UNC Football Catch-all | Bill Belichick Era underway

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SnoopRob said:
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In all seriousness, we will be one of the best-coached and best-prepared teams in the country this fall, which will be very important considering the talent level of our roster has not been significantly upgraded. I understand why everyone is excited to see this whole Belichick experiment play out, but I'm extremely skeptical. Would love to be wrong, obviously.
 
CFordUNC said:
In all seriousness, we will be one of the best-coached and best-prepared teams in the country this fall, which will be very important considering the talent level of our roster has not been significantly upgraded. I understand why everyone is excited to see this whole Belichick experiment play out, but I'm extremely skeptical. Would love to be wrong, obviously.
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I agree that our talent hasn't been significantly upgraded, but also don't hold that against BB because he was hired so late in the portal process (much less the HS recruiting process).

My hunch is that a lot of the HS players we brought in under BB in the 2025 class will end up transferring out in a couple of years, unless they're happy being primarily on special teams. But they'll be great for practice while they're here and, hopefully, a few will be coached up into something better than their ranking and we'll hang on to those guys.
 
CFordUNC said:
In all seriousness, we will be one of the best-coached and best-prepared teams in the country this fall, which will be very important considering the talent level of our roster has not been significantly upgraded. I understand why everyone is excited to see this whole Belichick experiment play out, but I'm extremely skeptical. Would love to be wrong, obviously.
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I think the talent at QB has been significantly upgraded, which counts for a heck of lot in the whole talent equation. A freshman Baker or sophomore Browne will be a huge upgrade over last year. I also think we will pick up some key pieces in the Spring. We have a lot more time to tamper for Spring than we did for Winter. I know that historically Spring portal is weaker, but I wouldn't be surprised to see us pick up another 2-3 starters in the Spring portal.
 
Calheel said:
I think the talent at QB has been significantly upgraded, which counts for a heck of lot in the whole talent equation. A freshman Baker or sophomore Browne will be a huge upgrade over last year. I also think we will pick up some key pieces in the Spring. We have a lot more time to tamper for Spring than we did for Winter. I know that historically Spring portal is weaker, but I wouldn't be surprised to see us pick up another 2-3 starters in the Spring portal.
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I love it -- you're bragging about our ability to tamper. Welcome to NCAA 2025 baby!

Also, one would think the strength of a portal is in part determined by the availability of attractive options. Any stud who decides he wants to play for a 6 time SB winner could enter the portal with exclusively that intent.
 
Calheel said:
I think the talent at QB has been significantly upgraded, which counts for a heck of lot in the whole talent equation. A freshman Baker or sophomore Browne will be a huge upgrade over last year. I also think we will pick up some key pieces in the Spring. We have a lot more time to tamper for Spring than we did for Winter. I know that historically Spring portal is weaker, but I wouldn't be surprised to see us pick up another 2-3 starters in the Spring portal.
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I hope you're right. Baker may be better longer term than anyone we had on the roster last year but I have a very difficult time seeing him coming in at 18 years old and stepping right into the starting role right off the bat. It's certainly possible, and I'd love to be wrong. And I just don't see it with Browne, either, but again would love to be wrong. I was not impressed with what I saw of the Purdue games I watched last year.
 
CFordUNC said:
I hope you're right. Baker may be better longer term than anyone we had on the roster last year but I have a very difficult time seeing him coming in at 18 years old and stepping right into the starting role right off the bat. It's certainly possible, and I'd love to be wrong. And I just don't see it with Browne, either, but again would love to be wrong. I was not impressed with what I saw of the Purdue games I watched last year.
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Freshman Sam Howell was way better than anyone last year and the reports are that Baker is ahead of Howell at the same stage of their careers.
 
It’s one thing to look better than Howell during workouts, but you never really know how that’s going to translate to actual games. Baker outperforming Howell’s freshman season would be asking a lot of him imo.
 
I'm not expecting a whole lot next year. Mack left the cupboard pretty bare and it's unrealistic to expect BB to come in and restock right away. Hopefully I'll be surprised and hearing that Baker is impressing is comforting at least.
 
My general skepticism about this hire and my outright pessimism about UNC football notwithstanding, I completely understand why Carolina made this hire. We are essentially at rock bottom. We’ve tried it all: we hired the hot shot up and coming football coach who came here and led us to the precipice of a national championship but then bolted for a bigger and better job; we tried (and failed) to hire the next hot shot coach (Frank Beamer) who completely screwed us at the altar; we hired the alumnus head coach with NFL assistant coaching experience on a Super Bowl winning team; we hired the architect of arguably the most talented college football team of all time, the 2001 Miami Hurricanes, who then went on to be a head coach in the NFL who led the new Cleveland Browns franchise to their first playoff appearance; we hired the hot shot up and coming coach with a razzle-dazzle high octane innovative offense; we hired the Hall of Fame national championship winning coach who initially left us for the bigger and better program the first time. None of it worked. So now we are trying something completely out of the box, something so completely pie in the sky that if it works we will look like unmitigated geniuses. I don’t blame us for trying, especially given the fact that the BOT essentially handcuffed the entire coaching search.

I will go on record as saying that, while I am certainly hoping and cheering for you and C. to be successful in football, I do not see this experiment working. There is not a doubt in my mind that Bill Belichick is one of the greatest football coaches of all time. But time comes for everyone, and even though in many respects comparing Mack Brown to Bill Belichick is comparing apples to oranges, ultimately I do not have a lot of faith that the 72 year-old coach that we just hired to coach college football, and deal with 18-year-old prima donna’s demanding to get paid, is going to be markedly better than the 72 year-old coach that we just fired. Everyone loses their fastball. Everyone. Bowden, Paterno, Brown, etc.

Don’t get me wrong, I’ll be Kenan Stadium every fall Saturday that my schedule allows, and I’ll be cheering for this whole thing to be a resounding success.
 
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