Savannah Guthrie (2:33)
North Carolina has hired Bill Belichick after winning six Super Bowls in the NFL. Belichick is on to his next challenge and that's coaching in college, which is something he's never done before. And I think that the surprise is, well, he was going to be the NFL's all time victory holder. He would surpass Don Shula. But over the last year and a half, the league's interest in Belichick hasn't been as robust as he probably thought and certainly we thought as well. So he turned his attention to college or maybe college turned its attention to him. But as I said for the last couple of days, I think he realized he was not going to get a job in the NFL. Plenty of other NFL head coaches have found success going to college. Jim Harbaugh with Michigan, Pete Carroll, usc. Nick Saban who didn't coach well with the Dolphins, went to Alabama, although he did well at lsu. So the transition from Belichick, NFL to college football, ACC football, a football program at a basketball school. And there are a lot of people, I think there's a surprising amount of people, maybe more people who have a negative reaction to Bill succeeding than a positive reaction because we hear the same things, his age, relatability with an 18 or 19 year old nil transfer portal. What's he know about the college game? So these are all the things that, and it's fair to question this or at least observe this and give a, you know, reasonable answer of yes or no, he's going to be able to do this. He's the most prepared coach of all time. The fact that he had a 400 page dossier, he went in there and said, hey, here, I'll give you everything about your program, what I want, what I need, assessing the acc. So he's going in prepared. It's not like he's going to go in and go, hey, what's this? Nil, that's name, image and likeness. Oh, now the transfer portal, where is that on campus? Where do, where do the kids come in from on the portal? No, no, it's just kind of a name. It's the transfer portal. Wait, they're getting paid. He's going to be prepared when he goes in. And plus, what is success for Bill Belichick in college? Nine wins, 10 wins. And you're also buying into Bill Belichick. You're buying into Carolina, you're buying into. Yes, they are a basketball school. You got the Jordan brand there as well. It's still powerful with Bill Belichick on the sidelines. He still knows how it's coaching football, whether it's high school, college, pro, you're coaching Football. Nobody is better at adapting quarter to quarter, half to half, game to game, than Bill Belichick in the history of the sport. I have to believe you're going to take this job. He'll be all in on this job, and he knows his son is going to be there with him. He's probably going to bring in a lot of his coaches he had in New England. You're getting Mike Lombardi, who's been around the NFL for decades. He'll be his gm. He's going to bring in experienced people just like Dion did. Remember when Deion got to Colorado, I said, dion will be successful if he brings in really good coaches because he'll be the CEO. And what do you have after one and a half years, two years, Deion has his team at least knocking on the door to be a playoff team next year, and they certainly were this year. Now, do I think that is what Bill's going to do? Well, he's not going to bring in his son, doesn't play quarterback. Is he going to be able to bring in a player like Travis Hunter, who everybody wanted and was going to go to Florida State? I think the key will be, does he get his quarterback just like he had in New England and they kept Tom there. You can't keep your quarterback in college. They'll stay, but maybe they'll stay for four years. Can you get a franchise type quarterback? Because if you go back and listen to what Bill Belichick said on the Pat McAfee show on Monday, he's looking at college football the way he did the NFL. It seems like college football is more like pro football. I've talked to a lot of college coaches about things like the salary cap and putting value on players and negotiating, kind of mixing all that together. So I think there are some similarities from what I've heard. I haven't experienced it firsthand. Okay, what's the downside? He fails. If you're Caroline, you took a shot. Can you imagine that conversation with Mack Brown? Hey, Mack, we're going to go with somebody younger. He's a year younger than you. So you bring in Belichick, the relatability. I don't know how much he has to relate. Oh, is he going to go on the road and recruit? No, he's not. They have something called Zoom all of a sudden. Mom and dad, hey, Coach Belichick is on the Zoom wants to talk to you. I think that's probably pretty powerful. How many other college coaches, Dion Belichick, who else would you put in There and you go, hey, stop everything. Coaches on the phone with me or on a zoom. It's still a powerful brand there. Now, is he going to want to put up with all the smaller things? I don't think he's going to be dealing with the smaller things. He doesn't deal with nil. He probably won't deal with transfer portal. Now everything is going to be run by him. There's no salary cap. You're playing in. The ACC feels like it's up for grabs. If Carolina is getting money together, they're collective. Okay, if I just say to Bill Belichick, just coach. We have everybody else who would take care of other things. Dion doesn't do everything. Deon is a CEO. That's what Bill will be. But Bill is obviously a better coach than Dion. He's not as good a CEO, but he'll be a better coach. Now, the people you put around you, who do you recruit and does this matter to these kids who are 18 or 19? Because if I'm 18 or 19, I may not really care about Bill Belichick. My dad or mom may care. My high school coach may care. I want to get ready to go to the NFL. That's what this is about. And I think Bill going there. Bill is. Bill's got a chip on his shoulder. I truly believe that, hey, Tom did this. And Tom went to Tampa. And meanwhile, I held on for four more years and we were terrible. And yeah, I did make the playoffs with Mac Jones, but it didn't end well. Tom, it feels weird though. Just like Tom had something to prove, at least he felt, hey, I can do this without Bill. Bill wants to prove that he can still be a great coach no matter where he's going. I thought he was going to stay in the NFL if he was going to coach again, but I didn't think he was going and said this. I didn't think he was coaching in the NFL again. I just didn't think he was coaching in college because I didn't know if he like, I just want to coach. And that's what it feels like. And you set your son up. He obviously wants to kind of put in place a system that his son will then inherit in, let's say three years and it'll be successful. And I'm sure Bill will stay on with the program. But I see, you know, far more positives than I do negative. But this whole out of touch thing, I don't know if Bill was ever in touch with the Patriots. You know, it's not like they were like, man, I really know him. And yeah, he's got a great sense of humor. Okay. Relatability. An 18, 19 year old. I don't know what they're going to be asking from Bill. I don't know what Bill is going to be giving them other than, hey, I want to make you a player ready to play in the NFL. That's what they want to hear. How much do I get paid and am I going to play and hopefully I get a chance to play in the NFL. Yes. I'm curious, what kind of player positionally, is most interested in going to North Carolina now? Because if I was a player like, say, like a Jaden Daniels type or something, be like, I don't know if that's the way I want to go, but if I'm a, you know, defensive lineman or offensive lineman even, you know, a linebacker or something, be like, hell, yeah, this is exactly what's going to get me to the NFL. So I'm curious how the team will take shape based on that. Yeah. And I, you know, Bill's whole thing is next guy up. Let's say you have somebody who wants $8 million. And Bill might say, no, we'll find somebody else. I don't think he'll have the patience for that. That he always was next man up with the Patriots and will probably be that way with North Carolina. But who cared about North Carolina prior to this? You know, the last time we talked about him is when they lost to a school named after a founding father. They lost. They gave up 70 points to Jimmy Madison. What do you. That's when we go, oh, my God, they could have scored 100 on North Carolina. Mack Brown's gotta go like, that's it. Nobody else cares. He put him on. He at least put him on the football map. Yes, it's a basketball school, just like Kentucky football, you know, Georgia basketball. Arkansas used to be a football school. Now it feels like it's a basketball school. It does happen. It does. But is it going to change there in North Carolina? It won't. If they win, people are still going to, you know, ask, you know, Hubert Davis, how's the team going to be now? Do you introduce Bill Belichick at a North Carolina basketball game? Right. You got to bring him out. Just don't have him do the Brian Kelly, haven't even won all my game. If he comes up with a Southern accent, I'm going to call BS on Belichick. And what he says is, and he's going to Pull a trestle. And when we play Duke on October 12, we're winning. He gets it. He gets the rivalry. He gets us. He gets us. He knows who we are and what matters. It's just when he says, you know, I saw an article, it's like, hey, he's going to win the press conference. Really? When is Bill won a press conference? I get it. Maybe Pat McAfee unlocked the personality chest that he has the cabinet there. It's like, hey, man, he. That dude is ape. He's a talking hairdo there. No, Bill will talk to football people. He doesn't want to talk to us. He doesn't want to talk to, you know, the media. But I think Bill, we're talking about North Carolina football. That's a win, dog. That's a win. Yes.
