Bill Belichick is about to enter his first season as the coach of the North Carolina Tar Heels, and he is learning that life in the college ranks has some advantages over the NFL. One of those benefits is the lack of meddling owners — and their sons.
In an interview with The Boston Globe, Belichick noted that there are fewer people to answer to in college, making operations “much more cohesive” and “unified.” There is an athletic director and big-time boosters, but nothing like the formal hierarchy of NFL franchises.
“There’s no owner, there’s no owner’s son, there’s no cap, everything that goes with the marketing and everything else, which I’m all for that,” Belichick said. “But it’s way less of what it was at that level. Generic NFL teams, you have the owner, president, general manager, personnel director, college director, pro director, cap guy, some other consultant, then head coach. I’d say when we had our best years in New England, we had fewer people and more of a direct vision. And as that expanded, it became harder to be successful.”
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Belichick spent 24 seasons coaching the New England Patriots, winning six Super Bowls in the process. But his time there ended on a sour note with a losing record in three of his final four seasons. And when noting the differences between coaching at the college and pro level, it’s probably not a coincidence that Belichick’s former boss, Patriots owner Robert Kraft, employs his son Jonathan as team president. Besides, it’s no secret that Belichick and Kraft weren’t exactly on good terms when the two sides parted ways after the 2023 season.
Belichick, who employs sons Steven and Brian at North Carolina, did note some of the challenges he’s experienced at the college level. When it comes to roster management, staying ahead of the curve is a year-round struggle.
“In the NFL you know whose guys’ contracts are up, that’s easy,” Belichick told the Globe. “In college football anybody could be in the portal, or not. You don’t know who’s in the portal. And then you have next year’s freshman class is the ’26 class, but you also have to start recruiting the ’27 and ’28 classes. You’re recruiting three classes of high school kids, plus you have to keep your eye on the portal kids.”
Fortunately for Belichick, it won’t be much longer until actual football is played. North Carolina will play its season-opener against TCU on Sept. 1.
Win or lose, Belichick won’t be fielding phone calls from an owner’s son the next day.
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