Recruiting means you probably need to be in pretty regular communication with the HC. Being in touch with the HC is the difference between being able to make an offer and not.
Coaching Carousel (Football)
- Status
True. But it did make a tons of cents for Belichick.
mhuml32
Gesture of Northern Aggression
(1) Agreed
(2) Some of them were substantially overpaid compared to the competing market rates and will end up way ahead of what was likely to transpire to their careers if they would have went elsewhere.
Point #2 is probably correct for most of them, but I'm sure there are at least some that would have benefited from playing at a lower level and been better off for it in the long run. An article in the Athletic featured a quote from an unnamed G5 HC who was surprised at the guys UNC was taking. They nabbed a large quantity of G5 level players who were not equipped for P4 competition. Add in that the situation seems to be a complete mess internally, and it's going to be a wasted year development-wise for these guys. For those that have eligibility left, they're likely also worse off in finding a landing spot next season.
Plus it seems like it's probably just an overall unpleasant experience. For a lot of these guys their football career won't extend beyond college. It would be a bummer even if you're getting paid well.
The Galloping Ghost
- Washington, DC
This entire experiment was doomed from the start, but the moment it became obvious that this was a completely unserious endeavor was when UNC named Michael Lombardi as GM. The only chance Bill had to make this work was if he brought in the most well-connected guy he could find to navigate the minefield of college football roster building in 2025. Instead, he brought in his hack sycophant friend, who was completely ill-equipped for the job.
Honestly, he probably would have been better off if he had just gone through the football recruiting thread on this site and picked a poster at random to do the job.
Edit: And that's less a compliment to the posters here and more a commentary on the dire nature of that choice.
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I think there was just an incredible amount of hubris that went into this whole thing. I think Belichick and his camp underestimated the level at which college football operates. I think Belichick probably believed, and those around him probably encouraged this belief, that his "genius" coaching mind could turn any group of college football players into a good enough team to beat other college teams. And to top it off, he never really even wanted this job. This was 100% a vehicle to get himself back to the NFL and to get his son a HC gig in the process.This entire experiment was doomed from the start, but the moment it became obvious that this was a completely unserious endeavor was when UNC named Michael Lombardi as GM. The only chance Bill had to make this work was if he brought in the most well-connected guy he could find to navigate the minefield of college football roster building in 2025. Instead, he brought in his hack sycophant friend, who was completely ill-equipped for the job.
Honestly, he probably would have been better off if he had just gone through the football recruiting thread on this site and picked a poster at random to do the job.
Edit: And that's less a compliment to the posters here and more a commentary on the dire nature of that choice.
He misjudged the entire nature of the project he was taking on, he misjudged his own abilities, and he surrounded himself with people who would never be able to or be inclined to point out his mistakes.
If Bill is out at UNC and they decide they want to start over and don't retain anyone from his staff that means Stephen Belichick would be available. Bret obviously has a relationship with Bill, but he and Stephen would have crossed paths within the Pats organization as well. If the Illinois defense doesn't improve would Bret bring in Stephen as a position coach/analyst or possible move on from Henry and look at him for the DC position?
The Galloping Ghost
- Washington, DC
I had low expectations for this as well and was surprised that Bill Walsh quietly ending his career going 4-7 and 3-7-1 back at Stanford (after a 10-3 first year with Denny Green’s players) didn’t get mentioned more. And Walsh had coached there previously, made his legend in the same community and lacked any of Belichick’s weird baggage (girlfriend, documentaries, succession plan with his sons, pushing out a coach beloved in the community).
Success as a coach in college versus the NFL requires significantly different skill sets. Stubborn legends in their 70s aren't inclined to embrace the significant changes that must be made. When Belichick basically brought an entire group of NFL guys in, along with his sons, you knew it was trouble.
One allegation is that the families of one or two star portal guys got sideline passes. Now, I get that NFL guys are not up on the complexities of NCAA rules (a problem in and of itself), but haven't they ever even watched a college game? Have they ever seen a player's family on the sidellines?
Success as a coach in college versus the NFL requires significantly different skill sets. Stubborn legends in their 70s aren't inclined to embrace the significant changes that must be made. When Belichick basically brought an entire group of NFL guys in, along with his sons, you knew it was trouble.
One allegation is that the families of one or two star portal guys got sideline passes. Now, I get that NFL guys are not up on the complexities of NCAA rules (a problem in and of itself), but haven't they ever even watched a college game? Have they ever seen a player's family on the sidellines?
Battle89
- Cary-Grove, the better Trojan team
...who are being managed and led around by the 'nose' by a 24-year-old.
Battle89
- Cary-Grove, the better Trojan team
Illini4Chief
- TENNESSEE
Hmmm....CIGNETTI?
Would be awesome if she cheated on Bill with the starting QB, who is the same age as her.
Curbelo Fanboy
BERTBALL IS LIFE
Bill was a good NFL coach for a long time. One of his strengths that is magnified in the NFL is that the salary cap prevents teams from being "great" in all phases. New England for a long time mastered the art of being "good" at all phases. Good defense, good offense, good special teams. They drafted & acquired free agents with that mind set. Be solid in all phases puts you in a really good place in that league. And then Brady being such a great QB really pushed them over the top. I realize they had years where individual phases (offense, defense) were great, but even in their down years they were at least good at both phases.
NFL games are played so much closer & a lot more of those games are won "in the margins" as Bret likes to say. Belichek was a great "in the margins" coach so excelled in that league. And a talent like Brady helps in those spots as well.
So few NFL teams can maintain being "good" on both sides of the ball for a stretch of years. The Colts were awesome on offense in the Manning years, Baltimore had some spectacular defenses in early/mid 2000's, etc.
With the nature of college ball, there is no salary cap so the disparity in talent can potentially be greater. Even great coaches can't make up for massive talent gaps. And as we saw with Lovie, just hiring a pro guy with name recognition doesn't guarantee talent showing up at the doorstep. A lot more college games are won based on talent disparity primarily. Coaching matters but superior tactics can only cover so much for not having the talent to compete at the high major level. I'm sure his ego gave him an inflated sense of what talent level he could "coach up" to be able to compete in a league like the ACC.
Not to take this off topic, but this is precisely why there needs to be some semblance of a salary cap for rosters, which includes potential NIL and rev share for at least the Power 5. Perhaps make it relatively high so teams might not be able to afford to spend that much, but if you have the top 5-6 teams spending $40M+ on their roster with no cap, when most teams will struggle to spend $20M, it will lose its appeal for many.
Barry Lunney Sr. Has a Wake-Up Call for Arkansas That Bret Bielema Has Already Heeded
Arkansas football has a laundry list of problems to solve heading into its next coaching tenure. Bret Bielema has a couple solutions to offer.
www.bestofarkansassports.com
mhuml32
Gesture of Northern Aggression
Barry Lunney Sr. Has a Wake-Up Call for Arkansas That Bret Bielema Has Already Heeded
Arkansas football has a laundry list of problems to solve heading into its next coaching tenure. Bret Bielema has a couple solutions to offer.
It's an interesting read but the talking points make it tough to agree with Lunney Sr.
- "The current staff doesn't have Arkansas kids on the roster" but the author lists 15 scholarship and ~20 walk ons from Arkansas on current roster.
- "Bielema understood the need for Arkansas players on the roster" I have a hard time believing Arkansas fans are longing for Bielema's tenure being repeated.
Talking about staffs from 30+ years ago misses a lot of context about how much recruiting has gone national. If there was a top-50 national prospect in Arkansas in the 1980's that meant he would have offers from Arkansas, Auburn, and Ole Miss. Now? He will have 30+ P4 offers and can pick his school based on millions being offered in NIL packages.
Arkansas had some time advantages that Illinois didn't - Chicago was (is) the most important are for Illinois but it was such a large metropolitan area that every school in the country was willing to go see a top prospect. It was harder to see the same prospect in Bentonville back then. In current times, that top prospect in Bentonville just goes to a couple camps at Bama and Arkansas, plus a 247 satellite camp to have loads of coaches be able to watch them compete with other local talent. This is even ignoring the online accessibility.
The next coach there needs to drum up lots of fundraising interest from the elite donors (Walmart, Tyson). They need to reach Ole Miss' funding levels even though they are doing it through a large, middle-class donor base. If you can't get there, you are just churning over with names at the bottom of the conference (South Carolina, Miss. State, Vandy, Kentucky, and Auburn during their swoons).
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Curbelo Fanboy
BERTBALL IS LIFE
It kind of cuts both ways now tho. In the old days we all know Bama, Auburn & some other big boys were paying the elite talent under the table. There has always been a massive talent disparity if you look at the roster of the top team in the SEC or BIG vs a bottom tier team in the same league.
At least now there is an ability for some of the Bama backup guys to be paid by a lesser program so it closes the talent gap a bit.
If enforced correctly, I think the recently enacted NIL changes do create a bit of a salary cap type of concept in terms of how much can be paid out by each school. Not exactly the same but sort of along similar lines.
TentakilRex
- Land O Insects between Quincy-Macomb-Jacksonville
Reminds me of when Charlie Weiss said he would outscheme everyone at ND
pruman91
- interviewing new NL's daily....I really really am
Another wake-up call is the Illini are 5-1 , not 4-1........wake up suey pig land.............Barry Lunney Sr. Has a Wake-Up Call for Arkansas That Bret Bielema Has Already Heeded
Arkansas football has a laundry list of problems to solve heading into its next coaching tenure. Bret Bielema has a couple solutions to offer.
UNC fans are beyond restless.
www.tarheelblog.com
This is what “over” feels like
We’re all seeing and feeling the same thing, right?
www.tarheelblog.com
- Status