The Bill Belichick Football Era at the University of North Carolina. Yeah, oh well that isn’t going like any UNC supporter might have liked. Currently a 4-6 season with two regular season games left, one against Duke and the other N.C. State. That means that more than likely Bill will have an opening season of 4-8. “Lackluster” yeah, that was the word that immediately came to mind.

Now Bill is 73 years old, which makes him the oldest college football coach at this time. The next nearest is 70 years old. I mention his age because with a beginning losing season, is Bill Belichick going to coach more than three more years? He’s making $12 Million dollars a year, and his son, which he brought into the program, Steve, is making $1.3 Million this year and slated to make $1.4 Million next year.

Currently about 25% of the football players were recruited by Belichick. I may be wrong, but it appears that one of the major problems with this year’s team, is that Belichick doesn’t know how to meld a team into a cohesive force, a community, a family.

But then years ago Dean Smith had a similar problem that he never solved either. On Smith’s 1993-94 basketball team, he had some very talented seniors, Montross, Phelps, & Reese. But he also had brought in some very talented new players, Jerry Stackhouse and Rasheed Wallace. They had a 28-7 record in regular season, and they lost in the second round of the NCAA Tournament to Boston College that year. The problem with all that talent was that it never melded into a single unit. The young bucks didn’t respect their elders, and their elders were talented enough to not put up with any crap by the young whipper snappers. So they ended up fighting each other, and losing when they should have easily won.

My solution for that problem would have been simple, but it would have totally gone against Dean Smith’s “Old School” way of doing things. He wanted the whole team to be a unit, not two competing groups within the same team. Dean Smith had a “Blue” and a “White” team of players. He used these two groups in practice and when substituting players during an actual game. He should have put Stackhouse & Wallace on the same group. Then put the senior stars in for a time, and then the other group. Which ever color scored the most points would get to play an additional 5 minutes. That might have run up the game scores because neither group wanted to lose between themselves, let alone against an opposing team. But with the talent he had, they should have won another NCAA Tournament that year.

Okay, so with a losing season his starting year, and a good recruiting season next year. And do you know how difficult it will be to recruit good players to Carolina for next year when everyone knows what has gone on this year? Yeah, this isn’t Belichick pulling new players into a winning New England Patriots franchise. So maybe, hopefully an 8-4 season next year. What would that percentage be for his first two seasons? Oh, yeah 50%. Hmmm… $24 Million for the head coach, and about $2.7 for the defensive coordinator-son, yeah about $27 Million for a 50-50 record. Inspiring, NOT!!!

Even with a major turnaround next season, who would Carolina be able to beat in the ACC Playoff games? And by the third, or fourth years, do you really think they will be able to compete for a national title? From where they are now, once again, NOT!!!

And then after three seasons, and maybe a 66% w/l record, Belichick will leave the Carolina football program in about the same condition as he found it this year. But, hopefully the “high hopefuls” will be about $40 Million wiser as to who might or might not be able to pull off a miracle, even if they were a GOAT in another field of play.

So, Mack Brown got $5 Million his last season at Carolina, and they had a 6-6 season. Still that’s two more games than they currently have, and at less than half the coaching salary.