CHAPEL HILL – Bill Belichick to New York rumors are swirling hard right now after the Giants fired Brian Daboll as their head coach on Monday. Almost immediately after, the speculation started gushing into the narrative about the vacant position.
Belichick, however, deflected any discussion about it during his Tuesday press conference at the Kenan Football Center.
"I've been down this road before," he said. "I'm focused on Wake Forest. That's it, and that's my commitment to this team. And next week, it'll be to our next opponent, and so forth. I'm here to do the best I can for this team."
The improving Tar Heels visit Wake Forest for a 4:30 pm kickoff on Saturday. The NFL world, however, may or may not pay that game much attention. But they are discussing Belichick, even if there's no viable chance he returns to the organization that essentially launched his illustrious career.
"He loves the Giants. I mean, he loves the Giants," longtime NFL columnist Gary Myers said on the Big Blue View podcast.
"He'd walk from Chapel Hill to East Rutherford for this job, I really believe that," Myers said.
On New York sports radio station WFAN, Brandon Tirney is highly intrigued by Belichick as an option. When Sal Licata was asked if the game has "passed by" Belichick, he said that he'd rather find out with a quarterback in place.
"This is not a total rebuild...," Licata said. "Are you telling me you don't think Bill Belichick with this defense would be so much better?"
Belichick spent 11 years as a Giants assistant coach from 1979-1990 and won 2 Super Bowls as New York's defensive coordinator from 1985-1990. He was UNC legend Lawrence Taylor's first position coach in the NFL and is credited with being highly instrumental in his career. Taylor is as iconic as any football player ever from the Big Apple.
Belichick is currently 73 years old and has four more years on his contract at UNC after this season, two of which is guaranteed. His buyout to UNC, if he were to leave on his own, is only $1 million. Carolina is currently paying Belichick $10 million this season on a deal that could rise to $13 million if a variety of performance goals are met.
Behind the scenes, multiple sources told TarHeel247 in late August that Belichick was having as much fun coaching the Tar Heels as he'd had in years. It was said he was fully "dug in," that he had "his hands messy with Carolina football," and that he "would see this through."
In early October when chaos erupted during the week following an embarrassing 38-10 home loss to Clemson, some of the same sources weren't as emphatic about Belichick's enjoyment of the college process. Numerous reports surfaced that embarrassed the program and soured Belichick's reputation some. Most of the reporting from various media outlets were true, including everything reported here at TarHeel247.
Things have smoothed over some since then, and said progress has become evident. One source close to the situation told TarHeel247 on Wednesday morning that Carolina's improvement "have his hands all over it. It's literally how he builds."
UNC is 4-5 overall, including 2-3 in the ACC. The Tar Heels were 2-3 after the loss to Clemson, which was their third blowout defeat in the only games the Heels had against Power 4 teams to that point.
Since, however, Carolina lost in the last minute at California on a fumble going into the end zone, were inches away a week later from beating then-No. 16 Virginia at home in overtime, and have now won consecutive games at Syracuse, 27-10, and this past weekend at home over Stanford 20-15.
UNC's last three games are against longtime in-state rivals. After visiting the Demon Deacons this weekend, the Heels host Duke and then finish the season at NC State. Carolina will be underdogs in all three contests.
Belichick's name was bound to come up when any NFL jobs opened, but the rumblings behind the curtain are that this job may be different from the others. But based on his words, his focus is on Wake Forest this weekend.