UNC Tar Heels football coach Bill Belichick is in boiling water in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Comparatively, Colorado Buffaloes football coach Deion Sanders may as well be in an ice bath in Boulder.
As USA Today’s Brent Schrotenboer reports, Coach Prime is essentially on a lifetime contract and can stick around at the University of Colorado Boulder for as long as he likes, given his 3-0 start in the 2023 season and the 9-3 finish in 2024.
Travis Hunter, the No. 1 recruit in the Class of 2022, who followed Coach Prime from Jackson State to CU, won the Heisman Trophy and went No. 2 overall in the 2025 NFL draft, certainly helps Sanders’ case.
Belichick, on the other hand, is already on the hot seat after uncompetitive losses to the TCU Horned Frogs, UCF Knights, and Clemson Tigers. His brand of “Daddy Ball” has not led to on-field success like Sanders’s has, and his girlfriend, Jordon Hudson, has become part of his coaching administration.
“Every new coach has a honeymoon phase — a time of newlywed love not to be overcome by rain clouds early in the marriage. In Sanders’ case, he started with such a bang at Colorado in 2023 — an improbable 3-0 start — it still buys him goodwill to this day, almost like he proved what he can do already and just needs to sustain it now. Because of that and his 9-4 season last year, he’s arguably still in the honeymoon phase with much of the Colorado fan base,” Schrotenboer wrote.
“By contrast, Belichick is 2-3 after opening with a 48-14 loss to TCU Sept. 1. He has lost three games to Power Four opponents by at least 25 points each. The honeymoon is over already and even has led to speculation recently Belichick and North Carolina might soon part ways. He denied it on Monday.”
Coach Prime transformed the Buffs into the most must-see television in college football for two years. If Belichick’s Tar Heels are must-see to anyone, it’s either a hate-watch or a curiosity-watch to see how badly UNC will be beaten against a Power 4 opponent.
Sanders has earned his seat’s temperature. So has Belichick.