- Bill Belichick’s tenure as North Carolina’s football coach is speculated to be short-lived amid interest from the New York Giants.
- North Carolina’s hiring of Belichick is described as a flawed process that has not yielded expected results on the field.
- North Carolina should invest in a coach experienced with the modern college football landscape, including NIL and recruiting.
This was the danger all along, that Bill Belichick would get another shot with his first love and leave behind a fleeting fling.
And no, we’re not talking Jordon Hudson. At least, not yet.
This is about football, and North Carolina’s place in Belichick’s pecking order of importance. It may be high now, but that foundation begins to shift at the end of the month — when the Tar Heels complete their first season under the coach known more for winning six Super Bowls than proclaiming he’s dialed in to all things Carolina Blue.
“Getting ready for Wake Forest, that’s all I got this week,” Belichick said at his weekly press conference when asked about the job opening with the New York Giants.
He was then asked if players and/or recruits have asked about his interest in the job, which became available Monday when the Giants fired Brian Daboll.
“I’ve been asked about it from time to time,” he continued. “Look, I’ve been down this road before. I’m focused on Wake Forest, that’s it. That’s my commitment to this team. I’m here to do the best for this team.”
If that doesn’t sound like an invitation for the Giants — who Belichick worked for from 1979-90 — to come rescue him from college purgatory, I don’t know what is.
And it might just be the best thing for all involved.
For Belichcik and his obviously failed attempt to create the ’33rd team’ in college football. For North Carolina and its obviously flawed power structure, a process that led to chancellor Lee Roberts circumventing athletic director Bubba Cunningham and hiring Belichick.
And for Hudson, Belichick’s 24-year-old muse/girlfriend (or is it girlfriend/muse?), who’s three months younger than quarterback Max Johnson.
Belichick can return to the NFL and chase Don Shula’s all-time wins record, and Roberts can return to the chancellor’s residence and do whatever it is he was doing before taking a blow torch to the football program.
Then there’s Hudson, who can recalibrate her dog and pony show on the biggest stage in the world. My god, the New York Post may hire a full-time J-Hud reporter.
Meanwhile, North Carolina can get back to the business of building a sustainable football program with a real, live football coach who’s invested in the long run. Not somebody who sees it as a hobby until a lost NFL franchise comes calling.
But if there’s one critical takeaway from this comical shotgun marriage of university and desperation to be seen (again, not talking about Hudson), it’s that North Carolina sees what it takes to play at the elite level of college football.
It just hired the wrong guy to pull it off.
North Carolina now understands ― despite what longtime blue dog faithful in Chapel Hill espouse and firmly believe ― football drives the athletic train. It’s the difference in thriving and surviving as a sports program, and may one day be the key to escaping the cash-strapped ACC.
Until then, football has to be more than a money pit. More than a place where a down-on-his-luck legendary coach and his socialite muse hang out for a couple of years before someone in the NFL takes a chance on what once was.
It has to be a place where NIL money is spent smartly, not on a woefully lacking roster of transfer portal throwaways that Belichick’s hand-picked general manager Michael Lombardi apologized for last month in an email to boosters.
Lombardi said the purpose of the email wasn’t to “shed blame on the past regimes,” then went on to shed blame on the Mack Brown regime. It was essentially a call for patience, and a commitment to continue financial support — after Belichick and Lombardi gutted the North Carolina roster and replaced it with 70 new scholarship players.
Lombardi isn’t writing that letter — not even a year into Belichick’s first season — if those filling the NIL coffers aren’t already concerned that this thing has gone off the rails. That Belichick, despite Lombardi’s email of don’t blame us, blame the other guy, may not have the chops to build and win in the college football world of it only takes one year to turn around a program.
That Belichick’s $10 million salary and $20 million NIL commitment may be better spent finding the next Curt Cignetti or Marcus Freeman or Clark Lea or Kenny Dillingham.
If you’re going to take a chance, roll the dice on a coach (or assistant coach) who has been around the block and understands the intricacies and nuances it takes to build and win in the college game.
You want to take a chance? Hire Mississippi offensive coordinator Charlie Weis Jr., or Indiana offensive coordinator Mike Shanahan, and pay them half of what Belichick is earning.
Then watch them hire a staff that knows the college game, and understands roster building in the player empowerment era. They’ll embrace it, not be annoyed by it.
They’ll crush recruiting with that $20 million NIL fund, and bring innovative offenses to Chapel Hill. They’ll get quarterbacks who fits.
Shanahan was critical is identifying both Kurtis Rourke and Fernando Mendoza in the transfer portal for the Hoosiers, and Weis found Trinidad Chambliss at Division II Ferris State ― then convinced him to be the backup at Ole Miss instead of Ohio State.
Real, profound change is right there for North Carolina. New coach, new vision, same financial support.
All the Tar Heels need is someone from the NFL to take Belichick off their hands.
Matt Hayes is the senior national college football writer for USA TODAY Sports Network. Follow him on X at @MattHayesCFB.