Yeah, that’s it! It’s that we all just have it out for Bill Belichick personally- has nothing at all to do with the fact that the football program we all love quite literally looks the *absolute worst it has ever looked* and is the literal laughingstock of all of college football right now under his leadership. We all just have personal axes to grind with Bill Belichick and we have all been secretly rooting for him to fail this whole entire time because none of us would have wanted the most accomplished NFL coach of all time to come have similar success at our beloved UNC.
I think the issue for you is that you seemingly believe that the role of a sports fan is to reflexively and unconditionally support whomever is the leader of the team, and that coaches are somehow infallible or unable to be questioned or second guessed because they must inherently know so much more than everyone else. I also think that you are purposefully digging in your heels on this topic because it’s one of those where you feel like it’s “heel79 vs. the ZZLP.” The issue in this particular case, though, is that at this point it’s essentially “heel79 vs. virtually the entire rest of the college football universe” because I’d estimate that something like 95% of knowledgeable observers believe this is whole thing is an unmistakable disaster.
I won’t presume to speak for others here, but I can assure you that for myself personally, there is absolutely nothing that would make me happier than to be as wrong as two left feet about this whole Belichick thing. Nothing would make me happier than for Bill to prove me wrong and get this whole situation turned around. It does not give me any pleasure or satisfaction whatsoever in any way to feel this way about our football program’s leadership.
If I’m wrong about Bill, then it means my football program is winning big. If I’m right about Bill, it means our football program is losing. I hope it’s very clear which one I’d prefer be the case. I’m hoping like hell they get it turned around, while simultaneously knowing that it seems increasingly unlikely that they will do so. Hence, my voicing my displeasure, disagreement, and disappointment for the way our program is being led.
Edited to add: To be totally clear, I’m not criticizing you for being a fan who steadfastly supports the head coach. You’re a great fan and a great supporter of UNC. I’m simply taking issue with the fact that you are seemingly of the belief that the rest of us who don’t like the job Belichick is doing, are somehow anti-Belichick personally or have an axe to grind, when the reality is that pretty much all of the empirical data and certainly all of the “eye test” indicate that this is a failure and getting worse, not better.
I find it a wee bit interesting you quote me instead of Grubar, with whom I simply agreed and yes, added a little bit. I looked back at the beginning of this thread, looking mostly for those who cheered the hire but five games in have done a 180. What I found, however, was less that and more folks who did not like the hire because of who BB was. I have said before, I started liking BB before he was unc coach and after he was the Pats coach, when he became a regular on the Manning show, and his knowledge was on full display, but I also found him to not be without humor, capable of laughing at himself, etc.
Anyway, what I have said now for eight days is not that BB has my support unconditionally, but that I am willing to give him time to build a program. I am particularly happy to see that, base on IC reporting, behind the scenes he is acknowledging that some things need to be changed.
What I cautioned about was the reporting of the Raleigh media, and WRAL clearly is on a mission. I have said also that this has very little to do with BB and much more to do with UNC. Anyone watching their daily reporting at this point would have to agree it is excessive and over the top. The whole deal with the Caleb Hood retirement being a strong exhibit.
I support the coach of UNC teams, regardless of who they were. I supported Bunting too long, Fedora too long, perhaps BB too long, because I think I understand some of the challenges. Fedora his last year lost two games back to back that we were probably 1,000 to one to win with two minutes left, VPI and Syracuse. He also suffered a streak of like eight straight games where the other teams was not called for a holding penalty. So there are additional factors.
If anything has shown itself in the last week, it is that BB is all in, and he still has my support. I think I understand how we came to have this lack of talent. A buddy of mine every game says we suck at QB, Oline, Kitchens is terrible, we got no speed and no talent. But then he will say cannot believe the teams is this bad. Well he just explained it.
Recruiting is very good and I desperately want this class, with 10 4-stars, assembled in a rush with a limited staff, to remain intact.
Right now, we have BB working to build a program at UNC (yes, he made mistakes, and clearly the start is horrible), and Raleigh media doing what they do, working to destroy UNC athletics. And I see so many UNC fans cheering for what I would call the wrong team, sharing negative stories on social media, slurping up what supports their narrative, etc.
The proverbial circular firing squad.
I have no control. The powers that be will decide BB's fate, and as long as he is coach I will root for his success.
But as I said weeks ago, I had no idea that I had so many friends, etc., who know more about football than BB does. Some of them used to tell me Mack was soft, and apparently now BB is too mean.
