It’s been one month and one day since North Carolina introduced Bill Belichick as the program’s new head coach. And Belichick has yet to hire many staff members.
The situation is doing nothing to fray nerves in Chapel Hill regarding the possibility that Belichick will activate his $10 million buyout and bolt for the NFL. Separate and apart from the question of whether another team will hire him (the Raiders are not interested, even if Belichick would like people to think they are), UNC is bracing for the possibility that Belichick will be gone not long after he arrived.
Look at the hires he has made. Freddie Kitchens, a holdover from the prior staff, serves as offensive coordinator. Bill’s son, Steve, is the defensive coordinator. Matt Lombardi, G.M. Mike Lombardi’s son, is an offensive assistant. Chris Jones, a former CFL coach who worked for Kitchens in 2019, is a defensive assistant. Billy Miller is a general position assistant. And Moses Cabrera, who worked for Belichick in New England, is the strength and conditioning coach.
Despite having $10 million to spend on the coaching staff and another $1 million for strength and conditioning, that’s it. In more than a month.
No Matt Patricia. No Joe Judge. No other Belichick disciples.
Maybe it’s part of a broader plan. Regardless, it’s making people nervous, from the athletic director all the way up to (we’re told) the ACC Commissioner.
Again, the concerns won’t have teeth unless and until someone in the NFL hires Belichick. And the repeated criticism of the NFL generally and some teams specifically by Mike Lombardi won’t help effort. Neither will the perception/reality that it’s impossible to hire Belichick without letting him essentially run the show.
Based on the current openings, it likely won’t happen this year, when the buyout is still $10 million. It might happen next year, when the buyout plummets to $1 million. Regardless, everything we’ve heard in recent weeks suggests that Belichick wants back into the NFL, that he took the UNC bird in the hand because no one would give him a wink-nod commitment that, after the 2024 season, he’d have a head-coaching job in pro football.
The one potential destination to watch is Tampa Bay, for two reasons. First, ownership has done some unconventional things in the past 16 years, from the abrupt firing of Jon Gruden and promotion of Raheem Morris to the firing of Morris and the ill-fated hiring of Greg Schiano to the firing of Lovie Smith and promotion of Dirk Koetter to the “retirement” of Bruce Arians and the promotion of Todd Bowles. Second, Lombardi was publicly spreading the rumor that Bowles might retire before Belichick took the North Carolina job.
Now, despite three straight division titles from Bowles, who knows what the Bucs might be contemplating if Belichick is in play?
There’s another complication when it comes to Belichick’s potential return to the NFL. There might not be a spot for Lombardi. In the end, Belichick will have to decide how badly he wants to chase Don Shula’s all-time wins record, and if he wants it badly enough to leave Lombardi in the land of tobacco and basketball.