If it were just five years ago, let alone 10 or 20, the prospect of 72-year-old Bill Belichick as a college football coach would have been more of a splashy hire than a promise of great success.
Low expectations reportedly have nothing to do with actual coaching — Belcihick is the greatest winner the NFL has ever known, with six Super Bowls as head coach of the New England Patriots and two more as coordinator defensive end of the New York Giants.
He is a teacher, an innovator and a leader. He would be incredible to coach the game. If anything, his style with the Patriots has followed the traditional college model: power consolidated in a head coach who isn’t there to be your friend.
Success in the NFL, however, has never been a predictor of success in college football, at least not in the short term, which for a coach his age is the obvious goal. Many NFL coaches have tried to make this work in the NCAA. Few have succeeded.
As Belichick knows, you can’t win without great players, and a veteran coach without high school recruiting experience would have faced considerable headwinds at the time.
This is a new day though, where rosters are built overnight via the transfer portal and NIL more than the slow build of high school recruiting.
And that’s why the news that fell on Thursday has potential, perhaps great potential.
According to the media Inside Carolina, Belichick has held talks with North Carolina to become the Tar Heels’ new head coach. This was astounding, since Belichick’s coaching career, which dates back to 1975, was spent exclusively in the pros, including 29 seasons and 333 victories (including playoffs) as head coach in Cleveland and New York. -England.
It’s unclear if Belichick is truly interested in coaching college ball. The same goes for Carolina’s real willingness to give him the job. At least they talked (would have been twice), which is smart for both of us since there was nothing to lose.
Know this: Belichick as a college head coach at a place already as attractive as UNC would cause a seismic shift in recruiting.
Reaching the NFL is the No. 1 goal, or very close to the No. 1 goal, for any great college football player. Who better to play for than the GOAT of professional football?
The difference between today and the past is that such a decision is not available only to high school recruits between the ages of 16 and 18, who are also easily influenced by things like jersey colors, proximity to their parents, peer influence, brilliance. facilities or even how much fun they had during a campus visit.
The ability for college players to transfer with immediate eligibility means players ages 20-23, with a few seasons of experience and maturity, approach team selection from a different perspective. It’s no longer about what’s cool or comfortable. Rather, it is a business decision.
If you’ve played a few seasons somewhere and shown enough promise to maybe make the NFL, then playing and learning from Bill Belichick becomes not a curiosity but perhaps a mandate. Gone, for the most part, are the opinions of high school coaches, high school friends, or high school hangers-on.
Whereas in the past, recruiting was a lengthy process of building relationships with raw prospects in need of development, today players, often ready to start, move on a single phone call. Much of the silliness and good-natured gestures came out.
Here is our plan for you. Do you want to participate or not?
Even the payments are now made public.
The famous coach with a proof of concept for maximizing potential is suddenly a thing, especially because of Deion Sanders’ success at Colorado. Coach Prime took a 1-11 team with virtually no recent success and turned them into winners in just two years without traveling the country recruiting high school players.
There’s no reason to think Belichick couldn’t do the same.
Prime has an unmatched career as a player, but Belichick has an unmatched career as a coach. And at UNC, he would be taking over a program with far more success, talent and potential than CU.
Who does not answer his call? And when it comes to talking about football – not recruiting – who could do it better?
Bill Belichick, the “recruiter,” would find talented and dedicated players at UNC. And if you give Bill Belichick the opportunity to coach talented and dedicated players, he will almost assuredly have victories.