Mike Farrell Sports

College Football Recruiting, Opinion, and Analysis

Bill Belichick Confronts History, Headwinds at North Carolina

Coach will take on generational mediocrity, new NIL landscape in Tar Heels top post

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Dec 12
Dec 12

By Rock Westfall

After winning six Super Bowl titles with the New England Patriots, head coach Bill Belichick developed an enormous ego and infallibility complex — so much so that he eagerly let GOAT quarterback Tom Brady shuffle off to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers without a fight. Following Brady’s departure, “The Hoodie” went 22 -29 in his final three seasons in Foxboro, including 4-13 in his final campaign.

Belichick had total control of all personnel moves at New England. In the waning years of his tenure, the plodding Patriots had no playmakers. Owner Robert Kraft has since lamented the lack of checks and balances. Finally, Kraft fired Belichick a year ago.

Kraft is one of the most popular and influential owners in the most exclusive country club in sports. NFL owners love to talk to each other, which is likely why Belichick was not getting serious NFL coaching offers. In a softer age of collaboration and shared duties, nobody wants to hire a tyrannical boar. Kraft put the word out, and the owners stuck with their kind.

But in the college ranks, a basketball school with a mediocre football history looking to boost its value for a possible move to the Big Ten is more willing to gamble on someone like Belichick. Desperate North Carolina hired The Hoodie for five years at $10 million per season.

The 72-year-old Belichick replaces the 73-year-old Mack Brown. Can the new legendary, elderly white guy do better than the previous legendary, elderly white guy?

Perhaps Carolina will ascend under Belichick because he has a new and instant advantage that Brown lacked. More on that later. 

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Chapel Hill Bill Has a Heavy Lift 

North Carolina’s last conference championship was in 1980. Since 1998, the Tar Heels have had one double-digit win season. Since 1949, UNC has only four Top 10 finishes – the last one being 1997. North Carolina is best known for consistently making lower- to middle-tier bowl games. It is a basketball school that has been satisfied with such a football status, at least until now.

With the ACC falling further behind the SEC and Big Ten and facing the potential of eventual implosion, North Carolina, like Florida State, Miami, and Clemson, wants out. The hard lesson that Tar Heel fans have learned to accept is that basketball isn’t enough. Football drives the economic engine of athletic departments. Enter Bill Belichick, who will try to achieve what no previous Tar Heel football coach has been able to do.

The Advantages of North Carolina  

To the extent that it still realistically matters, North Carolina is a quality AAU academic institution. Its basketball program has made it a national brand that has some carry-over into football. The North Carolina marquee does have cache with prospects. Considering Belichick’s plan to run his program like an NFL team with a heavy emphasis on the transfer portal, branding matters.

The Tar Heels play in the ACC, which is far below the quality of the Big Ten or SEC. Thus, Belichick has the realistic potential for a much faster rebuild at Chapel Hill than at other schools. ACC champion Clemson is not in the class of Oregon, Georgia, Texas, or Ohio State. In the ACC the bar is not nearly as high. 

Most importantly, Belichick has a new tool that Brown was not afforded: North Carolina has increased its NIL commitment from $4 million to $20 million. Why they would not go all in like that for Brown is a probable painful question from the former coach. Thus, from the start, Belichick is five times “smarter” than Brown. In an era that is all about the bag, The Hoodie has a significant advantage. 

The Disadvantages of North Carolina 

In addition to the challenge of its weak football history, the ACC is not an attractive league for recruits. In the recently concluded 2025 recruiting class rankings, the best ACC team was the Miami Hurricanes (15th). Only Miami and Georgia Tech (17th) cracked the ESPN Top 25.

The ACC has less to offer and faces the negative recruiting of the superpowers of the Big Ten and SEC, who will correctly state that the highest level of competition is in their leagues and not the ACC. That liability is not going to change.

Additionally, North Carolina is not a recruiting hotbed like Florida or Georgia, which are known for numerous 5-star prospects. Equally problematic is that the Tar Heels must compete with three other in-state ACC schools for prospects. Then, there is the behemoth draw of nearby SEC schools. Hence, there are built-in challenges against attracting top prospects to Chapel Hill. 

The Prognosis of Chapel Hill Bill  

Belichick will flash his credentials as one of the greatest NFL coaches ever to roam the sidelines. He will have an NFL-caliber staff and a carefully prepared blueprint for success. The Tar Heels will be run like an NFL franchise, as per The Hoodie’s previous comments about how he would lead a college program. However, much of that may not matter to elite talent. 

Realistically, prospects care less about past Super Bowl glory than about the bag that North Carolina now has. Certainly, Belichick wants to redeem his reputation and record. To its credit, North Carolina is investing to assist The Hoodie with that project.

Being rejected by NFL owners for a new gig after winning six Super Bowls has to sting Belichick. But his ending in New England was a catastrophe, leading to questions about his ability to build and maintain a quality roster, especially against the bigger brands in college football.

It is fair to question whether North Carolina is what Belichick really wants or if it is a desperate last-girl-at-the-bar type of move. Additionally, there is the question of whether Belichick took the UNC job only to eventually bequeath the head coaching position to his son, Steve Belichick, currently the defensive coordinator of the Washington Huskies.

I see neither great success nor massive failure for Belichick at UNC. Instead, history and footprint show a more likely result of modest improvement for a program weighed down by its mediocre past and a challenging infrastructure at a basketball school in a lesser conference. 

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