ACC Football Program to be Featured on HBO’s Hard Knocks This Offseason

HBO’s sports documentary, Hard Knocks, has been a staple of the NFL for decades now, with the show going behind the scenes of NFL teams as they prepare for a new season during training camp. Each year a different team is selected, and while many teams often times want no part of the taping, the league is always able to find a team to participate.

But in recent years, especially with HBO airing different variations of the show, such as an in-season version and an offseason one that aired for the first time last summer, the field of teams to choose from who are willing to go through that process has gotten even more limited.

For the first time in 2025, there was such a struggle to find a team for the show, that NFL Films had to dip into the college ranks, with Ryan Glasspiegel of Front Office Sports revealing on Friday that the North Carolina Tar Heels will be featured on this year’s offseason edition of Hard Knocks.

This marks not only the first time that a college football team will be on the show, but it will also be the first time that head coach Bill Belichick will be featured on any version of the show, despite his years as the coach of the New England Patriots.

A big reason is most likely attributed to the fact that the show never features teams who have either made the playoffs the season prior or have hired a new head coach. For almost the entirety of Belichick’s Patriots’ tenure, the team made the playoffs year in and year out, winning six Super Bowls along the way.

UNC football general manager, Michael Lombardi, confirmed on The Pat McAfee Show on Friday morning that conversations were ongoing about the prospect of being on the show. While Lombardi did not say that it was official, it appears that Belichick and his program will have the spotlight shined on them as they prepare to be contenders in the ACC in 2025.

“There’s a lot of conversations going on right now about that,” Lombardi said via The Pat McAfee Show. “We’ve had a lot of offers from people all over to come in and look at our program and kind of do the behind-the-scenes things, but I don’t think anything’s yet been official or signed.”

Glasspiegel also reported that a big reason why NFL Films was having trouble finding a team to commit to the offseason Hard Knocks show was in large part due to the experience from last year, which highlighted the New York Giants.

During the Giants’ appearance, the loss of star running back Saquon Barkley to the Eagles and team owner John Mara explaining how much it would bother him if Barkley signed with the Eagles, which did end up happening, was arguably the most memorable part of the season, with teams wanting to avoid a similar situation from happening this year.

Barkley and the Eagles ended up winning the Super Bowl this past season, too.

Belichick, being the legend he is in his first season of coaching college football at 72 years old, is already a big storyline, but getting to see him in action first hand on an award-winning show has fans waiting in anticipation for the summer to come.