By embracing Bill Belichick’s plan for North Carolina, the Tar Heels show they’re willing to go ‘all-in’ on football.
Bill Belichick’s staff will command a pretty penny. Then there’s the matter of funding the roster he’ll need to engineer a turnaround.
Long an underachiever, a competent coach and financial investment would give North Carolina a path to a turnaround within the ACC.
“I have no idea where that came from. I don’t have a 400-page document,” Belichick said Thursday at his introductory news conference. “And, to think, I was just gonna hand it (over)? I mean, c’mon.’
Exhale, Tar Heels fans. This should be a relief. I’m leery of anyone who needs a manifesto to find success. Anyway, everyone has a plan ’til they go up against a mean machine full of blue-chip talent.
What strikes me more than Belichick’s plan or even that a legendary NFL coach wants to rekindle his career in college football is that North Carolina ponied up to make this happen.
Implementing Belichick’s plan, however many pages long it is, won’t be done cheaply.
North Carolina hiring Belichick announces that the Tar Heels are serious about committing – philosophically and financially – to becoming a much bigger factor in college football. Athletic director Bubba Cunningham affirmed Thursday that the Tar Heels will be “all-in” on football – just as they are with their blue-blooded basketball program.
“Our future is incredibly bright,” Cunningham said.
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UNC football commits financially to Bill Belichick
This is no whimsical attempt by North Carolina at turning this season’s 6-6 record into 7-5.
Belichick didn’t come to North Carolina to make the Birmingham Bowl. He’s serious about winning, and winning requires investment.
Now, as much as ever, money talks in college football. In this era of paying athletes, pauper programs won’t stand much chance at national prominence. Doesn’t matter who’s on the sideline if you don’t have a pile greenbacks funding the operation.
The Tar Heels started by awarding Belichick a five-year deal. His annual salary is $10 million before bonuses. That’s a nugget of the gold required to compete with the big boys. Belichick will want to hire a top-notch coaching and player personnel staff. He’s already pegged former NFL general manager Michael Lombardi to be the team’s general manager. Then there’s the matter of funding a roster that can contend for the College Football Playoff.
Never mind that the Tar Heels won just three ACC games this season or that they’ve eclipsed nine victories just once in the past 27 seasons. Check out SMU. Two years ago, the Mustangs finished 7-6 in the American Athletic Conference. Now, they’re in the playoff in their first ACC season, showing that a quick turnaround is possible from the conference.
Simply hiring Belichick, who won six Super Bowls as a head coach to go with two as a defensive coordinator, should inspire some belief from the booster class.
Belichick’s term sheet, obtained by USA TODAY Sports, earmarks more than $16 million for assistant coaches, strength and conditioning staff and support staff, plus another $13 million in revenue sharing, presumably for athletes.
Bill Belichick can’t just outwit his college coaching peers
While Belichick’s task at North Carolina shouldn’t be viewed as impossible, let’s not make it out to be easy, either.
Belichick understands the game on a level few do, but it’s not enough to know X’s and O’s. This isn’t like if Shohei Ohtani went down to play Single-A baseball. Dabo Swinney knows ball. So do Kirby Smart, Steve Sarkisian and countless others.
Big-league minds coach at this level, so a North Carolina revolution won’t be as simple as rolling out the football and trying to have Belichick outwit his foes.
Some would compare UNC’s momentous hire to Colorado rolling the dice with Deion Sanders, but Sanders brought college experience from his successful stint galvanizing Jackson State. Belichick comes with no experience – zippo – in college ball.
Even as college football morphs toward a professional model, recruiting high school prospects remains the sport’s bread and butter. Belichick has zero experience persuading teenagers to come play for a 72-year-old man, and he’ll play catchup in a sport paced by ace recruiters like Smart, Sarkisian and Oregon’s Dan Lanning. Within the ACC, Miami’s Mario Cristobal and Georgia Tech’s Brent Key perform well on the trail.
Past NFL coaches like Herm Edwards, Lovie Smith and Bill Callahan failed coaching in college. Jim Harbaugh thrived at either level, but, unlike Belichick, Harbaugh started his coaching career in college. Dave Wannstedt found modest success at Pittsburgh after a long NFL career.
Lane Kiffin gradually found his way in college football after being fired from the NFL as a wunderkind.
Nick Saban, Belichick’s friend and college football’s GOAT, made an NFL pitstop, but he’d already carved his name in the college game before Alabama hired him.
Saban, in addition to being a defensive mastermind, became the greatest recruiter in the sport’s history. Pretty dang-good motivator, too.
And although Saban could turn cantankerous, he oozes charisma compared to Belichick.
College football, while more akin to the NFL than it was a decade ago, still is not the NFL, and the list of former NFL coaches who failed as first-time college coaches is longer than those who succeeded.
Still, maybe hiring Belichick is worth the risk. At least it shows UNC’s willingness to invest in football.
Forget the manifesto. Combine a competent coach with some cash in the coffers, and you’ve got a start toward success.
Blake Toppmeyer is the USA TODAY Network’s national college football columnist. Email him at BToppmeyer@gannett.com and follow him on X @btoppmeyer. Subscribe to read all of his columns.