Things just keep getting worse around Bill Belichick and his North Carolina football program.
Cornerbacks coach Armond Hawkins has been suspended due to extra-benefit allegations raised in WRAL’s report on dysfunction within the Tar Heels’ program, according to The Athletic.
The alleged violation of NCAA rules involved sideline passes awarded to members of a player’s family.
Hawkins joined the UNC staff this year after working as a recruiting analyst and secondary coach at the University of Washington with Belichick’s son Steve, who is now the Tar Heels’ defensive coordinator.
In WRAL’s scathing report, a parent of a current UNC player accused the six-time Super Bowl-winning head coach of fostering a “toxic environment” in Chapel Hill.
A source close to the program told WRAL that the team’s porous 2-3 start stemmed from a “divided locker room” between players recruited by former coach Mac Brown and those recruited by Belichick and a “disorganized” staff that displayed a “failure to communicate.”
“It started with recruits coming in on an interim basis and being entitled to certain things,” a source told the outlet. “It was about them individually, not the team. It was about me and what I was going to do.”
One parent chastised Belichick and his team’s communication skills.
“There was no communication with coaches and parents, period,” one of the parents of a UNC player told WRAL. “None, zero, nothing. Not an email from a coach, a text message, a phone call, nothing.”
While North Carolina has picked up wins over inferior opponents in Charlotte and Richmond, it has been outscored 120-35 by TCU, UCF and, most recently, Clemson.
It’s not quite the start that Belichick, 73, and the school envisioned when he accepted the job and the $10 million salary that came with it. Many headlines have also been dominated by the coach’s relationship with his 24-year-old girlfriend, Jordon Hudson.
The program announced Tuesday that it is dropping plans for a Hulu docuseries about Belichick’s first season as a college head coach.
