North Carolina made college football's boldest hire in the offseason, handing the program over to six-time Super Bowl winner Bill Belichick. The 73-year-old will be in his first college football job at any level.
The veteran coach is just a few months older than the man he replaces, Mack Brown. A college football lifer, Brown—who is most famous for leading Texas to the 2005 BCS national championship—went 44–33 in his second stint at UNC from 2019 to '24. His departure from North Carolina towards the end of the '24 season was tumultuous, but he seems to be largely at peace with the breakup months later. During an appearance on SiriusXM College Sports Radio's Dusty and Danny In the Morning, Brown gave some insights into how the program has adjusted to Belichick, with the program making two significant changes to help the NFL legend succeed.
"As far as North Carolina, Bill Belichick, he's arguably the best coach ever. They've committed money to it. They've helped him with academics. They've lowered those standards some, so there's absolute no reason they shouldn't be successful. They've changed the roster, I think they've signed maybe 60-something new transfers, so you've got a chance to succeed at the highest level and I expect them to do that and I'm proud for them," Brown said.
Mack Brown opens up on leaving UNC and shares with @DustyDvoracek & @dannykanell why UNC has a chance to be successful quickly with Bill Belichick. pic.twitter.com/Mj9yE3poOk
— College Sports on SiriusXM (@SXMCollege) May 20, 2025
According to Brown, before hiring Belichick the program was light on NIL funds and had more stringent academic standards for recruits that he had to abide by, making it difficult to recruit the same caliber of player amid the significant changes that college football underwent during his tenure.
"North Carolina didn't have NIL money and I said we were kind of a slow bleed. We weren't able to recruit the top kids like we were when we first got there. So it was time for them and it was time for me. So it was kind of like a divorce, everybody was ready.
"In our last couple of years there we were trying to get parents with money, we were trying to get kids with over a 3.0 [GPA] because that's who we could get. We signed 26 players at North Carolina our next to last year, and didn't pay them a penny."
Brown's estimation of UNC's roster turnover under Belichick is a bit inflated, but the Tar Heels will look significantly different in 2025. According to 247Sports, North Carolina added 40 players via the transfer portal with 51 players departing the program during the offseason.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Mack Brown Shared Two Reasons Why Bill Belichick Should Be Successful at UNC.
