Bill Belichick coaches football at the collegiate level. Given that Belichick was officially announced as North Carolina’s new head coach on Wednesday, the statement is technically correct.
The 72-year-old Belichick, who won six Super Bowls as the head coach of the New England Patriots and served in various NFL roles from 1975 to 2023, has never been a college football coach. Though he will soon learn a great deal more about the distinctions between collegiate and professional football, he did spend some time with the sport this autumn with his son Stephen, who was the defensive coordinator at the University of Washington.
Furthermore, despite the narrative that surrounds Belichick’s unexpected decision, which suggests that it represents a step back from coaching in the NFL, this is actually untrue. College football isn t the junior varsity version of the sport. In reality, it’s more difficult.
Since coaches answer to university presidents and boards of trustees in addition to athletic department administrators, college football is significantly more complex than its professional counterpart. They are supposed to impress benefactors, drink, and dine. They travel all over the country to recruit teenagers and spend the rest of the time building relationships with the 18- to 22-year-olds on their rosters, worried that they might transfer out of their programs or demand more monetary compensation at any point. In addition to being general managers, they also serve as chief marketing officers and, yes, football coaches.
This is the world Belichick is entering.
The fact that he will be coaching football once more is what matters most to him. Since his bitter split with the Patriots at the end of the 2023 season, it’s obvious that he has desired to return to the sidelines. However, he failed to sign an NFL contract during the previous offseason, and it seems that he didn’t want to wait a few weeks to find out if there was a need for his skills in the professional ranks. Even while this maneuver is out of the ordinary, it does return his favorite nickname: Coach.
Is he prepared for the remainder of it? is the obvious next question. The Patriots Way isn t going to work in Chapel Hill. In order to establish rapport with college students and prospects, Belichick will need to smooth away those rough spots. He ll deal with time constraints with college players that he never had to with pros. He ll also use his incredible football mind to evaluate talent, develop players and scheme up ways to put them in the best possible position to succeed.
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The man who will go down as the greatest coach in NFL history will try to mirror what made Nick Saban the greatest coach in college football history. And he ll lean on his NFL experience as college football continues to move toward a professional model.
Beginning next fall, schools can share up to $20 million in revenue directly with their own athletes each year. And, of course, name, image and likeness deals will continue to exist. Belichick s experience with roster management and NFL free agency should help.
So will the attraction that is Belichick himself. Much like Deion Sanders singularly commanded an incredible amount of attention when he was hired by Colorado, the spotlight will now be insanely bright in Chapel Hill. Media members will flock to campus and cover every twist and turn of an unprecedented offseason. And great players will want to learn from Belichick, even if UNC hasn t historically been very good in football.
Let me put this in capital letters, if, I. F., I was in a college program, that college program would be a pipeline to the NFL for players that had ability to play in the NFL, Belichick said this week on The Pat McAfee Show, before he finalized the deal with UNC. It would be a professional program: training, nutrition, scheme, coaching, techniques that would transfer to the NFL. It will be an NFL program at a college level.
I feel very confident that I have the contacts in the NFL to pave the way for those players that would have the opportunity to compete in the National Football League.
If this experiment works as intended, that s exactly what will happen. But it s considered a stunning move for a reason there s a great deal of risk to go along with the potential reward here. And it s going to be a lot messier and significantly harder than even Belichick probably realizes.
Nicole Auerbach is the Lead College Football and Basketball Insider for NBC Sports. For the latest news in college football, as well as coverage of the 2024-25 College Football Playoff, subscribe toRushing the Fieldwith Auerbach and Joshua Perry onApple,SpotifyandYouTube.
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