For Bill Belichick, it’s on to Chapel Hill as the hoodie is reportedly finalizing a deal to become the next head football coach at the University of North Carolina in something of a shocker.
Belichick parted ways with the Patriots a year ago and was spurned by the Falcons after interviewing in Atlanta. Belichick spent the 2024 season in the media, working with several outlets, including the Pat McAfee Show. It was on McAfee’s show on Monday that Belichick made it clear that not only was he serious about considering a move to the collegiate game for the first time in his legendary coaching career, but that he knew what it would take and was eager for the challenge of building an NFL-level program on campus.
"IF I was in a College program it would be a pipeline to the NFL for the players that had the ability to play in the NFL..
It would be a professional program at the College level..
I don't have any doubt that the players would be ready for the NFL" ~ Bill Belichick #PMSLive pic.twitter.com/JyMDtzs2yR
— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) December 9, 2024
On Monday’s Pregame PowerUp, former NFL offensive lineman Marshall Newhouse, who played under Belichick with the Patriots in 2019, said a year ago he would have considered this scenario crazy. But the college landscape is looking more and more like the NFL every day. There will be GMs who are managing payroll when it comes to NIL and revenue sharing coming, and so a coach like Belichick with the itch to coach could work. Marshall says Belichick was put on this earth to coach and he may have heard enough pushback from NFL organizations that he could go and get a nice salary and institutional control at North Carolina. There might be an adjustment needed for Belichick, but the college game is closer to the NFL than ever before and who could seal the deal with recruits better than the six-time Super Bowl champion.
Does @MNewhouse73 think Bill Belichick is really a fit for UNC & the college game?
"Listen, a year ago, you're like, this is crazy, this doesn't make sense…But the college landscape is looking more & more every day like the NFL…He's gonna have to make an adjustment, but it is… pic.twitter.com/0vJ6tpj2BY
— DraftKings Network (@DKNetwork) December 10, 2024
Meanwhile, on Tuesday’s edition of GoJo and Golic, Mike Golic Sr. said the Belichick taking this job means to him that he did not think he was going to get a head coaching job in the NFL because there is no doubt in Senior’s mind that Bill wants to coach in the NFL. Afterall, Belichick is 15 wins away from Don Shula’s all-time wins record. Mike Golic Jr. does think that perhaps Belichick could also have surveyed the landscape of potential NFL openings and decided he didn’t like those environments. GoJo agrees with Senior that the NFL was probably Belichick’s first choice, but he reminds us that Bill’s dad was a coach in the collegiate ranks and now his son has been the defensive coordinator at Washington, so Bill has spent some time out there. So GoJo wonders what being around that Washington program might have done to open Belichick up to the possibility of moving the college game. GoJo says maybe he found through that exposure that this landscape was more familiar to him that it might used to have been.
"If Bill Belichick were to take this job, it would mean to me that he did not think he was going to get an NFL job because there's no doubt he wants to coach in the NFL. He's 15 wins away from being the all-time winningest Head Coach.
He has never coached in college. I don't see… pic.twitter.com/Ts4ykbrV6i
— GoJo and Golic (@GoJoandGolic) December 10, 2024
Only time will tell if Bill can ace his college test.
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