Add in another factor for the Patriots’ success - some players, most importantly Tom Brady, signed for less money so that the team could sign/keep better players and win…….and by winning they’d make more money in endorsements.I don't know this for sure but I think Atkinson is leaving because a bigger, better football school like Georgia or Ohio State opened up the checkbook.
I don't think Belichick's "scrimping" strategy that worked so well with New England will work nearly as well at the collegiate level, and especially not at a place like UNC that is only ever halfway serious about football at best as it pertains to institutional investment. At New England, he could get those diamond-in-the-rough players on the cheap, yes, but then he was also able to sign them to contracts, which meant that he wasn't facing the reality of his entire roster being treated as open season free agency every year. And anyway, those diamond-in-the-rough players were still NFL players with NFL talent. The diamond-in-the-rough players that he is currently amassing at UNC are players for whom we are fighting G5 and service academy-level schools. There may be a few under-the-radar guys that he can develop and mold, but it's almost certainly not going to be enough to actually compete at the highest level of college football.
Like I say, I would love nothing more than to be as wrong as two left feet about this whole thing. I'm just very highly skeptical, and I think it's with good reason. I'd have much rather had Jon Sumrall or Glenn Schumann, and yes, I definitely recognize how crazy that sounds on paper to prefer those two guys to Bill freaking Belichick!
I don’t see many college players giving up $$$ to better the team. Their college careers are SHORT.