North Carolina came to terms with eight-time Super Bowl champion Bill Belichick on Wednesday.
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North Carolina has been known as a basketball school for the better part of a century, and for good reason, given the magnitude of names such as Dean Smith, Michael Jordan and Roy Williams, among countless others. The football program, on the other hand, was once described as a sleeping giant by Florida State’s Bobby Bowden, forever haunted by the curse of the tick, and seemingly incapable of getting out of its own way.
As the Mack Brown 2.0 era came to an end two weeks ago, the significance of the football program had never been more relevant given the rise of NIL and the arrival of the NCAA’s House settlement agreement, which is expected to gain final approval from a federal judge in April. Football has been king in collegiate athletics for several decades now, yet the commitment in Chapel Hill had been lacking for too long. Compete for an ACC Championship? Possibly, every now and then. Compete for a national championship? Such a thought was good only for a chuckle.
That’s no longer the case. North Carolina’s hiring of eight-time Super Bowl champion Bill Belichick on Wednesday shattered the mental shackles that have defined the UNC football program for far too long. It’s been fair to question Carolina’s resolve in doing what’s necessary to truly compete at a national level. This announcement is more than about Belichick’s arrival in Chapel Hill; it’s about the evolution of a decorated athletic department that has been content to live in its past successes into a progressive example of a university intent on adapting to the modern era of college athletics.
Six years ago, UNC dove into its past to hire Brown once again, albeit this time he was 68 years and had been out of coaching for five years. There was a hint of nostalgic desperation, a yearning for the days in the late 1990s when the Tar Heels fielded a pair of legitimate top-10 teams. Four years ago, UNC took a similar approach when it hired Hubert Davis, who played for Dean and learned under Roy, despite any head coaching experience. He was a safe hire who appealed more to the Carolina basketball family than to the notion of continued excellence at the national level.
The Belichick hire is nothing of the sort. His ties to North Carolina are minimal, dating back to his father’s brief tenure as an assistant coach in the mid-1950s, complete with a well-circulated photo of a young Bill sitting in the Kenan Stadium stands. If the Carolina family, dressed in argyle and khaki, were to sit around the Christmas tree opening presents, Belichick is the brash uncle by marriage that storms in, intent on causing havoc by shattering the long-held cultural norms in place. Wearing a hoodie with the sleeves cut off, of course.
Most UNC fans would have been content to just change the culture within the football program. Belichick’s impact will be felt throughout the athletic department and across the university. The 72-year-old had little interest in taking over a program with limited resources for the final stage of his career. His contract demands were significant, according to sources, including financial commitments for coach salaries, NIL funding and additional staffing needs. His three-year, $30 million deal is the largest in school history.
It would have been easy enough for athletic director Bubba Cunningham and chancellor Lee Roberts to push away from the negotiating table, content to say they gave it a good ole college try and then move on to a safer coaching candidate. Yet this had the potential to be a defining moment in Carolina athletics history – a point in time that UNC officials could prove their naysayers wrong about their commitment to football – and the discussions continued, one counter after another, according to sources.
The NFL is known for its parity. It’s a professional league where the difference makers reside in the form of elite quarterbacks and schematic genius. Belichick’s six Super Bowl rings as the New England Patriots head coach can largely be attributed to those determining factors. There’s no question that Belichick and his coaching staff will be able to outscheme their ACC opponents. The question is whether he will be able to stock a roster with enough talent for his X’s and O’s ability to make a difference at the national level. It’s the Jimmys and Joes, stupid.
Transitioning from Mr. Charisma to a man never known for his charisma will be a culture shock in the Kenan Football Center and throughout the Chapel Hill community. The haves and have-nots in college football are separated by media deals that drive revenue and boosters’ deep pockets that fuel NIL operations. Brown thrived in booster events and fundraising campaigns.
There is a question as to whether Belichick is capable of such efforts, which is why the onus was on UNC to meet his contract demands, effectively removing the brunt of that responsibility from his shoulders and giving him the financial means to rebuild the football infrastructure with an NFL approach. Salary cap, player value, roster limits. These are the things that Belichick knows and where he excels. The bridge that UNC had to cross was in committing enough resources to let him work in the way that he prefers. Sources have confirmed that such a commitment has occurred, although it remains to be seen to what extent.
No one knows if this will work. Belichick will turn 73 in April, which is the same age as Brown, who fought off questions about his age and retirement in recent years. Belichick has never coached a college game before and therefore has never recruited an 18-year-old kid. The national media will descend upon Chapel Hill in ways that it never has for Carolina football. That spotlight shines just as bright for car crashes as it does for victory laps.
There was undoubtedly political posturing and disagreement taking place behind the scenes, but regardless, this is a hire that will define Cunningham’s career, whether that’s fair or not. The initial thought had been that a legacy hire required a foolproof, risk-free choice. What happened instead is the greatest high-risk, high-reward hire that UNC has ever entertained.
However it turns out, the Belichick experiment will be something to behold.