If you think Bill Belichick can’t win at UNC, you’re missing what’s most important

There isn’t a single former New England Patriots player who has said this is a good idea.

And there are many of them in the media.

Tom Brady said he couldn’t imagine Bill Belichick in the college ranks. Rob Gronkowski seemed to agree. Julian Edelman absolutely agreed.

“No,” Brady said on FOX NFL Sunday. “I think there’s a lot of things he can do. He’s tremendous. Even showing his personality.

“Getting out on the recruiting trail … that would be frightening.”

What would Belichick’s recruiting pitch even look like?

“Listen, you really want to come here? I mean, we don’t really want you anyway, but I guess you could come. We’ll figure out if you can play,” Brady said, imitating Belichick.

Three days later, the 72-year-old Belichick reportedly signed a three-year, $30 million deal to be the head coach of the North Carolina Tar Heels, who just fired 73-year-old Mack Brown.

Former Patriots running back Damien Harris said Belichick’s management style was antiquated in the NFL. On the “Until Sunday” podcast, Harris said, “Bill did not really evolve with the times of the NFL. … Bill is a control freak.” Harris said the college game changes more rapidly than the NFL game — and that Belichick couldn’t catch up.

“You want more NIL money? Worry about your history grade,” current Patriots cornerback Jonathan Jones told reporters Monday when asked about Belichick coaching a player in college.

Neither quarterback Brian Hoyer nor center David Andrews thought Belichick made sense in college. On their podcast “The Quick Snap,” they pointed to the day-to-day logistics. Belichick is the king of meetings. He loves long lectures. That can’t happen in college, where the NCAA limits the amount of time coaches spend with their players. Andrews said he never felt like he could leave a meeting with Belichick — even to use the bathroom.

“[I couldn’t] get up and leave during one of Bill’s tirades. … You have breakfast. You’re trying to hydrate. You’re sitting there like, ‘Dude, I’m going to explode on this floor,'” Andrews said.

But here’s what multiple players have also said that makes me think — maybe — he’ll be good at this. Gronkowski, Andrews and Hoyer all talked about Belichick’s negotiations. Andrews and Hoyer, in particular, discussed how difficult it was to work out a contract with the former Patriots coach. And here’s why: He always bypassed their agent. Belichick called his players to work with them on their deals, even when they didn’t want to talk to him.

“During my free agency, he called me and was like, ‘Alright, we’re done here. This is all we’ve got.’ And I was like, ‘Thanks, Coach. Thanks for everything.’ Now I had been on the team six years,” Andrews said. “Captain for four years, three years — whatever it is. And it was a 10-second phone call.”

But guess what? Andrews only ever played for the Patriots. He re-signed with Belichick. Same thing happened with Hoyer. And their negotiations were even quicker. Belichick turned down the backup QB’s demands at first. They hung up. Just minutes later, Belichick called back and — stubbornly — gave in. Hoyer was back in the Patriots’ facility to sign the deal the next day.

“It was like hugs and it was — less than 24 hours ago you told me you were moving on,” Hoyer said. “I think that’s a hard part in college, because all of the kids are going to be told how great they are when they visit Alabama or Georgia.”

And yet Belichick convinced Hoyer to join the Patriots three different times.

It actually sounds like Belichick was good at recruiting. He got the guys he wanted — sometimes getting them on his own terms. Maybe the players had mixed feelings about him, but ultimately, the coach got what he wanted.

It sounds like he’ll run UNC the same way.

“If I was in a college program, the college program would be a pipeline to the NFL. It would be a professional program with training, nutrition, scheme and coaching techniques that would transfer to the NFL,” Belichick said on “The Pat McAfee Show.” “I feel very confident that I have the contacts in the NFL to pave the way for those players who would have the ability to compete in the NFL. They would be ready for it. It would be an NFL program, but not at the NFL level.

“It would be geared toward developing time management, discipline, structure and life skills, regardless of whether it’s for the NFL or somewhere in business.”

And in the era of NIL — big money — Belichick is as well-suited as anyone to run the business side of things. College football finances look more and more like those at an NFL franchise. There may not be a salary cap, but there’s absolutely a collective and a certain amount of funds around which Belichick can build. That’s not that different.

The transfer portal isn’t so different from free agency. It’s totally a headache in terms of retaining players, but it’s also a gateway to an immediate rebuild — faster than in the NFL.

And if you think players don’t want to play for Belichick at this phase of his career, you’re crazy. All he’d have to do is wear his six Super Bowl rings to the meeting. Just look at JuJu Smith-Schuster, who signed with New England at the tail end of the coach’s tenure. Belichick had no (recent) history for maximizing receivers. And yet Smith-Schuster said the coach was the reason he went to New England. That’s something similar to what will have to happen at UNC.

Finally, if you think Belichick is out beyond his depth, you don’t really understand Belichick, who will surely be as rigorous and thorough before taking this job as he was in preparing for any given week in the NFL. Belichick has Jedd Fisch, a former assistant, at the University of Washington. Fisch employs (for now) Belichick’s son Stephen. Bill O’Brien, Belichick’s former offensive coordinator, is the head coach at Boston College. Joe Judge is an assistant at Ole Miss. Some of those guys are going to go with Belichick to UNC — perhaps along with Matt Patricia and Josh McDaniels, the tightest members of the coach’s inner circle. Say what you want about those guys as head coaches, they’re good coordinators. (Except for Patricia on offense.)

The biggest question I have for Belichick in college is on offense. We saw that without Brady, the coach couldn’t survive in the NFL. Quarterback doesn’t matter quite as much in college, but it absolutely matters. And offensive system matters most. So where will Belichick get his offensive coordinator? Will it be McDaniels? Or — perhaps the smarter move — would Belichick pluck someone from Steve Sarkisian’s staff in Texas (or something similar)? Belichick needs someone who understands the college game from an offensive standpoint. That’ll get the team off to a strong start. 

That’s the coach’s most important hire, and it’ll probably dictate whether this is a roaring success or a raging dumpster fire.

The last we saw of Belichick, things were bad. Really bad. 

But that won’t be the last we see of Belichick. And I think he’s in it to win it. I think the coach is highly motivated to end his career on a high note — regardless of whether he ends up with the all-time career wins total in the NFL. He wants to coach again. He wants to teach again. 

He can do all that in the media, but there’s one thing missing.

He wants to win again. I think he can do that at UNC. And Belichick does, too.

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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