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No one expected the Bill Belichick hire would go like this.
When UNC made the extraordinary move of signing up the so-called greatest football coach ever, there were several schools of thought.
There was excitement and wonderment that a six-time Super Bowl champion head coach would take a college job at a basketball school. The UNC hierarchy involved in the hire believed the multi-million-dollar investment was worth it.
The publicity Belichick got out of the chute was incredible, as the eyes of college football were focused on Chapel Hill. After only four games, the coverage has changed from anticipation to antipathy as sentiment has turned against the new coach.
Belichick is still a national story, but the dearth of his first team and struggles on the field have given way to speculation over what will happen in the long run, which some pundits say will be a short run.
The roster he and Mike Lombardi put together in a very short window has a mixture of good players, potentially good players and guys who are playing because they are the best they have.
The overall strategy is sound for a team without a lot of talent and no quarterback with star potential. Play ball control, build the running game to work the clock and depend on the defense to keep the score low and close. But the reviews are more complicated by the media and fans watching from around the world.
James Dator of Yahoo Sports believes his chances of “figuring it out” are slim and that fault lies with Belichick himself. “The man who seemingly always had the answer in the NFL is completely lost in college football” and he says it will get worse before it gets better.
That could turn out to be 100 percent wrong by the end of this season or in his second or third year, if he stays that long. The early speculation that he would not last at Carolina has returned and, right or wrong, the program has already been headlined a disaster.
Along with that comes opinions from near and far that Chapel Bill looks disinterested in his new job. In the NFL, Dator wrote he “would never, ever spend time while his team was warming up chatting with his significant other on the sidelines and becoming a meme.”
The university is now under fire about his hiring being rushed through a closed session of the Trustees when the policy, if not a state law, says such a move has to be discussed in open session. It is a mistake the Board of Trustees has apparently made before.
There is a video floating around of Chancellor Lee Roberts effusing over how happy they are with the football program, but the date of that video is long before the season started.
Can Belichick turn all this around on the field and off? In places where the jury is still out, the chances seem smaller by the day.
Featured image via Associated Press/Chris Seward
Art Chansky is a veteran journalist who has written ten books, including best-sellers “Game Changers,” “Blue Bloods,” and “The Dean’s List.” He has contributed to WCHL for decades, having made his first appearance as a student in 1971. His “Sports Notebook” commentary airs daily on the 97.9 The Hill WCHL and his “Art’s Angle” opinion column runs weekly on Chapelboro.Chapelboro.com does not charge subscription fees, and you can directly support our efforts in local journalism here. Want more of what you see on Chapelboro? Let us bring free local news and community information to you by signing up for our newsletter.
