One of ESPN’s more noteworthy discussions on Tuesday centered around the North Carolina Tar Heels historically bad start to the season. Which coincides with NFL great Bill Belichick’s inaugural season with the program. Belichick’s decision to leave the NFL and coach the college program he grew up around was a highly contested decision at the time. Shortly thereafter, the tide began to shift towards optimism.
An Hall of Fame NFL coach taking over a college program, top to bottom. Sentiment was strong for what Belichick could build if he controlled everything, as he did when he was an NFL coach. However, the early returns suggest the program is going through growing pains.
UNC lost their opener to TCU by a score of 48-14. A game that turned heads for how good TCU might be this season. Belichick followed that up with a two-game stretch against Charlotte and Richmond that resulted in reasonable wins.
Since that stretch, the Tar Heels have given up 75 points while only scoring 19 against UCF and Clemson respectively. Through five weeks of regular season games, the product has not been good. However, with a coach like Belichick, it's logical to expect a rough start while reshaping the culture in Belichick's image. Belichick made a name for himself in the NFL by creating a culture. Or more commonly known as “the Belichick way”. That notion did not stop the First Take crew from all but declaring the end of Belichick’s tenure in Chapel Hill.
The video segment begins with Stephen A Smith laughing and egging on Jeff Saturday to join the segment. Saturday seemed very hesitant to even participate. Saturday, a North Carolina alum could even be heard saying “don’t touch me, don’t get near me” as he approached the set. They led the segment with an alarming stat, “the worst start against power 4 competition since the Tar Heels first fielded a team in 1888”. Saturday did his level best to sell hope and optimism, but Paul Finebaum did not buy it.
“Uh… no. You have no hope. Here’s what I can’t get over," Finebaum said, "We’re talking about Bill Belichick who is the greatest NFL coach in history. Right now, Jeff , he’s working towards being the worst coach in college football history. That’s how bad he is. There’s nothing to be happy about. It’s an abject disaster, I feel bad for the guy, because it seemed like a great idea at the time. But who in their right mind would want to play for him?”
Smith pivoted to asking if this is the product of a lack of talent (inability to recruit) or is this an example of a team that just doesn’t know what they’re doing from a lack of coaching? Saturday did his best to give context to the roster flip, but that take loses its footing when Deion Sanders at Colorado had a similar roster flip in 2023.
Sanders only went 4-8 that year with Colorado but had created a great deal of optimism in the first 3 of those 4 wins. Recruiting is the life blood of college football success, but with 70 new transfers, a lot of whom joined in the summer is not extenuating circumstances. A full recruiting class could help make next season better but isn’t exactly an explanation for how UNC has played through five weeks this season
“We walked into this season believing there was a possibility he could return to the NFL because obviously the buyout was reduced from $10 million to $1 million," Smith said "When you could buy him out and he could return to the NFL. The way things are going with North Carolina, no one’s going to want him.”
With the final word on the discussion, Finebaum almost jokingly suggested he (Finebaum) should fire Belichick now and hand the reigns over to Saturday. Saturday dismissed the idea to make another appeal to the camera that there is hope moving forward. This segment doesn’t come at the best time for North Carolina as it was reported earlier in the day the UNC Football and Hulu documentary series had been scrapped.
Up next, Belichick and his Tar Heels travel to Cal (10:30 p.m. ET/ESPN), before welcoming in the 19th-ranked Virginia Cavaliers.
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