With news breaking that former New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick had accepted the same job with the North Carolina Tar Heels on Wednesday, many had visceral reactions to the news of the 72-year-old jumping from coaching in the pros to the college ranks.
Belichick has no experience with college coaching, recruiting, NIL or any of the like, but he seems supremely confident he can turn UNC into a feeder team for the NFL.
"If I was at a college program, the college program would be a pipeline to the NFL for the players that had the ability to play in the NFL," Belichick said on "The Pat McAfee Show" on Monday. "It would be a professional program - training, nutrition, scheme, coaching, techniques that would transfer to the NFL. It would be an NFL program at the college level and an education that would get the players ready for their career after football."
And while Belichick's coaching track record speaks for itself - he has the third-most wins (302) and eighth-best win percentage (.647) of any NFL coach with 95 or more wins - there are concerns his hard-nosed, old-school style of coaching will mesh well with the current college game.
Former Patriots offensive lineman Ross Tucker, who played for Belichick in the NFL, shares those concerns, and he recently cast doubt on Belichick finding success in the college ranks.
"Based on my experience playing college football, which is not the current era, and based on my experience playing for coach Belichick - which was almost 20 years ago - he would be probably, by far, the worst college head coach I could ever imagine," Tucker told WEEI.
"I mean the idea of the guy that I was around recruiting or like going into the living room of a 17-year-old - I want this to happen so bad I can taste it. I mean, if they do it, they've got to have cameras everywhere. The guy, when I was in New England, was like 100% negative reinforcement. I would love to just see how quickly those kids go into the transfer portal."
Among the chief issues many believe Belichick will face in North Carolina, the top is his ability to relate to 17-to-20-year-old recruits and not drive them away with his sometimes-harsh demeanor.
Some have also cast doubt on his ability to manage and navigate the NIL era, which is what drove close friend Nick Saban into an early retirement.
Related: North Carolina Makes First Major Hire of Bill Belichick Era
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This story was originally published December 11, 2024, 10:20 PM.