belichick Misses First Major Win With Jordon Hudson Watching

North Carolina football came within one momentum swing of turning a scandal-shadowed season into a defining upset Saturday, but the Tar Heels’ comeback ultimately fell short against No. 3 Notre Dame in Chapel Hill.

Coach Bill Belichick’s Tar Heels (2-2) appeared close to falling behind 28-7 before a goal-line stand against the Fighting Irish in the second quarter kept them within reach. North Carolina’s offense followed with a lengthy touchdown drive, and its special teams opened the second half with a 98-yard kickoff return for another score.

The sequence trimmed Notre Dame’s advantage to 21-20.

But the Irish eventually regained control, handing UNC a 37-26 home defeat in front of Tar Heels fans, including Belichick’s 25-year-old girlfriend, Jordon Hudson. Notre Dame quarterback CJ Carr accounted for five touchdowns—four passing and one rushing—while the Fighting Irish produced a season-best 241 yards on the ground to remain unbeaten at 5-0.

North Carolina remains without a victory over a ranked opponent during the Belichick era.

‘We were certainly competitive, we missed some opportunities,’ Belichick said after failing to secure his first signature win since joining the Tar Heels last season. ‘We just need to do a better job of coaching and playing, take advantage of those opportunities. They’re a good team; it’s not like anything was easy today.’

The Tar Heels have now dropped two consecutive games, following last week’s 28-20 collapse against ACC rival Clemson.

Hudson also drew attention Saturday in a silky pink outfit along the UNC sideline, adding a high-profile presence to a program already dealing with intense scrutiny. Investigators examining team conduct have looked into allegations involving potential drug use, inappropriate relationships and NCAA rule violations.

Last month, Belichick’s son and defensive coordinator, Steve, resigned from the program while on a mysterious medical leave. His exit came after the departure of longtime Belichick confidant and UNC general manager Mike Lombardi.

In a September statement, UNC said its investigation ‘determined that certain actions demonstrated a disregard for Carolina’s values and standards of conduct.’ The school did not identify the actions uncovered by the review or disclose details of the investigation that began in late July.

‘The investigation also found that these actions were isolated in scope and not a systemic failure,’ the school said. The statement also announced a player suspension stemming from a September traffic stop.

In an interview last month with The Associated Press, The Assembly and Raleigh’s WRAL, lead investigator Nate Huff and UNC general counsel Paul Newton declined to describe the findings or identify the conduct of specific individuals. Huff, an attorney and former federal prosecutor, confirmed that investigators examined allegations involving drugs, relationships and NCAA matters.

‘This was not a circumstance where we were targeting any individual person or any specific people,’ Huff said. ‘We were looking program-wide – football program-wide.’

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Newton said the investigation began ‘based on the concerns raised by a limited number of former employees.’

‘We took those concerns seriously,’ he said.

That led the Office of University Counsel to hire Huff as independent counsel to run the investigation, which included more than 60 interviews.

‘At no point did I feel like the university counsel’s office or university leadership or athletics leadership was limiting or steering me,’ Huff said. ‘I felt they were the people to whom I would go to get the access I needed to get to the bottom of all this. And that was my experience.

‘So my team and I were able to immerse ourselves in Carolina football and its compliance and its culture, and in these allegations.’

Huff said investigators told interviewees that ‘just because we’re asking about something doesn’t mean we think that it happened or that it’s real. It just means it’s part of our job.’

Interviewees included the 74-year-old Bill Belichick, who won those six Super Bowl titles before making his NFL-to-college transition in December 2024 with Lombardi as an immediate hire. The probe ran throughout preseason camp, then continued as the Tar Heels beat TCU and East Tennessee State to start Belichick’s second season.

‘He made his whole staff and himself available to me during football season,’ Huff said. ‘And these coaches that I talked to, people that I talked to in that building, the only thing they were asking me was, ‘When do you need me?’ and ‘Where do you need me to be?’

‘So I was able to investigate football in the middle of football season fully. And I had access to people, even people like coach Bill Belichick.’

In Belichick’s first news conference after Lombardi’s Sept. 3 resignation, he faced questions that largely dealt nothing with football. Belichick said he believes his program ‘totally’ has an atmosphere of following rules, saying: ‘Obviously everybody’s responsible, including me, for doing things properly. And we intend to do that.’

That same day, UNC vice chancellor for communications Dean Stoyer – who released Thursday’s statement – said the school ‘continues to support Bill Belichick and the Carolina football program.’

The school announced its probe in late July in the days after putting Lombardi on paid administrative leave. The same day Lombardi resigned, WRAL of Raleigh cited anonymous sources in reporting the type of questions asked of some interviewees, with some focusing on Steve Belichick.

Additionally, Lombardi attorney Tom Mars told The Athletic that the school’s probe now included questions into potential ‘inappropriate’ relationships that didn’t involve his client. Mars didn’t return a call or email from the AP regarding that comment at the time.

UNC said that ‘all necessary corrective actions are now underway’ and that it considers the investigation to be ‘resolved.’ While declining to discuss specific findings, Huff said the school’s corrective steps ‘are likely to include or address issues related to relationships.’

‘The ‘risk’ always of bringing an investigation to ‘conclusion’ is that there are going to be those that will say, ‘Oh, you didn’t do enough. You should’ve looked at something else,” Newton said. ‘The safe harbor there is that we’re always open to anyone who wants to express new allegations, concerns, whatever. And if they’re credible, we’ll take proper corrective actions in the future. So this door is essentially never closed.’

The Tar Heels travel to Pittsburgh next week for Saturday’s game against the Panthers.