UNC Got the Headline It Sought, but The What?<\/h2>\n
Belichick, being near the same age and having no experience in the transfer portal or NIL didn\u2019t seem to be a concern for the UNC Board of Trustees, because they got their headline.<\/p>\n
Chancellor Lee H. Roberts issued the following statement Wednesday night. “Carolina is committed to excellence and to creating an opportunity to succeed in everything we do, from the classroom to the field of competition. I know after speaking with Coach Belichick that he shares that commitment. His legacy speaks for itself, and we look forward to working together on the next chapter of Carolina football.”<\/p>\n
Athletic director Bubba Cunningham said this in the prepared statement from the school, \u201cBill Belichick is a football legend, and hiring him to lead our program represents a new approach that will ensure Carolina football can evolve, compete, and win — today and in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n
Belichick the Rookie Coach<\/h3>\n
Belichick comes to the job with no college coaching experience but enters a sport that is more and more like pro football all the time with player movement being driven by financial considerations.<\/p>\n
The former New England Patriots coach is a lock for the NFL Hall of Fame when his time comes around. But his record is also not all bright lights as is portrayed in UNC\u2019s statements about the hire. He has six Super Bowl rings to show recruits. But the last Super Bowl win was in 2018 when most of the current crop of recruits was in their pre-teen years. The Patriots failed to make the NFL playoffs in three of Belichick\u2019s final four years. His record in those final four years was 29-38.<\/p>\n
Brown was in his second stint in Chapel Hill. He was 44-33 in the six years prior to his dismissal. The Tar Heels finished 3-5 in the ACC and 6-6 overall this season. They will be playing in the Fenway Bowl in December. Assistant coach Freddie Kitchens will serve as the interim coach for the game. Kitchens will also remain on Belichick’s staff. UNC went to a bowl game in every year of Brown\u2019s second tenure in Chapel Hill. But the Tar Heels are 1-4 through the previous five postseason games.<\/p>\n
The Contract and the Infighting<\/h3>\n
While the details of Belichick’s contract are still to be revealed, we know that it is a five-year contract. The financial terms are not yet announced. There is also the storyline, yet unconfirmed, that part of his contract includes his son Steve being named his eventual successor as the coach-in-waiting. The younger Belichick is currently the defensive coordinator at the University of Washington. He is expected to join his father\u2019s staff at some point soon. The Huskies are playing in the Sun Bowl in El Paso on New Year\u2019s Eve.<\/p>\n
There were reports of a power struggle within the UNC administrative structure. Board of Trustee John Preyer was known to have pushed hard for the Belichick hire. Cunningham, the AD, wanted someone with college experience. Belichick, who has a reputation as challenging to work with, went through the 2024 year with no coaching opportunities in college or the NFL. Concerns were expressed within the UNC inner circles that Belichick would still look to leave for the NFL when coaching changes are made at the end of the season in February.<\/p>\n
The Hole for Belichick to Climb Out Of<\/h3>\n
College coaches who change jobs tend to bring transfer portal players with them. Curt Cignetti brought more than a dozen players with him when he made the move from James Madison to Indiana. Deion Sanders did the same when he moved from Jackson State to Colorado. Belichick has no college base from which he can pull players.<\/p>\n
Reports on Belichick\u2019s list of demands are that the school is going to triple its \u201cNIL investment,\u201d in order to entice more players. Schools don\u2019t actually control NIL deals as they are direct between sponsor and athlete\/agent. But UNC could be increasing its financial efforts through the Collective. There will also be the new revenue sharing that every school in the country will be doing, up to $20.5 million for the first year.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n The coaching carousel abruptly stopped in Chapel Hill Wednesday night, with North Carolina hiring future NFL Hall of Fame coach Bill Belichick to lead the Tar Heels’ football future. UNC got the headline it sought, but did it help the football program? The 72-year-old Belichick replaces the 73-year-old Mack Brown who was fired before the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1534,"featured_media":70162,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,7],"tags":[9102,79,6693,10631],"class_list":["post-70148","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-acc","tag-bill-belichick","tag-college-football","tag-new-england-patriots","tag-north-carolina-tarheels"],"modified_by":"Tony Siracusa, CFB Managing Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70148","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1534"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70148"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70148\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":70178,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70148\/revisions\/70178"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70162"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70148"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70148"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70148"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"UNC](\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2024\/12\/USATSI_24955806_168400536_lowres-300x250.jpg\")