UNC Football Catch-all | Bill Belichick Era underway

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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.
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.
 
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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.
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.
 
Anyone read the new ESPN article today?


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.
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.
 
Anyone read the new ESPN article today?


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.
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.
 
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.
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.
 
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.
Heels on top , Right ?
 
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.
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.
 
Sometimes, we forget that winning/losing is actually one of the least important aspects of sports. It's about how we push ourselves to be more than we were before, and how we get back up after we've been knocked down.

 
Good article by Greg, putting things into perspective.

“The good news is that eyes will remain glued to the Tar Heels, for intrigue more than anything else. The ACC’s new multi-media revenue policy is now in effect, which will split media revenue into two pots: 40% will be distributed equally to each member of the ACC and 60% will be distributed based on viewership. Of the 60% portion, 75% will be shared based on football and 25% on men’s basketball.

“Early ESPN ratings returns had UNC-TCU viewership at 6.1 million, which is roughly double what a typical UNC-Duke basketball game draws. That’s key revenue generation for an athletic department that’s now all-in on football, regardless of the outcome on Monday night.”
 
“The good news is that eyes will remain glued to the Tar Heels, for intrigue more than anything else. The ACC’s new multi-media revenue policy is now in effect, which will split media revenue into two pots: 40% will be distributed equally to each member of the ACC and 60% will be distributed based on viewership. Of the 60% portion, 75% will be shared based on football and 25% on men’s basketball.

“Early ESPN ratings returns had UNC-TCU viewership at 6.1 million, which is roughly double what a typical UNC-Duke basketball game draws. That’s key revenue generation for an athletic department that’s now all-in on football, regardless of the outcome on Monday night.”
And that was the preliminary, overnight number. It looks like the final rating was 6.6 million average viewers. Given the scoreboard, I’d assume that average includes sharply declining numbers towards end of the game.

Can any NY Times person see if this article mentions a peak viewership number?

 
And that was the preliminary, overnight number. It looks like the final rating was 6.6 million average viewers. Given the scoreboard, I’d assume that average includes sharply declining numbers towards end of the game.

Can any NY Times person see if this article mentions a peak viewership number?

8.8M it says
 
Monday night’s game means UNC will get shittier and shittier time and network slots the rest of the season.

As someone posted in response to my post that virtually NO ONE will watch the UNC-Charlotte game; they posted “that won’t hurt us” because it’s on a non-existent network……well, I hope playing fucking UNC-Charlotte on a fucking non-network doesn’t hurt us.

One thing is certain - it won’t help us. It won’t help put us on TV in better time or network slots the rest of the season.

We have one game left that will help us in terms of viewers - the Clemson game…..and, the Tigers will beat us like we’re the red-headed step-child in Kenan.

Our 10 games after this weekend:
  • Richmond (that’ll get a big TV slot)
  • @UCF - this might be our biggest TV game aside from TCU and Clemson
  • Clemson - they’ll beat us silly
  • @Cal (NO ONE gives a shit about this game; no one at Cal; no one at UNC; no one nationwide)
  • UVA - UNC and UVA can call it “The South’s Oldest Rivalry” all they want. NO ONE not connected to UVA or UNC cares; not many connected to UNC/UVA care; it’s an unimportant “rivalry”
  • @Syracuse - eyeballs will definitely be riveted on this game :rolleyes: That HUGEVNortheastern college football audience
  • Stanford - that’ll pack Kenan. What’s the attendance on November 8th? 33,000? It’ll certainly attract millions on TV.
  • @Wake. That’ll garner millions of TV viewers.
  • d00k - in November? If d00k is even mediocre on November 22, they’ll pack Kenan. NO ONE will watch on TV.
  • @ncsulol. They’ll pack and pee in their stadium. NO ONE will watch on TV.
If you’re NOT a die hard Carolina fan or a crazy fan of our opponents, would you watch this schedule?

Would YOU PAY to watch this schedule?
 
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