Bill Belichick’s Arrival at UNC Headlines NFL’s Sideline Influence in The ACC

The group of roughly 60 reporters had crowded around the table Thursday long before Bill Belichick arrived to take questions in his first run through ACC preseason media days as North Carolina‘s football coach.

Some massed at each end, multiple rows deep. Others filled rows of chairs positioned in the middle, in front of a platform filled with video cameras on tripods to capture the words of the man who led the New England Patriots to six Super Bowl titles.

“It’s Bill Belichick — of course everybody’s going to circle him up and try to ask him as many questions as possible,” UNC linebacker Thaddeus Dixon said with a chuckle from his own nearby table, adding: “He’s got so much aura.”

It was a sign of how Belichick draws a watch-his-every-step crowd as he gears up for his first season as a college football coach. Yet, he’s also the headliner for a larger pro influence that has arrived in the ACC, with the league boasting three former NFL head coaches — the most of any conference — just as the dawn of the revenue-sharing era is making the college ranks look more like the pros than ever before.

He joins Boston College‘s Bill O’Brien, the former Houston Texans head coach who also worked as a Belichick assistant in the NFL. And there’s former Indianapolis Colts and Carolina Panthers head coach Frank Reich, who is leading Stanford as an interim coach this season.

O’Brien is in his second year with the Eagles and was previously head coach at Penn State. Reich took over in the spring after the firing of Troy Taylor for off-field concerns, coming after a call from former player-turned-Stanford general manager Andrew Luck for what he has described as a one-year move.

Then there’s Belichick, the NFL lifer who “always wanted” to give college coaching a try yet never seemed likely to do so — until he missed out on NFL openings, took a year off and UNC hired him in December.

Belichick said he has talked with numerous coaches who have coached at both levels, mentioning people like Jim Harbaugh and Nick Saban.

“Each situation is a little bit different, but it’s a great game and I love being a part of it,” Belichick said earlier Thursday before the packed afternoon interview session. “It’s different, but it’s still football. It’s fun.”

The Big Ten is the only other league with multiple former NFL head coaches in Nebraska’s Matt Rhule (previously with the Panthers) and Rutgers’ Greg Schiano (Tampa Bay Buccaneers). The SEC has Ole Miss‘ Lane Kiffin (the former Oakland Raiders), while UConn coach Jim Mora Jr. previously coached in Atlanta and Seattle.

New Wake Forest coach Jake Dickert said the ACC trio has brought “notoriety” to the league, along with a challenge for coaches of the ACC’s other 14 football-playing members.

“Obviously, Coach Belichick is one of the best coaches in our profession,” Dickert said. “But you know, this isn’t professional football. You know college football is a unique and different challenge. From the schematics to the tempo to the recruiting, there’s a whole different world.”

Still, the arrival of revenue sharing in college — with schools now allowed to pay athletes directly following the $2.8 billion House antitrust settlement — has at least some parallels to NFL business. The settlement allows schools to share up to about $20.5 million with athletes, divided among sports, with football positioned to get the biggest cut due to its role as the revenue-driver in college athletics.

That has made college football look closer to a pro model than ever, even as Reich noted Tuesday: “Football is football.” Meanwhile, O’Brien can see value in his NFL experience in handling what amounts to the college version of a salary cap.

“I embrace it,” O’Brien said. “I think it’s great that these guys can make money. I’m not fighting it at all, but at the same time, it’s ‘Here’s what it is, and here’s why it is.’ I’m not uncomfortable in those conversations. I think my experience in pro football has helped me a lot with those types of conversations.”

It seems like a natural pivot, too, for Belichick considering he and general manager Michael Lombardi have leaned into messaging, painting UNC as the NFL’s “33rd” team. It’s part of UNC’s audacious bet on Belichick to reshape the program, which includes the coach being set to make $30 million guaranteed for the next three seasons in a five-year deal.

The ACC will look to capitalize on Belichick’s influence while it lasts, as rumors swirl about a possible conference exit by UNC, which is reportedly exploring a potential move to the SEC whenever the next round of collegiate realignment happens, according to On3.

As far as Belichick’s future with the Tar Heels, the 73-year-old coach is business as usual and remains unconcerned about the rumor mill or newfound spotlight on his personal life — the predominant topic of discussion in recent months. Belichick’s girlfriend, 24-year-old Jordon Hudson, has rarely been seen around the team, and inferences that she has been overly involved in Belichick’s work at UNC have been “wildly exaggerated,” according to ESPN.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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