UNC Football Catch-all | Bill Belichick Era underway

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heel79 said:
There is genuine excitement among a lot of my UNC friends that we will have legendary coaches on defense and offense next year and a really good freshman class on which to build. Then I come here and it's like taking a downer. Look ahead not backward. Might not work but if I had said two years ago BB was our coach and petrino or Kelly our OC I'm guessing most would have said fuck yea
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Young Belichick is a legendary defensive coach?

By all appearances, we weren’t hiring Bill Belichick to be the DC; we were hiring him because he was the 6-time Super Bowl winning HEAD COACH.

He’s also 73 or 74.

Sleazy as hell Bobby Petrino at UNC?

We’re going to win with a freshman class?

We’re looking 3-9 or 4-8 (or worse) in the face.
 
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I definitely don’t begrudge anyone for being excited or optimistic, I’ve said that many times and I’ll keep saying it. I truly commend the folks who are. I’m personally just way past the point at which I’m going to give UNC football any benefit of the doubt whatsoever anymore.

I was adamantly opposed to the Belichick hire from day 1- and so far I’ve been proven right on 100% of my concerns. I would be even more adamantly opposed to Bobby Petrino being hired to coach here, and in fact if he is so hired, I’m comfortable saying I am completely out on supporting UNC football until this current experiment ends. He’s an awful person and I want him nowhere near being an ambassador representative of my alma mater and the program from which I hold four varsity letters. At least my concerns about Belichick are 100% coaching related and not character related. My dislike of Bobby Petrino is 100% character related; there are far too many good offensive coaches out there that we could hire to not further soil and tarnish our reputation by hiring that scoundrel.

I’ll take Chip Kelly all day, every day. I would still have several reservations about the wisdom of yet again hiring someone with a big name who may be on the downslope of their effectiveness in their career, but I at least think Kelly is a person of character, is an effective play caller and offensive coach, and would be the best signal yet that Belichick is willing to adapt and adjust.

The reality of the situation as it stands right this moment- and obviously that could change, and I surely hope it does- but right now we are staring firmly down the barrel of this being a failed experiment that ends after two years. Again, I fully commend anyone for their optimism, but I just have a really hard time finding much myself as things *currently* stand. Nothing would make me happier than to be wrong, though. I’ll gladly wear it.
 
Zoo_View said:
Young Belichick is a legendary defensive coach?

By all appearances, we weren’t hiring Bill Belichick to be the DC; we were hiring him because he was the 6-time Super Bowl winning HEAD COACH.

He’s also 73 or 74.

Sleazy ass hell Bobby Petrino at UNC?

We’re going to win with a freshman class?

We’re looking 3-9 or 4-8 (or worse) in the face.
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Yea. I think I know your position. Thanks for the update.
 
I’m starting to think that from a deployment of resources perspective, we may be better off going balls to the wall to get 4-5 really, really good OL and either run it back with Lopez (I know, I know) or try Newkirk or Baker. The prospects of us landing an instant impact QB seem low based on current intel (maybe that could change depending on OC hire?). I think if we can build a really strong OL, and with the addition of a much better schemer/play caller, we could be serviceable on offense even with our current quarterback room. It’s just so, so difficult to get 1 or 2 starter-level OL from the portal, let alone the 4 or so that we truly need. I think we’re going to have to be willing and able to spend a ton of money.
 
GoHeelsweeeehoooo said:
I'd be ok with Kelly - really hoping it's not Petrino
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Yeah. The thing with Kelly is, any of his possible downsides are “only” coaching-related (I’ll explain below). With Petrino, it’s character-related (happy to elaborate more if anyone wants).

The pros of Kelly are: multiple high-level college head coaching experiences at Oregon and UCLA, revolutionized offensive football at the collegiate level, multiple NFL head coaching experiences at Philly and SF, recently Ohio State OC and NFL OC experience. Stellar resume on paper. Instant credibility. By all accounts high character.

The cons of Kelly are that the offensive system with which he revolutionized college football a decade and a half ago is no longer novel or unique, and defenses have long ago caught up to being able to effectively defend it. His coaching tenures at Philly, SF, and UCLA all ended very poorly. His stint this season with the Raiders was a disaster. His system demands really, really good OL who excel in blocking inside/outside zone runs and RPO and transition seamlessly from pulling to zone blocking to pass protection at a very fast no-huddle tempo, often in spread looks. It also requires exceptionally speedy skill players at every single position on offense. When he has had a major talent advantage (at Oregon and Ohio State) relative to the competition, he’s been dominant. When the talent level is equal (as in the NFL) or subpar (as at UCLA), he’s been…not good. Our offensive roster next year may be…not good. Then there’s the concern, too, about how well his preferred style of play can truly mesh and complement with the style of play defensively that Belichick prefers.

But we could do way, way worse of a hire than Chip Kelly.
 
CFordUNC said:
Yeah. The thing with Kelly is, any of his possible downsides are “only” coaching-related (I’ll explain below). With Petrino, it’s character-related (happy to elaborate more if anyone wants).

The pros of Kelly are: multiple high-level college head coaching experiences at Oregon and UCLA, revolutionized offensive football at the collegiate level, multiple NFL head coaching experiences at Philly and SF, recently Ohio State OC and NFL OC experience. Stellar resume on paper. Instant credibility. By all accounts high character.

The cons of Kelly are that the offensive system with which he revolutionized college football a decade and a half ago is no longer novel or unique, and defenses have long ago caught up to being able to effectively defend it. His coaching tenures at Philly, SF, and UCLA all ended very poorly. His stint this season with the Raiders was a disaster. His system demands really, really good OL who excel in blocking inside/outside zone runs and RPO and transition seamlessly from pulling to zone blocking to pass protection at a very fast no-huddle tempo, often in spread looks. It also requires exceptionally speedy skill players at every single position on offense. When he has had a major talent advantage (at Oregon and Ohio State) relative to the competition, he’s been dominant. When the talent level is equal (as in the NFL) or subpar (as at UCLA), he’s been…not good. Our offensive roster next year may be…not good. Then there’s the concern, too, about how well his preferred style of play can truly mesh and complement with the style of play defensively that Belichick prefers.

But we could do way, way worse of a hire than Chip Kelly.
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Thanks for the background info.

Yes, we could definitely do way worse than Chip Kelly. Can we do better?
 
I don’t love the idea of a 62 year old coach who is already rich and was just fired mid-season in his first year with a team.
 
stankeylegjones said:
Thanks for the background info.

Yes, we could definitely do way worse than Chip Kelly. Can we do better?
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Honestly, we probably could not do much better than Chip, given that it would take a very, very particular type of person to have the chutzpah to be able to successfully work with Belichick in a way that earns enough of his respect and trust to turn over the keys to the offense (and I mean that as a compliment to Bill). Kelly has pretty much everything Bill would be looking for in terms of having both collegiate and NFL experience extensively, and the difference between him and almost any other candidate would be he has the resume to be able to push back when necessary on Bill’s notorious controlling nature.
 
CFordUNC said:
Honestly, we probably could not do much better than Chip, given that it would take a very, very particular type of person to have the chutzpah to be able to successfully work with Belichick in a way that earns enough of his respect and trust to turn over the keys to the offense (and I mean that as a compliment to Bill). Kelly has pretty much everything Bill would be looking for in terms of having both collegiate and NFL experience extensively, and the difference between him and almost any other candidate would be he has the resume to be able to push back when necessary on Bill’s notorious controlling nature.
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Of those currently unemployed, I don't see anyone that would be a better hire than Kelly. Well, Petrino would be a better hire if we're only concerned with (projected) results.
 
CFordUNC said:
I’m starting to think that from a deployment of resources perspective, we may be better off going balls to the wall to get 4-5 really, really good OL and either run it back with Lopez (I know, I know) or try Newkirk or Baker. The prospects of us landing an instant impact QB seem low based on current intel (maybe that could change depending on OC hire?). I think if we can build a really strong OL, and with the addition of a much better schemer/play caller, we could be serviceable on offense even with our current quarterback room. It’s just so, so difficult to get 1 or 2 starter-level OL from the portal, let alone the 4 or so that we truly need. I think we’re going to have to be willing and able to spend a ton of money.
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Need to get the OC' s eyes on the matter before the portal tampering dries up, IMO
 
Just googling, it appears lots/several college and NFL teams might have interest in Kelly.

Petrino? It looks like UNC has interest.
 
heel79 said:
There is genuine excitement among a lot of my UNC friends that we will have legendary coaches on defense and offense next year and a really good freshman class on which to build. Then I come here and it's like taking a downer. Look ahead not backward. Might not work but if I had said two years ago BB was our coach and petrino or Kelly our OC I'm guessing most would have said fuck yea
Click to expand...
I most certainly would not have said "fuck yea" about Belichick and Petrino. I would have said then what I say now..."good fucking grief".
 
1moretimeagain said:
I don’t love the idea of a 62 year old coach who is already rich and was just fired mid-season in his first year with a team.
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The Raiders are a cluster of an organization, from the owner all the way down to 90% of the roster.

Don't hold anything that happened there against Kelly.
 
SnoopRob said:
The Raiders are a cluster of an organization, from the owner all the way down to 90% of the roster.

Don't hold anything that happened there against Kelly.
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I mostly agree with this. Chip is a way better OC than what was demonstrated during his brief stint in Vegas. There were some concerning tidbits coming out about forgetting playcalls and calling plays that weren't installed but who knows how much credence to lend to those rumors.

To me, Chip Kelly would be a solid B as a hire IF we are able to parlay it into attracting either a stud QB or a bevy of stud OL from the portal (ideally both, obviously). If we can do so, we'll have a fighting chance at bowl eligibility and maybe slightly better next fall, with the opportunity to show meaningful and demonstrable progress/improvement that would warrant extending this experiment to year 3. If we can't do either (and especially if we can't rebuild the OL anyway), it's not going to really matter who the OC is because the current talent level of offensive personnel is dire.

Chip's offense at its best is predicated upon utilizing wide outside zone blocking and "pin and pull" schemes where the offensive tackles pin defensive linemen inside and guards pull to block linebackers while involving tight ends and pre-snap motion to create mismatches and exploit defenders out of position- and doing all of this while operating at a breakneck tempo to maximally stress the defense. It's hard to effectively teach/coach/install in a single offseason, let alone with a mishmash of new quarterbacks, OL, etc. That said, it would be way better than anything we saw last year with Freddie Kitchens and whatever the hell that offensive scheme was attempting to be.
 
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