UNC Football: How seriously should we take the Bill Belichick rumors?

I never thought that I would ever type these words, but it has been reported that UNC has been meeting with six-time Super Bowl champion and former New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick. When the news initially broke earlier this week, it felt more like something Belichick may have decided to do out of sheer boredom rather than any kind of seriousness. That is, of course, until what was reported earlier today.

Jonathan Jones with CBS Sports reported that Belichick met with the school for a second time yesterday. If this wasn’t enough, Ollie Connolly with The Guardian tweeted a thread about the situation on the artist formally known as Twitter, and well…all of the rumors about this being some kind of a PR stunt were seemingly debunked.

I won’t get into detail about every single aspect of the thread, but the main points are that 1.) Bill Belichick is allegedly serious about this, and 2.) should he take the job, he is trying to secure a college head coaching job for his son, Stephen Belichick, for when he inevitably retires. What I will say was interesting from that thread is that Belichick feels as though securing a job for his son will overrule waiting on the NFL carousel. It’s truly a bizarre situation, because I don’t think we’ve ever seen a six-time Super Bowl champion decide to potentially take his talents to the college level. Ever.

It should be known that Belichick did have his eye on a NFL job just earlier this year with the Atlanta Falcons after they let go of former Tar Heel Arthur Smith. Falcons owner Arthur Blank spent a weird amount of time wining and dining the legendary coach, quite literally, but ultimately Blank and his staff went in another direction and hired Raheem Morris instead. The interviews with the franchise went well, but ultimately the Falcons were allegedly turned off by everything that comes with Belichick despite his promises that he would play nicely with the GM and team executives.

I am far from an expert when it comes to understanding how Belichick moves, but I do know enough to say that imagining him seamlessly fitting into Carolina athletics isn’t easy to do. First, it must be known that Bill Belichick already has his staff picks laid out all the way down to who would run NIL initiatives. As far as on the field staff goes, Matt Patricia and Ben McDaniels were names that were mentioned that could join Belichick on staff. It is also worth noting that players don’t just play football for him, they are there to work, and not in a fun way. Cam Newton discussed this very thing on ESPN’s First Take when he was asked if his former coach would be a good fit on the college level.

Reports are that Bubba Cunningham expects to make a decision by Sunday. At the end of the day, do I think there’s a real chance that Bill Belichick is the guy that Bubba Cunningham hires by that deadline? If I’m a betting man, I would say no, but at this point we cannot rule it out. One ridiculous factor when it comes to the hiring process is UNC’s Board of Trustees, who always seem to want to stick their nose into matters that really shouldn’t have anything to do with them. I’m sure they see this idea as being excellent for both media coverage and revenue, but realistically this idea could be selling the football program’s soul to a fun-hating, deadpan 72-year-old who is knocking at the door of permanent retirement and is ultimately just making sure his son gets set up in a cushy situation. Simply put: it’s weird, but I don’t have evidence that UNC cares that it’s weird.

I would love to know what all of you think of this situation. Do you think there’s a real chance that this happens? Would you actually enjoy the legendary NFL coach being the head coach of the Tar Heels? Let us know in the comments below.