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The Tar Heel football coaching search can go one of three ways.
Carolina is looking feverishly for Mack Brown’s replacement, and they want to name him this week as the transfer portal is opening and there are still a few unsigned recruits out there.
The only coach they are talking to who can take the job right now is Bill Belichick, and NFL insider Adam Schefter said the school and the 72-year-old legend are not close to making a deal. That standoff has to be more on UNC’s side with so many unknowns about the six-time Super Bowl champion.
Like Belichick’s succession plan is apparently to bring his son, Steve, the defensive coordinator at the University of Washington, for the same job here, who in 3-5 years would take over for his father. That is an obvious risky move times two. Carolina doesn’t know if Belichick would thrive in his first-ever college job and the Steve Belichick part obviously needs more vetting.
What if it doesn’t go well for Bill, whose first love is the NFL and breaking Don Shula’s all-time record for victories? Would Carolina still want Steve if Bill bombed out or took an NFL job after a year or wanted his son with him?
The second option would be to hire a coach who would miss an upcoming bowl game. Iowa State’s Matt Campbell, who after his team lost badly to Arizona State for the Big 12 championship, talked earnestly about coaching the Cyclones in a bowl game, which turned out to be against Miami in the Pop Tart Bowl on December 28. Doesn’t sound like he would leave before then.
Another coach of interest to Bubba Cunningham is Tulane’s John Sumrall, who lost to Army for the AAC championship and was evasive and fiery when asked about it the day after the game. He has just finished his first year in New Orleans and most coaches find it hard to leave after one season.
The third option is to rely on interim coach Freddie Kitchens and the rest of the Tar Heel staff, who are all under contract to coach in the bowl game. Kitchens may want the permanent job and his candidacy could be judged while he and the assistants ask players who might transfer to wait until the new head coach is named. That would give Cunningham more time to hire someone he wants while the program remains operational for its bowl game.
And there are other candidates besides the 45-year-old Campbell and Sumrall, who is 47. The next coach, hopefully, will stay a long time and pick up where Brown left off as a players’ coach. And what he does with Carolina football over the long run is more important than how he starts.
Brown was always known for winning the press conference with salesmanship and his gift for gab. The new coach can lose a presser if he wins enough games.
Featured image via Associated Press/Michael Dwyer
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.
At first I thought the idea of Belichick was crazy and nothing more than “promotion” by both parties.
However, given what the real problem is at the core of UNC’s football program – recruiting the big in size players at the 4/5 star level – maybe Belichick can solve that one. Those kids are mostly not the scholarly type, not stupid though. They don’t fit in well with a student body that is primarily 14-1600 SAT scorers. But they can, because the students will befriend them, support them, help them along the way. That is, IMO, the biggest problem, getting that level of kid to buy into UNC. Those kids dream of playing in the NFL and few coaches can truly claim the ability to get them there. A siz time super bowl winner can do just that.
Solve the succession issue satisfactorily and I’d be on board.
“Six time”…