We weren’t the only ones who found UNC’s Bill Belichick hire to be a bit odd. A legendary NFL coach, widely considered the best of all time, Belichick nonetheless wore out his welcome with the New England Patriots and, finding no other NFL job, turned to UNC.
It was a strange hire for several reasons, including, but not limited to, replacing one 70+ year old coach, Mack Brown, with another, and then Belichick’s much younger girlfriend made waves.
His traditional crankiness was underscored on his recent book tour when he showed up for a TV interview in a torn-up Navy sweatshirt, which probably didn’t impress his new bosses in Chapel Hill.
He also has traditionally had disdain for the media, and renewed that before Monday’s opener against TCU by issuing a depth chart which listed positions, but not a single player.
You can get away with all of that when you’re winning Super Bowls, but if you’re coaching in college and you want to annoy your bosses and fans, not to mention the media, you’d better win.
And UNC rather emphatically failed to do that against TCU in its opener, falling to TCU, 48-14.
And this was at home, mind you.
And worse, they brought in all the names: Michael Jordan, Roy Williams, Julius Pepper, Aaron Boone, Eric Church and Chase Rice.
That whole thing about annoying the press could blow up in his face too. Again, it’s easy to do when you’re killing it with Tom Brady and a solid defense, but you can’t just fire college players. Check out some of the media reactions. It wasn’t a great day for Belichick and the Tar Heels. Of course, you can’t judge a season by the opening game. UNC has plenty of time to turn it around. However, it certainly wasn’t the sort of opener that MJ, Ol’ Roy and Church had in mind.
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