On Wednesday, the rumors surrounding Bill Belichick’s move from the pros to the college realm were confirmed. Belichick will be the 35th head football coach of the University of North Carolina Tar Heels, beginning in the 2025 season. The fact that a six-time Super Bowl-winning NFL head coach decided to take a college job rather than return to the pros was not lost on most football fans and pundits alike — including Dan Orlovsky.
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The morning after the Belichick news became official, Orlovsky spoke about the UNC deal on ESPN’s Get Up. He argued that Belichick’s arrival in the college ranks “signals” a major change, but a positive one.
Orlovsky pointed out that after the greatest college coach of all time, Nick Saban, retired following the 2023 campaign, it felt like a “bad” change for the college football landscape. However, the greatest professional coach of all time, Belichick, joining the college ranks just a year later means that CFB is still just as prestigious as ever, and a “new era” is about to begin.
“When Nick Saban retired from college football, it was a massive change. It felt like in a bad way. That college football was changing so much, that the greatest college football coach of all-time, no longer wanted to be a part of it. And I think today signals college football is changing, but with a positive vantage point. That the greatest coach of all-time is choosing to go be in college football, and I think it’s a new era that will start.”
.@danorlovsky7 says a new era is starting in college football after Bill Belichick became UNC football's HC 😤
"I think today signals college football is changing but with a positive vantage point. That the greatest coach of all time is choosing to go be in college football." pic.twitter.com/F6avHsQ8lV
— Get Up (@GetUpESPN) December 12, 2024
It wasn’t just the appeal of the college ranks, but also Belichick’s experience in the most recent NFL coaching cycle last winter, that led him to join UNC. ESPN’s Adam Schefter broke down how that experience might have nudged him toward the NCAA.
“We go back to Bill Belichick interviewing and being a finalist for the Atlanta Falcon’s head coaching job, and the Falcons decided to go with Raheem Morris. The Washington Commanders had a phone call with Bill Belichick and ultimately decided to go with Dan Quinn. I think Bill Belichick looks at the NFL, and doesn’t trust that the league is going to make the right decision. There is uncertainty, about whether or not he would get a head coaching job at the NFL level at this time,” Schefter said on Get Up.
"I don't think Bill Belichick goes into anything randomly, without thought. He has it well thought out."@AdamSchefter breaks down how Bill Belichick ended up as the head coach of the University of North Carolina football team. pic.twitter.com/gogOtupeKo
— Get Up (@GetUpESPN) December 12, 2024
Schefter went on to speak about how Belichick has always been a coach at heart. No amount of media speaking engagements—whether on Manningcast or the Pat McAfee Show—could change that.
The ESPN insider also mentioned that Belichick has always been willing to “go against the grain” and be a contrarian. This was likely a factor in him joining the NCAA just as it was seeing an exodus of similar old-school coaches like Saban.
“Bill Belichick always has been willing to go against the grain. He is a contrarian. When everybody is going one way, he’s happy to go another. And at a time where we see a lot of college coaches, trying to flee the game, because it’s become more like a business, we see Bill Belichick going the opposite, to the college.
Saban left college football following major changes to the NIL (Name, Image, Likeness) rules. These new rules allow star college players to make money off their image and likeness. While clearly it was great for the student-athletes to get the money they needed to get by, Saban argued that the college game became tainted by money.
He believed that instead of worrying about how schools or coaches are going to develop them as football players, their number one worry would be the money the school would pay them to play there (via Bleacher Report).
“All the things that I believed in, for all these years, 50 years of coaching, no longer exist in college athletics. It was always about developing players, it was always about helping people be more successful in life… [My wife] said, ‘All they care about is how much you’re gonna pay them, they don’t care about how much you’re gonna develop them, which is what we’ve always done, so why are we doing this?'”
Saban wasn’t the only coach who felt that way, which was worrying for the NCAA. However, the decision of a coach like Bill Belichick to join the college ranks will definitely change the perception, as Orlovsky argued.
