You know it's going well when you have to release a statement midway through your first year on the job, and you know things are totally normal when the university chancellor shows up to a Monday press conference to preview the weekend's upcoming football game.
That's life at North Carolina, where a 2-4 start has led to both.
"It's categorically false," Bill Belichick said Monday following last week's report that North Carolina leaders had held preliminary conversations toward finding an exit ramp to the coach's 5-year contract. "Zero truth to any of that. Glad I'm here. We're working toward our goals and process, have great support from Chancellor Roberts and above us. These people have all been great, and we appreciate all their help. We just believe very much in the process, like Bill Walsh said, and the score will take care of itself. I've always believed that. We've just got to keep working and grinding away. That's exactly what we're doing. We're a team of teams, and all those teams are all striving to be the best they can."
Belichick said he felt compelled to release a joint statement with AD Bubba Cunningham "just for clarification. There were some things that were reported that were factually, totally inaccurate. Just wanted to make sure that we cleared those up."
However, a possible premature exit was not the only report to emerge out of Chapel Hill last week. WRAL reported last Monday that the culture within the building had fractured, with players and parents complaining about preferential treatment toward players Belichick has brought in and a lack of communication with the head coach.
"I'm with all these people every day -- coaches, players," Belichick said when asked about that report. "The guys work hard, they have a great attitude, energy. And we've made a lot of improvement. I think that's exciting for all of us to see. I think anybody that's around on a daily basis would see that."
Those not around on a daily basis have not seen that improvement. North Carolina was off last week, so the last the public has seen of Belichick's Tar Heels was a 38-10 loss to Clemson in which they trailed 28-3, at home, after the first quarter. Before that, it was a 34-9 loss to a UCF team that's 0-3 in Big 12 play. TCU, 1-2 against the Big 12, hammered the Heels to a point where the 34-point margin back on Labor Day felt merciful.
So, does Belichick really feel like he's seeing improvement?
"100 percent. Absolutely," he said. "The process will eventually produce the results we want to produce, like they have everywhere else I've been, so I'm very confident in that."
And now they're on to Cal.