College Football

Will Bill Belichick succeed at North Carolina? We break down his biggest challenges

Published Dec. 16, 2024 12:26 p.m. ET

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RJ Young

FOX Sports National College Football Analyst

Henry McKenna

NFL Reporter

College football just inherited one of the most successful and controversial coaches in NFL history. Bill Belichick may not like headlines, but he certainly makes them wherever he goes. And that will no doubt continue at North Carolina.

This is a fascinating moment to see if Belichick, a square peg, can squeeze himself into college football's NIL-sized black hole.

College football is more of a business than it's ever been, which is probably what Belichick — a business-like coach — sees as an opportunity. And still, it's easy to wonder if the coach is diving into a world that he doesn't know enough about. It's anyone's guess whether he can build something in the model of what he did for two decades with the Patriots. But he made it clear that's his intent: to build a pro program in college football.

To break down what that might look like, FOX Sports National College Football Analyst RJ Young and NFL reporter Henry McKenna, who covered Belichick and the Patriots for years, dive into what the six-time Super Bowl champion faces at UNC. And where it could go right — or wrong.

1. What do you believe is the biggest challenge Bill Belichick will face moving from the NFL to college?

RJ Young: Skepticism within the sport is his biggest challenge. It's not whether he's a good coach that will be questioned, but how long he might be at UNC. Belichick is one of the best NFL coaches who has ever lived, certainly the best ever in the salary cap era. However, at 72, he's a relative novice in this sport.

[RELATED: Bill Belichick at UNC introduction: ‘I didn't come here to leave’]

The desire for UNC to hire Belichick begins first with name recognition, and we've seen that work with coaches who have less experience coaching college football. However, the traits that make Belichick great are still forming in college football. An unprecedented amount of roster turnover, managing a salary cap and talent evaluation are skills he not only possesses but is renowned for. That might not be enough. But it is enough to begin a build.

What made Belichick's close friend Nick Saban into the best college football coach ever was his unique ability to push the rules of recruiting and development to their limits. In an age when college football has and will look more like the NFL, perhaps Belichick can do the same to bring UNC to heights heretofore unseen.

Henry McKenna: Meetings. That's what former and current Patriots players have told me could be an issue. In New England, Belichick was famous for scheduling a 30-minute, full-team meeting in the mornings — only to have those meetings last 90 minutes. They were culture-setters. And Belichick's mood would be fierce, with the coach sometimes going on tirades that made players feel like they couldn't even leave for a bathroom break. 

So there are two problems there, at least. Belichick will have only eight hours per week to meet with players at UNC, per NCAA rules. And he might lose his players if he rips into them for 90 minutes the morning after a game. With professionals, that critical approach is a part of the job. For college students, it might come across as grating, particularly when the transfer portal annually hangs a golden carrot for players to walk out the door and never come back.

In his opening press conference, Belichick said he was excited to get more time on the field with players by NCAA rules. That's where he feels like he can make up the time he'll lose off the field. But I'm not sure that I buy it. The Patriots built their championships around preparation. They outworked other teams off the field more than anything else. I just don't see how that's a cornerstone in the same way in college.

Did Bill Belichick make the right move by taking the job at UNC?

2. NIL has become such a large part of today's college football landscape. What are the keys for Belichick to succeed in that area while also being able to coach the team on the field?

RJ Young: Name, image and likeness equating to dollars is all about how much money people are willing to spend to be associated with a name, an image or a likeness. The bet by North Carolina is that there are quite a few people and corporations willing to invest in UNC athletics — not just football — because Belichick coaches the Tar Heels.

Leveraging those opportunities alongside Belichick's previous NFL success in order to recruit the best players in the country is foundational for any would-be edifice of excellence in Chapel Hill. There is no college football coach — nor has there been — with six Super Bowl rings and a claim to coaching the best player the NFL has ever seen in Tom Brady. It's time UNC put a dollar amount on what that's worth and then found out how large its NIL collective can grow.

Tom Brady on Bill Belichick becoming UNC's coach: 'It blew me away'

[RELATED: Why Tom Brady said Bill Belichick taking the UNC job 'blew me away']

Henry McKenna: Can he win right away? In the NFL, that cured a lot of the other ills that cropped up in New England. When it came to finances and transactions, Belichick was infamously ruthless about turning over his roster when a player seemed to be aging out — or his behavior and/or work ethic no longer matched what the team needed. When the team traded Randy Moss, it kept winning. It was the same when the team parted ways with Wes Welker, Rodney Harrison, Mike Vrabel, Richard Seymour, Logan Mankins and so many others.

Despite that ruthless approach, Belichick was still able to recruit players and even to convince them to take less money. How? They would have the opportunity to chase a ring — and to play with Tom Brady.

But when the Patriots started losing and the coach parted ways with Brady, Belichick lost his shine. Right now, his reputation isn't what it was. He's at UNC because he didn't think interest would come in the NFL during this hiring cycle. So if he can't get UNC off to a hot start, then his lack of bedside manner will be even harder for players to tolerate — whether it's in NIL negotiations, on the recruiting trail or during transfer-portal discussions.

Belichick can only afford to have an apathetic approach to players' demands if he's winning.

[RELATED: After talk with Bill Belichick, 4-Star QB Bryce Baker sticks with UNC commitment]

3. We've seen examples of coaches going from the NFL to college and vice versa. When you look at the path Belichick has taken to North Carolina, is there any parallel you can draw from this move?

RJ Young: There are those obvious figures like Jimmy Johnson, Barry Switzer and Pete Carroll. All of them were head coaches in the NFL and at the Power 4 level. Each won at least one Super Bowl and a national title. 

But what Belichick is attempting to do is more like what Deion Sanders has done at Colorado. Belichick is a coach with a once-in-a-lifetime résumé but with no head-coaching experience in college who will take over a program that lacks an identity apart from some success with Mack Brown. He's building an NFL-style coaching staff and hopes to hit the ground running with a roster culled from the transfer portal. It took Sanders one year at Colorado to get it right. After a 4-8 first season, his Buffaloes finished 9-3 and produced a Heisman Trophy winner in Year 2.

I dare Bill Belichick to do better.

Julian Edelman reacts to North Carolina head coach hire

Henry McKenna: I think Belichick would like his move to UNC to be similar to Nick Saban's transition from the NFL to college football. And I don't just mean that from a winning standpoint. I mean that from a culture-setting standpoint. Belichick and Saban are best friends. They built their programs in a similar fashion. And while Saban ultimately ran away from the headaches of NIL and the transfer portal, Belichick is running toward it. He is going to have a large staff to help him handle the rigors of it. He's going to run his program like a business. And he has long been a shrewd manager of assets, one obsessed with finding loopholes and/or rules that can work in his favor. There should be plenty in a still-baking system like NIL.

I think the comparisons to Deion Sanders are interesting, because there's a sense of football celebrity. But Deion has really bought into the individualism of college football and NIL. Belichick won't. Think of it this way: Deion allowed his players to put their Instagram handles on their jerseys; Belichick wouldn't even let his rookies pick their jersey numbers for the first three months, forcing them to practice in numbers assigned by the team. That's why Belichick's former players feel he has to change. 

But will he? Can he?

RJ Young is a national college football writer and analyst for FOX Sports and the host of the podcast "The Number One College Football Show." Follow him on Twitter at @RJ_Young and subscribe to "The RJ Young Show" on YouTube.

Prior to joining FOX Sports as an NFL reporter and columnist, Henry McKenna spent seven years covering the Patriots for USA TODAY Sports Media Group and Boston Globe Media. Follow him on Twitter at @henrycmckenna.

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