So today’s question – is the coaching leap from the pros to the college game a bad one? Consider…
Today, in “it could always be a lot worse”, read down the thread from this Twix post:
One of Belichick’s questionable hires is getting canned for supposed “extra benefit” violations.
Talk about raising your hand and admitting you don’t what in the hell you’re doing. In the age of NIL, how does one get in trouble for extra benefits? Seriously? Couldn’t Bill have called Nick Saban and asked him for an honest assessment of what he was getting in to coming from the pros to the college game? To say the least, Bill isn’t doing the most:
Of all the most horrendous of things happening on Chapel Hill, it’s really unfortunate in that it’s killing the year’s worth of play for several student athletes. Don’t be surprised if someone doesn’t intervene and grant additional eligibility year options for some of the current Tarheel athletes:
“It started with recruits coming in acting entitled to certain things,” a source said. “It was about them individually, not the team. It was about me and what I was going to do.”
It’s common in college football for players who transfer to get paid more than players who stay, but according to multiple sources, Belichick and his staff haven’t done enough to unite the players. There are multiple examples of preferential treatment for transfers that have added to the discord in the team.
According to several sources, some Belichick-recruited transfers have preferential parking for themselves and their parents, as well as more tickets for games. Khmori House and Thaddeus Dixon played for Belichick’s son, Steve Belichick, at the University of Washington. Their names come up repeatedly when talking to sources about preferential treatment. Dixon’s family has field access on game days, something that no other family is believed to have.
According to sources, there’s a board in the UNC football facility that lists people who have missed workouts and class. Some Belichick-recruited players repeatedly show up on the list but have not had their playing time affected.
Needless to say, blood is in the water and popular opinion is that Belichick will be heading out of Chapel Hill and back to the Hamptons within the month. Can’t say I’m sad for him, as he seems like a prick, anyway, and the still lingering PTSD from the Falcons losing a 28-3 lead to the Patriots compels me to spare no sympathy, either.
So today’s question – is the coaching leap from the pros to the college game a bad one? I quickly remember Marion Campbell coming to the Bulldogs many moons ago to disasterous results, and while Saban when from pros to college to pros and back to college again, I feel he’s the anomaly, not the norm. And Harbaugh…yeesh. Having to lie, cheat, and steal your way to beating your rival and going undefeated isn’t the best argument for a case.
Have at it in the comments.
“In the age of NIL, how does one get in trouble for extra benefits?”
That was my first thought when I read this.
I would argue that Bill has done more damage to that program in a shorter time than any other coach in college football history. I read another article that said that when he passes a player in the hallway, he just says “Hi” and walks on. He doesn’t meet individually with any of them. And his son, the vaunted defensive guru DC, doesn’t know the names of over half of the defensive players on the team.
Cue up the classic dumpster fire image and slap an NC on it.
Why is this a surprise to people? As a head coach, Belichick never won anything without Tom Brady as his starting QB. His overall NFL record is 333-178 overall, (83-104 without Brady as QB1 & 250-74 with Brady as QB1). Belichick only had 2 winning seasons out of 10 without Brady as his starting QB in his NFL head coaching career and people thought that he could walk into college football and win the National Championship?
There are some people who thought this. There is a reasonably sizable contingent, myself included, that saw this coming for the very reasons you sight. It would be wise of North Carolina to bail now and avoid further long term damage.
I think it probably comes down to the personality of the coach and what he is good at and what he isn’t so good at. Carroll did well at both. As did Jimmy Johnson.
I think being a college coach generally takes a broader number of skills to navigate than the NFL. No boosters to please. Less fan interaction. No fund raising. No recruiting. Players are professional fungible instruments to be traded, not immature human beings who need to be managed/coddled along with their stage moms/dads.
Timing also helps.
Lots easier to arrive at Alabama in 2007 or Georgia in 2016 than to arrive at Alabama in 2024.
The more losing a team has been doing the more of an asshole you can be. The more winning, the more entitled the fan base.
Belichick flamed out in Cleveland, his first HC job, in large part because he couldn’t win enough to overcome how he was perceived to have treated an aging Bernie Kosar, who was to NE Ohio what Stetson is to us.
Deserved or not.
So again, timing/luck plays a big part.
My perception of Belichick is that he made the move for all the wrong reasons: ego. He is so desperate to prove that he made a difference in NE and that it wasn’t all Brady he just keeps making it look worse and worse.
Bill’s24yearoldchick is the one running the team and his old ass in the ground. Has North Carolina been fleeced or what?
whit1356 ⬆️
SEC shorts hit it pretty well this week….
Boinking a 24 year old hard body has it’s upside, till she’s done…
“He’s fooling himself”
-A wise Sooth
Test
This hire tops Yellow Wood and Lowder, something that should be impossible to do.
Imagine that, North Carolina said hold my “craft beer” and shit on the program.
When Bill was hired I had a hard time imagining how (i) a 73 year old coach with an infamous prickly disposition would relate to 18-22 year old, largely immature, young men, and (ii) a man who’d never been required to build a “culture” that is necessary in the college game would build that culture in Chapel Hill (even with a transfer portal).
In the pros, as everyone knows, playing is a job. And that job comes with performance standards. And those performance standards affect not only your own longevity in the game (including your salary), but possibly the longevity of your teammates to an extent. Culture is built by being accountable to your teammates and your teammates not putting up with things that might affect their status as an NFL player. While the head coach in the NFL instills aspects of a culture it is the players and team leaders that enforce that and demand it from everyone.
In the new college game, players can and do get paid regardless of performance and regardless of the successes and failures of the team. There is no inherent accountability in the college game. Successful head coaches in the new college game, like Kirby or Dan Lanning, instill a culture of accountability through sheer force and determination. I’m certainly no seer, but I could never imagine Bill at 73 years old leading young men in the way that is required to be even marginally successful in college.
I was gonna make a joke about Bill being old with septua/octo/nonagenarians running the whole damn country? Running a bottom tier ACC team shouldn’t seem out of the ordinary ’cause 70 is the new 40… but that’s playpen territory and I don’t want to get voted off the island.
Do believe you’ve earned a GTP mulligan for dipping your toes into the afore mentioned territory…besides, if you ever rise to the level of being voted off, there’s a tiki bar on the next horizon…GO DAWGS!!
What a shame.
Anyway, he’d be great at Florida taking over for Sunbelt Billy.
Does that Super Bowl result still trigger me? Yep. #FTMF
This went exactly like I thought it would, except worse. I only wish it would have been one of our SEC rivals who jumped on this live grenade.
The worst thing he did was recruit FCS and lower level kids no one else was recruiting. That leads to losing games, which leads to bitching and moaning. Good riddance.
During the interview process, while his gurl friend pole danced, nekkid mind you, at least 8-9 boards members voted to hire, before they knew WTF just went down…having a babe on your arm has it’s advantages, till it don’t and she’ll move on just like unc will….
The premise was interesting if not too soon. Run the college program just like an NFL scout team and get the reputation as a feeder to the show. But 18 year olds are different. It’s NIL not negotiated salaries. Open free agency. Thus no accountability and no culture as many have pointed out. Plus at 73 Bill not only didn’t sit with recruit Mamas for three years he can’t relate to these kids anyway and vice versa. I still think an NFL GM and asst coach combo will end up at a school and try this again.
Meanwhile…fuck you and the Patriots forever Billy. Hope your little fangirl cheats on you soon.