By Doc Kennedy
University of North Carolina head football coach Bill Belichick.
It is still somewhat surreal to know this is something that exists. It is beyond amazing that the search to replace the most successful coach in Carolina football history ended with arguably the most successful coach in NFL history. In one of the most chaotic years in college football in recent memory, a six-time Super Bowl-winning coach taking his first college job at 72 years old absolutely tracks.
The story of how Belichick ended up in Chapel Hill is still unfolding, but his introductory press conference wasn’t just an announcement of a new football coach. It was also the announcement of a new chapter in how UNC is going to approach big-time sports, representing a vastly different way of doing business than the staid manner in which the Carolina community has generally approached such things.
The past couple of years have completely changed the college football landscape. How a football program is run in 2025 hardly resembles what it looked like just five years ago. The transfer portal, NIL, and revenue sharing are on their way to rendering the sport unrecognizable from what old-school coaches and sportswriters who long for the good old days of college athletics are used to. Given this new college football environment in which programs are run much more like an NFL front office, with roster management and revenue allocation being so important, this Belichick idea is just so crazy it might work.
Talent acquisition and roster management have changed significantly just in the past two to three years. The importance of high school recruiting has been reduced while navigating the transfer portal is paramount.
Much has been made of imagining Belichick sitting in a 17-year-old recruit’s living room, but he hinted at his press conference that his job as head coach would be more as an on-campus closer. Belichick has taken a key step in embracing this brave new world of college football by hiring former NFL general manager Michael Lombardi as UNC’s football general manager.
The most visible change in Carolina football under Belichick will simply be his presence. ESPN, ACC Network, NFL Network and many local channels in the big North Carolina TV markets carried out his introductory press conference. It is the UNC version of the Deion Sanders effect at Colorado, which brought eyes and attention to the program because of the head coach. And in an era where players are essentially free to switch teams at any time, rumors are already flying about players reaching out who want to play for a legend like Belichick.
Perhaps the most important development in the Belichick courtship is the fundamental change in UNC’s willingness to adapt to the new financial realities of college sports, particularly football. Carolina has long had a reputation for being frugal when it comes to spending on athletics and the support it receives from donors.
Carolina athletics has long produced Cadillac results on Chevrolet money, as UNC’s athletic expenditures have generally been in the middle of the pack nationally. One of the challenges Bubba Cunningham has faced is separating donors from their dollars in a time when NIL rules the roost.
A key concern in moving football to the next level was if UNC was willing, both programmatically and through its donors, to spend the kind of money that it takes to be among the top-tier programs. The Belichick hire and its accompanying commitments are an emphatic yes. Belichick’s salary will be comfortably in the top level of college football, and the staffing spend is reported to be in the top five in the country. This new willingness to put dollars to work also seems to trickle down to basketball, where it has been reported that Carolina matched the $5 million top recruit A.J. Dybantsa was commanding (although he ultimately chose BYU).
So, you can officially count me as Bill-pilled. Obviously, Belichick will be a short-term solution, given he is a septuagenarian, but if he installs a model of a modern college football program, he will have prepared the Tar Heels for a very different future than even a few months ago. And even if Belichick struggles on the field, it will likely be very difficult to put the genie back in the bottle with the level of commitment to football. Plus, as UNC prepares for the possibility of a post-ACC future, showing this level of willingness to step up to the big time will make them even more attractive to suitors from the Big Ten or SEC.
Meanwhile, get ready for eyes on Chapel Hill and Kenan Stadium like never before, and get your scissors ready to cut off your hoodie sleeves. The Bill Belichick era of Carolina football is here.
Doc Kennedy is an alum, longtime UNC fan, and former high school and college basketball coach who wrote for Tar Heel Blog for years.
Photo via @UNCFootball
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