UNC Football Catch-all | Bill Belichick Era underway

  • Thread starter Thread starter SnoopRob
  • Start date Start date
  • Replies: 951
  • Views: 38K
  • UNC Sports 
wmheel1287 said:
True enough. I have literally no idea what to expect other than a lot of totally over the top moments from the production of it all.
Click to expand...
Same here. New coach, new coaching staff, new plays, lots of new players - I have no idea of what will happen or what to expect tonight. Based on past years of UNC football I have limited expectations, but until play actually starts at least we can continue hoping that Belichick will be the coaching upgrade we've long been pining for. With Mack Brown I knew what to expect - lots of preseason hype and breathless PR followed by disappointment, especially when it came to beating State regularly (or eventually at all) and winning bowl games. Maybe Belichick can turn that around, maybe not. As you said, win or lose it will certainly be a television and social media spectacle surrounding Belichick tonight, that's for sure.
 
Last edited:
Calheel said:
Those opening lines are very soft right now, with very little money bet. We were a favorite over TCU earlier in the summer. There is more movement in opening week lines than any other week of the year (recall we went from being a 2 point underdog to a favorite against Minnesota before kickoff last year).

Moreover, Sunday and especially Monday will be non-stop Belichick ball washing by ESPN. The line will move in response as the public starts to put money on UNC. I am confident UNC will be a favorite by kickoff.
Click to expand...
My confidence proved erroneous @HeelYeah2012 . The line has barely budged all weekend. Still at -3.5 for TCU. Really surprised at how little movement in the line this weekend. Maybe there will be a little more movement as we get closer to game time.
 
Peppers49 said:
Anyone read the new ESPN article today?

www.espn.com

'It's made for television': How North Carolina has changed in nine months under Bill Belichick

From enlightening and exhilarating to chaotic and tumultuous, there hasn't been anything boring about Belichick at UNC.
www.espn.com www.espn.com

I wouldn’t call this a hit piece necessarily but it doesn’t exactly paint the start of Belichick’s tenure and our off-season in general in a particularly great light.
Click to expand...
I thought it was very fair and consistent with what we were hearing at the time. Transitions are always rough but this particular one was always going to have a steep learning curve. It does seem like the ship has been steadied now.
 
Peppers49 said:
Anyone read the new ESPN article today?

www.espn.com

'It's made for television': How North Carolina has changed in nine months under Bill Belichick

From enlightening and exhilarating to chaotic and tumultuous, there hasn't been anything boring about Belichick at UNC.
www.espn.com www.espn.com

I wouldn’t call this a hit piece necessarily but it doesn’t exactly paint the start of Belichick’s tenure and our off-season in general in a particularly great light.
Click to expand...
If we lose tonight and the season doesn't go well then I would expect the national sports media to go after Belichick and UNC 24/7 with ridicule or perhaps worse. If we do well or better-than-expected (like a win tonight) then all of the talk about his girlfriend and other unpleasantness will likely fade as talk switches to our on-field success.
 
Calheel said:
I thought it was very fair and consistent with what we were hearing at the time. Transitions are always rough but this particular one was always going to have a steep learning curve. It does seem like the ship has been steadied now.
Click to expand...
It’s still a little puzzling to me that Belichick didn’t have a more organized plan out of the gate for putting together a staff and rebuilding the roster. To your point though coaching transitions are usually tricky anyway, especially when the program needs a top to bottom reset.

The bit about the staff recruiting Jariel Cobb hard and then turning around and telling him he should transfer after spring practices was tough to read, but that’s the unpleasant underbelly of the sport these days. We’re definitely not the only program that is essentially cutting players.
 
Honestly, I have never had less of an idea how a game would go that this one. We could win by three. We could lose by a touchdown. We could win by 40. We could be shut out. No clue.

With that in mind, I'm going with 41-38.
 
sringwal said:
Honestly, I have never had less of an idea how a game would go that this one. We could win by three. We could lose by a touchdown. We could win by 40. We could be shut out. No clue.

With that in mind, I'm going with 41-38.
Click to expand...
Heels on top , Right ?
 
Mulberry Heel said:
If we lose tonight and the season doesn't go well then I would expect the national sports media to go after Belichick and UNC 24/7 with ridicule or perhaps worse. If we do well or better-than-expected (like a win tonight) then all of the talk about his girlfriend and other unpleasantness will likely fade as talk switches to our on-field success.
Click to expand...
Definitely agree. If we look good as the season progresses then the negativity will naturally die down. If we struggle, the media and the detractors will continue to go right back to the same talking points about the girlfriend, etc.

Also worth noting that it’s very possible that TCU ends up being the 2nd best team we face all season after Clemson. A loss tonight (even if it looks ugly) isn’t necessarily the end of the world, but obviously would only add fuel to the fire.
 
I think that the most realistic expectation for how UNC football will go under Belichick is that he raises the floor of the program considerably by sole virtue of the fact that we will now finally be disciplined, detail-oriented, and tough to go along with being generally more talented than ~75% of the teams on our schedule in any given year. I don't really think he's going to be here long enough to considerably raise the ceiling necessarily, but I do think that the infrastructure, institutional investment, and overall foundation of the program will hopefully be elevated for the future and for the next coach.

I do think, though, that it is imperative that we win and win now. We don't really have a lenient runway or a honeymoon period anymore. With how fickle recruiting and the transfer portal are these days, I don't think that UNC can really afford to go 6-6 or 7-5 this year. I stand by my preseason prediction of 8-4.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top