--- title: Meet the Guy Who Trolled Bill Belichick description: TCU’s creative media director Sam Lazarus went on a social media run making fun of the football coaching GOAT that became the buzz of the sports chatter space. canonical: https://time.com/7314093/tcu-sam-lazarus-social-media-troll-bill-belichick-unc/ author: Sean Gregory article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2025-09-03T02:40:00.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-11T00:12:12.253Z article:section: Sports og:title: Meet the Guy Who Trolled Bill Belichick og:description: TCU’s creative media director Sam Lazarus went on a social media run making fun of the football coaching GOAT that became the buzz of the sports chatter space. og:url: https://time.com/7314093/tcu-sam-lazarus-social-media-troll-bill-belichick-unc/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte2f6299906849cec/6998c97bd32e937758cd74e5/250326_SpringBall_PracticeOne_QN-0544.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: 250326_SpringBall_PracticeOne_QN-0544 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Meet the Guy Who Trolled Bill Belichick twitter:description: TCU’s creative media director Sam Lazarus went on a social media run making fun of the football coaching GOAT that became the buzz of the sports chatter space. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte2f6299906849cec/6998c97bd32e937758cd74e5/250326_SpringBall_PracticeOne_QN-0544.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Meet the Guy Who Trolled Football Coaching GOAT Bill Belichick > Sponsored content. 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Terms and conditions apply. * Savings buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Savings Account. * No ATM fees from Ally Bank at Allpoint and Moneypass ATMs plus we reimburse for fees charged by other ATM owners nationwide up to $10 per statement cycle. * Early direct deposit offers eligible direct deposits up to two days sooner. * Spending buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Spending Account.  by [Sean Gregory](https://time.com/author/sean-gregory/)  ## Sean Gregory Senior Correspondent Sep 3, 2025 2:40 AM UTC  TCU football’s director of creative media, Sam Lazarus, holding a camera at practice on March 26, 2025. TCU football’s director of creative media, Sam Lazarus, holding a camera at practice on March 26, 2025.Courtesy TCU Athletics  by [Sean Gregory](https://time.com/author/sean-gregory/)  ## Sean Gregory Senior Correspondent Sep 3, 2025 2:40 AM UTC After Texas Christian University (TCU) [trounced](https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/by-the-numbers-why-bill-belichicks-unc-debut-was-a-disaster-for-the-ages-at-north-carolina/) the North Carolina Tarheels, 48-14, on prime-time national television Labor Day evening, spoiling the much-hyped college debut of six-time Super Bowl champion head coach [Bill Belichick](https://time.com/7312665/bill-belichick-unc-football-team/), Sam Lazarus was on the TCU team bus, scrolling through bookmarked tweets. In the weeks leading up to the game Lazarus, director of creative media for the TCU football team, took note of the one-sided coverage: Belichick was portrayed as the likely savior of North Carolina football, while TCU—which reached the National Championship game following the 2022 season—was an afterthought. “The good, and bad, of working in social media is that I’m on social media a lot,” says Lazarus, who runs the @TCUFootball account on [X](https://x.com/TCUFootball?ref%5Fsrc=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor). “So I keep receipts.” At 12:18 a.m. ET Tuesday, Lazarus [quote-tweeted, via @TCUFootball](https://x.com/TCUFootball/status/1962731927439376677), a Monday morning X post from the sports website Deadspin saying, “Babe wake up, Bill Belichick coaches college football today.” Lazarus added: “Babe go back to sleep.” Two minutes later, Lazarus [sent out](https://x.com/TCUFootball/status/1962732283120480292) an August 24 tweet from the North Carolina football account promoting an upcoming Hulu documentary on the team. “When does episode one come out?” he wrote.  North Carolina head coach Bill Belichick at halftime against TCU at Kenan Stadium in Chapel Hill on Sept. 1, 2025. Jared C. Tilton—Getty Images A [GIF of Stephen A. Smith laughing](https://x.com/TCUFootball/status/1962733101861200167) was appended to sports media personality Skip Bayless’ Twitter prediction of a North Carolina blowout moments later. Then, Lazarus [posted an August 30 observation](https://x.com/TCUFootball/status/1962733255687381318) from the X account @Boorish\_Sports, which made note of the problems Texas quarterback Arch Manning seemed to be having against the defensive schemes designed by Ohio State defensive coordinator Matt Patricia—a former Belichick assistant with the New England Patriots—during Ohio State’s 14-7 [win over Texas](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QvyGjFAba6M) that afternoon. “If Matt Patricia has Arch Manning in hell what do we think Bill Belichick will do to the poor kid at TCU?” @Boorish\_Sports wrote. That poor kid, TCU quarterback Josh Hoover, completed 27 of 36 passes for 284 yards and two touchdown throws. “I guess we’ll never know,” Lazarus wrote in the quote. Over six minutes, Lazarus went on an off-the-cuff social media run that, the next day, was the buzz of the sports chatter space just as much, if not more, than TCU’s actual performance on the field. Collectively, these four viral posts expertly trolling Belichick pomp received nearly 225,000 likes, were reposted 11,000 times, and were picked by media outlets such as [_Sports Illustrated_](https://ftw.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaaf/2025/09/02/tcu-unc-bill-belichick-north-carolina/85935760007/), [_Yahoo Sports_](https://sports.yahoo.com/college-football/article/tcu-trolls-unc-bill-belichick-skip-bayless-and-all-their-critics-after-blowout-win-we-all-felt-a-little-disrespected-125541239.html), and[_USA Today_](https://ftw.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaaf/2025/09/02/tcu-unc-bill-belichick-north-carolina/85935760007/). The TCU Football X account followed these posts up with a video package cut by Lazarus’ creative team, splicing together media clips touting Belichick and the Heels, with highlights of TCU’s win and the players celebrating after the game. “This is a player’s game,” Lazarus [wrote ](https://x.com/TCUFootball/status/1962739757210833003)in the post accompanying the video, further puncturing Belichick’s unearned college football aura. Even sports media superstar Pat McAfee took notice of @TCUFootball’s blasts on his popular ESPN and YouTube program. “Hey social media folks, good work,” McAfee [said while clapping](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWqBjvigafs). It was a satisfying night for Lazarus, 32, a Tulsa, Okla., native who swears he wasn’t a wiseass as a kid. “Maybe a dry sense of humor,” he says. And yes, he knows you too may be surprised that TCU’s expert Belichick troll is a ripe-old millennial. “Most people assume that a Gen-Z intern is running social media,” says Lazarus. “‘Give the intern a raise’ is the common expression when something does well on social media. But across the board at every big company, every sports team, social media is probably being run by either a whole team of people, some older, more experienced people.”  Sam Lazarus, Director of Creative Media, TCU Courtesy TCU Athletics Under TCU coach Sonny Dykes, who took over the program in 2021, the football team’s social media feed has leaned edgy, and meme-heavy, by design. TCU’s undergrad population, of some 11,000 students, is small by power football standards: Big 12 foe Oklahoma, for example, has more than 22,000 undergrads, while North Carolina has some 20,000\. “We're fighting for attention with everybody else, but with kind of a hand behind our back, just from the standpoint that our fan base is a little bit smaller,” says Lazarus. “So being able to bring attention to the team and capitalize on big moments is super beneficial.” Lazarus has cut a career path in the sport that didn’t exist not that long ago: since 2019, he’s worked in the football offices of his alma mater Tulsa, then UCLA, and now TCU, where he started in 2024, running social media for each program. Like college coaches, social media gurus work their way through the ranks of the industry, and in an age where all eyeballs can attract revenues and sponsorships and ultimately, more money in the pockets of players and recruits in a competitive marketplace, Lazarus and his colleagues are valuable. TCU’s general manager, Ryan Dorchester, ran the search to bring Lazarus on board, and his final interview was with Dykes himself. Lazarus didn’t have to clear his Belichick strategy with Dykes, or anyone else in the program or at the school. “We just pulled the trigger on it,” says Lazarus. “I think it goes back to the trust that's been built up. Everyone's very bought in and on the same page. So it allows you to move a little bit more freely. It goes back to doing it long enough, that I know what the lines are.” Notably, @TCUFootball did not poke fun at Belichick’s relationship with his [24-year-old girlfriend Jordon Hudson](https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/celebrity/articles/bill-belichick-girlfriend-jordon-hudson-141843015.html). The rest of the world, after all, can comment on that. When coaches perform as well as Lazarus did on Monday, they attract attention from other programs who want to poach them, for a healthy raise. But he insists he’s happy and not going anywhere. “The synergy between the staff and the administration and everybody is just so high that this is just one of those places that it's easy to do the job at,” says Lazarus. “You don't find that all the time.” I remind him that many coaches have left for a more lucrative agreement after swearing an allegiance to an employer: Lazarus notes that he was working in Oklahoma, at Tulsa, in 2021 when Oklahoma coach Lincoln Riley departed for USC a day after seeming to shoot down rumors he was leaving. North Carolina and TCU will stage a rematch, in Dublin, next season. Lazarus is comfortable knowing that his sardonic smack-talking can only give Belichick, and the team, more motivational fodder for next season. “It’s just part of the game,” he says. “When you win, you get to play it up, and when you lose, the other team does. If no one's talking about you after a loss, it probably doesn't mean you're in a good spot, right? You kind of want to be the team that people are enjoying beating.” Still, does Lazarus like TCU’s chances in Ireland? “I’m just focused on the next game, really,” he responds. Oh no, now even the social media guys are lapsing into coachspeak. 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