Bill Belichick interview shows UNC didn't learn a thing from Mack Brown fiasco

As the NFL coaching carousel begins to crank up to speed, speculation has begun to swirl around the most qualified coach not employed by a team: six-time Super Bowl champion Bill Belichick, currently enjoying a year off as a member of the media. Would Belichick wind up with the New York Jets? Or maybe the New York Giants? Would he still want personnel control, and which owner would be willing to give it to him?

But as it turns out, we were barking up the wrong tree. Belichick does in fact want to return to coaching in 2025 ... he just, apparently, wants to do it in the college ranks. According to Grant Hughes of Inside Carolina, the UNC Tar Heels have interviewed the former New England Patriots legend about their head coaching vacancy, one of several candidates the school is considering in the wake of Mack Brown's firing.

At first glance, this might seem like a huge coup for the Heels. This is Bill Belichick we're talking about, after all; the fact that he's considering a college job at all is a shock, much less one at a mid-tier ACC program that just wrapped up a 6-6 regular season and hasn't won a conference title since 1980. But the more you wrap your mind around this idea, the more it seems like a disaster waiting to happen — and like a desperate program once again looking for a splashy quick fix rather than building something sustainable.

Bill Belichick would take North Carolina football from bad to worse

Seriously: Belichick has never coached in the college ranks, having jumped straight from a playing career at Wesleyan to an assistant job with the then-Baltimore Colts. He's never had to recruit before, never walked into a high school and glad-handed a head coach. And we also have no idea how much he's been keeping up with the schematic advancements of the college game, much less things like NIL and the transfer portal. And can you imagine Belichick interfacing with a high-powered booster, or taking calls on a weekly radio show?

We've seen this sort of hire backfire spectacularly before. In fact, North Carolina has to look no further than the last few years at their own program; desperate to find some footing in the ACC, the Heels brought Brown back for a second go-around, and after an initial bump, a distinct lack of energy initially left the team exactly where it had started. Why would Belichick be any different?

The best case you can make for him is as a glorified CEO, making smart hires and letting them go to work. But since when has Belichick been able to delegate? This is a man who got run out of New England in large part because he refused to cede control over any aspect of the organization. And now he's expected to hire a general manager that knows how to build a recruiting operation, or an up-and-coming offensive coordinator running a version of the Air Raid? UNC has long been considered a sleeping giant in the sport, in a fertile area for talent and armed with plenty of money but with no idea how to take advantage of either. They got themselves here by wanting all sizzle and no steak, and they're about to make the same mistake once again.