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Bill Belichick answered the question everyone’s been asking.
College football has moved toward the pro model through revenue share with the players, NIL that is now more like sponsorship endorsements and a transfer portal that is basically free agency. So Belichick and his general manager Michael Lombardi have been happy with the transition.
The one thing that they have very little experience with is high school recruits and young college players trying to get physically prepared to play at the next level. Belichick said he looks forward to recruiting and coaching younger kids because they develop faster.
“It’s not the same,’’ Belichick said last week, “but it’s been a lot of fun. Yes, the kids are younger, but they are very driven and made a lot of improvement. I’d say the improvement from the 18 to 22 range is a lot different than the rate of improvement from say 21 or 22 to 25 or 26, not that those kids don’t improve too.”
He mentioned Tom Brady and Julian Edelman, two unheralded college players who became all-pros and Super Bowl champions.
“Four years ahead of that, we’ve seen guys whose speed, their strength, their explosive numbers, and their football skills just improved dramatically,” he said. “I was really amazed at how much the team improved in 15 practices this spring. It was similar to what I saw last year in Washington.”
During his one-year hiatus from coaching, Belichick spent spring practice and training camp at the University of Washington, where his son Steve was defensive coordinator for the Huskies and came to Carolina with his dad in the same position.
“It was very exciting to see the type of improvement those kids made last year at Washington, and I saw it between spring ball and training camp,” he said. “I went out there in the spring, then I came back for training camp, and that’s where I noticed their improvement when I was there.”
So now after a full spring and offseason workouts, the Hoodie is excited to see how the Tar Heels look and how much they’ve improved, both physically and from a football technical standpoint. He and his almost all-new coaching staff have to bring together a team that puts 11 guys on the field who know what they’re doing and can communicate and count on each other and execute against good competition, according to the new head coach, who has to deal with a lot of different people on a college campus.
“It’s a little bit different,” he said. “And honestly, what some seniors in high school are interested in is a little bit different than what some of the moms and dads are interested in. So those situations are all unique; in the end we’re here to develop players both on and off the field.”
Another question Belichick was asked was about academics on campus, something he has never had to worry about in the NFL. We’ll talk about his answer later this week.
Featured image via Associated Press/Aaron Beard
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.
