The UNC Bill Belichick Experiment is Not Working

Before the college football season started there was a group of stories that kept popping up on sports sites and tv shows. One such story was Bill Belichick taking over at UNC. Let’s discuss.

This was, at the time, a very big deal. Belichick won big time in the NFL. He is one of the most storied coaches to ever grace NFL sidelines. He then walked away from the Patriots, and I kind of thought that would be it for him. But I guess he had the itch to coach, or maybe his girlfriend wanted him to get out of the house more. Who knows. But, he took the UNC job after they let go of another hall of fame coach, Mack Brown.

I was kind of skeptical to begin with when Belichick took this job. I thought he would despise the modern college game. Recruiting and the like is so much different now. We have the transfer portal. College players are getting paid now. For all intents and purposes, college football is now the minor leagues for the NFL. I wrote something a while back, when Belichick took the job at UNC, about how the college coaching ranks are skewing younger. I feel like coaching college football is a young guys game now. You have to constantly be on the road. You have to sell your university more now. Freshman want the assurance of instant playing time. It's not like it was in the 80's, 90's and early 2000's anymore. The landscape has changed. But, Belichick was able to get some quality transfers. Ben Hall, a former Michigan running back, gets a ton of run at UNC. I thought I was going to have to eat crow on all of this.

And then opening night for UNC came and you would have thought the sports media was covering the damn Super Bowl. UNC got the primetime night game at home. Michael Jordan and Lawrence Taylor were highlighted in the crowd. All the talking heads, most notably ESPN, were all but crowning UNC and Belichick as the presumption champs in the ACC. I had no idea who they were even playing, TCU, until I turned on the broadcast. Every single one of the talking heads on ESPN picked UNC to win, and win fairly easily. Belichick was highlighted, they showed interviews with him and his partner, his kid on staff was talked up as a future head coach, it was all about Belichick. And then the game started. UNC drove right down the field and scored with ease. It looked like the hype was real. Then TCU woke up and proceeded to absolutely demolish UNC. After the first drive UNC could barely move the ball. TCU would go on to win the game 48-14, and it wasn't even that close. All the hype, the pomp and circumstance, the coronation was all but over.

It did look like the college game may have passed Belichick by. His old ways of winning games weren't going to work. He had to go back to the drawing board. UNC was lucky enough to have Charlotte as the next opponent. Charlotte has a new coaching staff and a bunch of new, young players. UNC should have rolled. They did win, by 17, but it didn't feel like the blowout it should have been. They did roll Richmond, who has scored a total of 34 points in three games thus far. But they won two in a row. Maybe they were turning things around. They were facing UCF last weekend, and they looked to be the favorite. UCF is also coming off a staff change and a bunch of new players. UCF proceeded to dominate. Early in the third quarter they were up 27-3. UCF ended up winning 34-9. UCF threw for 223 yards. They ran for 143 yards.They held UNC to 154 passing and 63 rushing yards. This was a blowout in every sense of the word. And it now looks like UNC is going to be irrelevant yet again.

I had kind of already written them off after week one to be honest. But Belichick is no longer the bell of the ball. Others are writing and talking about how this may not work out. I wouldn't be shocked to see mass transfers when the portal opens up again. I don't think his way of coaching works in the college ranks. I think he may be too old school for any level of football anymore. When I look at the rest of UNC's schedule, I see maybe two more wins. I think they can beat Stanford and maybe Wake Forest. Clemson needs a win badly, and UNC is in the way of that. NC State is solid. Syracuse looks legit. Cal and Virginia have more talent. And Duke has a very good QB. Those games are going to be difficult for Belichick and UNC.

I do think that this may be a short lived experiment, Bill Belichick coaching college football that is. Time will tell, but he seems in over his head, which is wild to say about such a prolific football coach. But he has not looked the part this far into the college season. 

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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Thoughts on Bill Belichick Going to UNC

I was on vacation with my wife last week and my son texted me something that truly shocked me. I was hanging out by a pool and I audibly gasped when I read what he sent. I also didn't fully believe him at first. The text read, "Bill Belichick just signed to be the next head coach for UNC!".

I was floored. I had to check some reputable sites, nothing against my kid, but he's 12, he has said lots of stuff that wasn't true. But he was correct. Bill Belichick is returning to coach football, and he isn't doing it in the NFL or at a big time power 5 school. He is going to coach UNC, who was like 6-6 or 7-5 this season. They gave up 70 plus points to James Madison. The entire staff is going to be new. I'm sure a good portion of the kids will transfer. I wouldn't be surprised if they had a season not too dissimilar to this past Michigan season.

I don't know how Bill Belichick is going to deal with or like coaching college football. I don't know that he has coached in college before. I only remember him as an NFL head coach, and a quite successful one at that. Bill Belichick knows football. There's no denying that fact. He has won multiple Super Bowls. He has helped to guide stifling defenses. He knows how to use what he has in the best possible way. He knows when to cut the fat and he doesn't let feelings get involved. He knows this sport inside and out. But college is a whole other animal. I mean, recruiting is a year round thing. Bill Belichick is going to have to go into an 18 year olds living room and sell this kid on UNC football. That is tough for anyone.

Also, Belichick is 72 years old. I mean, I cannot imagine traveling all over the country trying to sell your program is fun for anyone. College football coaches are getting younger too. I had a conversation with my son recently about that very topic. Jim Harbaugh left because he wanted to coach in the NFL. He was also sick and tired of dealing with the NCAA and all their nonsense. Nick Saban left Alabama last year and made a statement along the lines of he disliked how much the college game had changed. When you look at most college coaches, they seem to be not much older than 50. University of Missouri coach Eli Drinkwitz is 41. Florida coach Billy Napier is 44. Tennessee coach Josh Heupel is 46. Georgia coach Kirby Smart is 48. Ryan Day is 45. PJ Fleck is 44. Lincoln Riley is 41. Sherrone Moore is 39. Dan Lanning is 38. In the ACC Cal coach Justin Wilcox is 48. Dabo Swinney is 58. Manny Diaz is 50. Mario Cristobal is 54. And Fran Brown is 42. Bill Belichick is nearly 30 years older than some of these guys. Hell, he is getting close to being 40 years older than some of these guys. College football, as far as recruiting and dealing with the NIL, is becoming a young guys game.

I feel like Belichick, with all of his knowledge, is going to find that coaching college football is way tougher than he thinks. And, as I said above, he is coaching at UNC. UNC is a basketball school through and through. It always has been, probably always will be. They have had some seasons that are solid, but they haven't been a CFP contender yet. They have a ton of preseason hype usually, but that doesn't seem to translate on the field. Belichek is also very old school. He's going to assume that he is the man in charge and the leader. That may have been the case in the 80's and 90's, but not anymore. As it should be, player empowerment is a real and viable thing. These kids know their worth and they aren't shy about letting everyone know. Kids aren't going to go play for Bill Belichick just because he is Bill Belichick. They are going to want playing time and solid NIL deals. They are going to want tv coverage. They are going to want awards. The coach is just a dude now. They teach the game and help mold these kids into pros in some cases. But, the coach doesn't have the power that they used to. Again, not many people know more about football than Bill Belichick. He has a wealth of knowledge. Teaching the game to his players won't be the issue. I think he will find it much more difficult to recruit and have to be on 365 days a year.

Time will tell, but this is a weird move from him. We will see how it turns out. 

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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SeedSing is funded by a group of awesome people. Join them by donating to SeedSing.