Hiring another senior citizen better not backfire for UNC football

UNC introduced Bill Belichick as its new head football coach at a Thursday afternoon press conference. The Super Bowl champion coach (six as a head coach, two as a defensive coordinator) will replace the 73-year-old Mack Brown, who is one year his senior.

Brown was in Chapel Hill for six years, leading UNC to a bowl game every year. Now, Belichick takes over the program his father was once an assistant for from 1953-55.

The Tar Heels are known for their basketball program as one of the nation's Blue Bloods. The football program is 2-6 in New Year's Six bowls and has only been in the national championship race once when it finished third on the AP poll in 1948 en route to a loss in the Sugar Bowl.

Now, with Belichick, there will be expectations to compete for berths in the 12-team College Football Playoff during his five-year contract. In an era where coaches are leaving college sports because of NIL and the transfer portal, including Belichick's friend Nick Saban (73), UNC decided to once again dip into the senior citizen's pool.

Belichick said during his press conference that he didn't take the UNC job as a stepping stool back to the NFL, but college coaching may be more difficult than the NFL right now.

Programs have to scout and recruit high schoolers, scout and recruit college transfers at the Junior college, FCS and FBS levels and raise NIL money.

Now, Belichick has to pull a Curt Cignetti part two and make a basketball school one of the top football programs in the country. In that case, he'll have to compete with Clemson and South Carolina to get the best recruits in the Carolinas, and someone in the administration will have to conduct serious talks with Jordan Brand about NIL money.

Oregon football and basketball have the luxury of Phil Knight and NIKE to boost their pockets. Now, Belichick and his general manager, Michael Lombardi, have to get Michael Jordan to spend his money outside of Hubert Davis's basketball program.

Can it be done? Possibly. If it doesn't, UNC's brass can bet its money that there will be criticism for hiring a 72-year-old NFL coach with no college experience.

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