Bill Belichick is set to become the new head coach of the University of North Carolina, a stunning move to the college ranks by arguably the NFL’s all-time greatest coach.
The move is a leap of faith on both sides.
First by the 72-year-old, who owns eight Super Bowl rings, including six as the head coach of the New England Patriots, but he has never worked as a college coach, let alone recruiter — nor has he shown a lot of natural acumen for it.
Second, by an ACC program that will hope a new, short-term jolt can pump sustained life into a football program that has long been stuck under a ceiling of good but never great, which fights for relevancy not just in the sport, but on its own basketball-obsessed campus.
It also illustrates the new era of college football — where player procurement rests not so much in chasing teenage recruits out of high school, but plucking more focused and mature talents out of the transfer portal with the backing of direct compensation and NIL payments.
It is that change that makes Belichick an intriguing — impossible to ignore even — candidate for a UNC program that will go from often ignored (just one 10-win season since 1997) to the center of the spotlight. With Belichick at the helm, expect endless national television broadcasts, sold-out stadiums and massive hype and fan fare upon his arrival.
If nothing else, this is fascinating.
What would have been foolish even half a decade ago — Belichick suddenly working the traditional recruiting circuit — now makes plenty of sense and possibly plenty of success. UNC couldn’t say no.
“Let me put this in capital letters, if, ‘I. F.’ I was in a college program, that college program would be a pipeline to the NFL for players that had ability to play in the NFL,” Belichick said earlier this week on The Pat McAfee Show. “It would be a professional program: training, nutrition, scheme, coaching, techniques that would transfer to the NFL. It will be an NFL program at a college level.
“I feel very confident that I have the contacts in the NFL to pave the way for those players that would have the opportunity to compete in the National Football League.”
Plenty of NFL and NBA coaches have gone to the college ranks and tried to make that pitch — rarely did it work.
High school recruiting was as much about glad-handing, long-standing relationships, the brand of your program, the location of your school (both geographic and conference) as well knowing how to work an under-the-table system of payouts. In basketball, Nike and Adidas controlled everything.
Not any longer.
NIL allows any school with proper backing to sign nearly any prospect — the No. 1 basketball recruit in the country just committed to BYU.
In football, Deion Sanders has shown at Colorado that good teams can be built with older players who are eager to transfer in. Coach Prime doesn’t do home visits with parents or shows up at recruit’s high schools looking to make a personal connection. He sits in Boulder and makes them come to him — drawn in by his NFL pedigree and promise of preparation.
He has dismissed even the importance of high school recruiting, noting the low pan-out rate of even hyped prospects.
Belichick isn’t as charismatic as Coach Prime and the son he will likely bring to Chapel Hill, Stephen, isn’t an elite quarterback such as Shadeur Sanders, but when it comes to appealing to transfers looking to make the final leap to the pros, his pitch may carry even more weight.
Belichick the coach is unquestioned. Same with Belichick the teacher of the game. No NFL team was more prepared than his through the years. None more innovative, smart or effective.
Yes, he had Tom Brady — and many other all-time greats — during that two-decade run of success in Foxborough, but to a man they also praise him for simplifying the game and maximizing their potential.
This could work. This should work. Getting players shouldn’t be too problematic, and don’t compare the sweeping incoming classes of college — sometimes 40-50 deep — to the precise and limited nature of the NFL Draft.
No, UNC’s roster may not reach the status of Ohio State or Georgia — tradition still matters — but it should be an upgrade to what is already a decent situation.
Transfers with a couple years of college experience are vastly different people than impressionable high school recruits — which was once the only way to stock a team. Gone are many of the superfluous considerations such as proximity to parents, uniform colors or how cool a recruiting visit was.
Entrenched in the business of the sport, the smart ones make business decisions. Playing time. Opportunity. Development. Not all, of course, but enough that getting in the best position to reach the NFL is the first consideration.
That should lead them to at least consider Belichick, who can be as personable as he needs to be, especially in individual sessions.
With the ability to have a program general manager to handle the details and the money, Belichick can stay out things like recruiting-visit photo shoots and focus on selling himself as something else — the coaching messiah with a shelf full of Lombardis to prove it.
If you’re serious, then come get coached by a serious man.
Potential hurdles are everywhere, of course. Belichick talking to parents who call to complain about playing time? Belichick having to overspend on NIL for someone who hasn’t proven anything? Belichick coaching in his acerbic, sarcastic way to a generation who may not appreciate it?
This is going to be wild to watch.
Does it work? Maybe? Probably?
No one ever truly knows when it comes to a new hire.
For UNC, which has been treading water for decades though, the risk is worth it.
They just landed the best coach in football. It stands to reason that should be enough in this modern era for some of the best players in football to follow.