Bill Belichick sat in a room full of spectators on Good Morning America as Michael Strahan asked him a series of questions concerning his new book, with girlfriend Jordon Hudson nowhere to be seen.
Then, there was a question asked of Belichick about his past life intersecting with his current job at North Carolina that caught my eye.
What would the NFL Belichick say to the UNC Belichick? What kind of advice would you have, if you had any?
After nearly five months on the job as the head coach at North Carolina, I would imagine one segment on Good Morning America is not enough time to fully answer that question. But, being the professional he is, Belichick delivered an answer that seemingly every other coach in college football is mulling each morning they wake up for work.
“For me, it’s all about learning. I learn everyday, and I learn so much being back in the college environment. Whether recruiting, the college game, the hashmarks, the strategy, just putting a team together. I’ve learned a lot, I learn every day,” Belichick mentioned. “I’ve got a great staff. You know, Michael Lombardi has done a great job in terms of bringing the personnel side together, with us having a shared vision, kinda like we had in the NFL. We have a coach, general manager model, so it’s been great to work with him and to go through the process of re-acclimating. You know football is still football, there’s certainly some differences.
“It’ll be interesting to see how the whole House settlement comes out with what the rules are exactly with roster size and compensation for the players, NIL and all that. And trying to figure out how to maximize given the players the financial rewards they deserve, while at the same time maintaining the competitiveness balance on your team, like we have to do with the salary cap in the NFL.”
While Belichick is certainly not alone in trying to figure out what this new era of college athletics will look like, he’s the least experienced guy in the ACC when it comes to coaching at this level as the man in charge. And for that reason alone, he can try to encapsulate all the knowledge attained throughout his legendary NFL coaching career, but he’s dealing with a different animal compared to the NFL.
What The ‘NFL Bill Belichick’ Was Probably Wanting To Tell ‘UNC Bill’
I think it would be fair to say that the Patriots’ Belichick would ask ‘what the hell are you doing getting into this mess of college football right now?’ before diving into another defensive series from the North Carolina spring game.
Everything has changed regarding college athletics. To be honest, it doesn’t look the same as just fifteen months ago when Belichick’s friend Nick Saban walked away from the sport. We all know the dynamics of how the NFL works, so I won’t bore you with that type of rehashing. But, I do think that Belichick walked into a better situation as a head coach, compared to someone moving from a lower-tier program to somewhere like North Carolina.
The salary cap that athletic departments across the country are preparing to tackle when the House settlement is approved? Bill Belichick has been there and done that, with a system setup in the NFL to protect him from dealing with a player’s contract.
Bill Belichick Isn’t Involved In A Scandal With Jordon Hudson. So, Maybe It’s Time To Move On?
If you have got a problem with the money you’re making, go see the general manager or get your agent to handle it. That’s what the NFL’s Belichick would tell his players. But, in college football, he’s dealing with 18-22-year-old young men who have no clue what a 401k is, or how to manage a bank account on a daily basis.
When there was a problem with athletes complaining about their playing time in his past days, he would give them a straight answer. Probably something along the lines of ‘Well, it’s on you to keep the starting job, I’m not going to curtail this around you’, or ‘If you’ve got a problem, don’t bring it onto the field during practice’.
Unfortunately for Belichick, he’s in a whole new world. But the best thing he could’ve done is keep some coaches on staff that have experience at this level, even though the off-field aspect of this sport has changed so much in the past five years.
But, there is one aspect of this entire ordeal that I don’t know if Bill Belichick really thought about before taking the job at North Carolina.
Only A Few Coaches Could Control The Narrative In A College Town
If there is one thing that is different from college athletics compared to the NFL, it’s how intense the media circus can be around a head coach on a daily basis.
For Bill Belichick, he was already a rock star before arriving in Chapel Hill, but that scrutiny only increases in a college town. When you have twenty writers on the beat in a small town, and you are the biggest celebrity that lives in the area, the scrutiny can be overwhelming. Every move you make is dissected in twenty different ways, and the school is left to deal with the fallout if things go south.
And don’t forget, a major football program is the front doorstep of the university. The team drives the economy for eight weekends out of the year, and when they aren’t talking about the results during the season, the fans want to know about recruiting, the transfer portal, NIL and what the starting quarterback is doing in summer workouts.
Bill Belichick is learning about the outside noise in college football on a daily basis at North Carolina
Point being, there is no offseason in college football. And for that point alone, Bill Belichick, along with his staff, are going to have a hard time controlling the narrative if there is something amiss. Now, throw in the Jordon Hudson ordeal, and you’ve got a powder keg waiting to explode.
Oh, and Belichick brings in the national media on a daily basis as well. So there is no running from the storylines that could come out of a situation that might be overlooked elsewhere. This time, add in the fact that Belichick had Jordon Hudson cc’d on emails pertaining to his daily activities, and you’ve got a full-blown public relations nightmare.
But I would venture to guess that the school, along with those close to the head coach, have mentioned the fact that this type of press is not what they were looking for when he was hired to lead the football program.
The Pressure On Bill Belichick Will Only Grow From Here
Even though Belichick has been around the game of football for decades, he’s still learning. He’s also learning on the fly that having unnecessary noise encapsulating the football program does him no good, only adding further pressure to the job.
And that pressure I spoke of? It’s only May 16th. We haven’t even started ‘talkin’ season’ yet.
So looking back, one of the most prestigious coaches in football didn’t take a first-time college head coaching job without knowing there would be multiple speed bumps along the way.
Though I’m sure when he looks in the mirror every morning while getting ready for work, he asks himself one other question, followed by this statement about his upcoming day.
‘Why didn’t someone warn me about the other nonsense that comes with being a head coach in college? Sweetheart, I’ve got to figure out how to keep my second-string tackle from entering the transfer portal on a random Tuesday’.
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