MIAMI GARDENS, FLORIDA – JANUARY 09: Head coach Bill Belichick of the New England Patriots looks on during warm ups prior to the game against the Miami Dolphins at Hard Rock Stadium on January 09, 2022 in Miami Gardens, Florida. (Photo by Michael Reaves/Getty Images)
Bill Belichick is back in coaching! Wednesday he became the head coach of the North Carolina Tar Heels. He agreed to a 3 year deal reportedly worth $30 million dollars. At the age of 72, and one complete season out of the NFL so far, means Belichick will not not get 14 more wins to catch Don Shula's all-time NFL wins record. Maybe that record is not important to him. Maybe being the winningest Super Bowl coach with 6 titles trumps that mark in his mind.
Perhaps no NFL teams want to hire him and give up the control he desired. There are three NFL coaching vacancies right now and that number could triple by next month. No NFL teams have reached out to Belichick to guage his interest even though they all would be allowed to do so. He is a free agent so any conversations would not be tampering. Even Belichick is surprised in the lack of interest.
BILL BELICHICK IS BACK
So Belichick had to make a decision: Let the current college coaching cycle come and go and risk missing out on all NFL gigs next month and be out of coaching two straight seasons. Or get back in coaching now even if that means taking a college job. The North Carolina Tar Heels called and now Bill Belichick is back in coaching.
We have a lot of questions. Let's start with recruiting 17 year olds. Will Belichick go house to house and sit on family room couches and ask kids to play for him? Word is Deion Sanders has never done that at Colorado. Kids come to him. Will kids want to come play for the man that coached Tom Brady or will they shy away because he seems to be a bit of a curmudgeon? Will he be able to spot 16 and 17 year old talent? He struggled to identify college talent in his last several years with the Patriots. In fact his last few teams were completely void of true talent.
How will he handle the new business side of college sports with NIL, revenue sharing, and transfer portals? These are the reasons Nick Saban, Chip Kelly, and Jeff Hafley left their lucrative head coaching jobs. Time will tell. But for now the ACC better get ready because Bill Belichick is back in coaching!
For more college football talk and analysis tune in each weekday to Craig Shemon and Company on ESPN Southwest Florida from 2-6pm.
