For the second time this week, the Tar Heel have met with legendary NFL head coach Bill Belichick about their head coaching vacancy.
Following a report yesterday from Inside Carolina that Belichick had interviewed via zoom earlier this week, CBS Sports NFL reporter Jonathan Jones has confirmed that the two sides met again, this time in person, on Thursday in Manhattan.
While Jones seems to think that this is still Belichick trying to signal that he is not going to be shut out of this coaching cycle and that he still has the energy to coach, the reports from Ollie Connolly, who writes an NFL newsletter for The Read-Optional, are a little more concerning.
Connolly says sources are telling him that Bill Belichick’s negotiations with UNC involve a guarantee that his son, Stephen Belichick, will be named the coach in waiting upon him taking the job. According to him, UNC is open to this idea and that this is not a “leverage for NFL offers” and Belichick is seriously considering the move because it involves a future for his son.
Both of these reports are starting to point to Belichick being a legitimate candidate for the job and not just a move to prop up the job for other candidates.
I still stick by the thoughts that it would be a disastrous hire for the program to replace an older coach that we didn’t really think got his message through to kids of this generation on game days to hire someone that is currently 72 and may have the same issues. Hiring a coach who is not even a year younger than Brown would be irresponsible, especially when you consider he has never coached at the college level. Belichick had plenty of success at the NFL level, but even that tapered off at the end. Connolly is reporting that Belichick would hire someone to handle NIL, recruiting and transfer portal stuff, something that is far from an ideal system when it comes to college coaching. The coach-in-waiting situation is also really hard to get behind considering Steven is a bit of an unknown despite some decent success this year in his first season at Washington. To me, finding a young defensive mind should be the direction that the program goes in, but it feels like the focus is more about creating immediate buzz than about building a sustainable program that can compete year in and year out.
Irregaurdless of not having previous college experience he’s coached in the NFL for many years and the college game has turned into a pro set offense and who better to prepare these young athletes to be prepared to enter the next level and be successful at it as well.. I think with his reputation alone he will attract the top tier players from around the country … like him or not I believe he would be a great fit in Chapel Hill!!!