A Bill Belichick-UNC reality check, plus Caitlin Clark's Olympic comments

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Good morning! Thank you to everyone who responded to our survey yesterday. Still time to put answers in, though.

Huh? The reality of Bill Belichick’s college foray

The sentence frankly reads as absurd at first glance: Bill Belichick is in serious talks to become the next coach at North Carolina. The six-time Super Bowl champ who is 14 wins shy of the NFL record … wants to spend his career twilight at an above-average ACC program?

It’s a mind-boggling proposition that everyone involved seems to be taking quite seriously. And it turns out, this is not without precedent. But let’s go over the basic facts before we delve deeper:

• Weeks ago, North Carolina fired Mack Brown, the program’s all-time winningest coach, amid a messy season. Tar Heels officials figured the opening would be highly coveted; instead, Tulane’s Jon Sumrall and Iowa State’s Matt Campbell declined interest. So here we are, talking about Bill Belichick.
• Internal strife abounds in Chapel Hill, as Brendan Marks and Ralph D. Russo laid out in incredible detail Monday. The athletic department and the board of trustees are at odds, which is making the hiring process difficult. In the story, there’s even mention of a possible job offer coming from a trustee — not the athletic department — to Belichick. Yeesh.

And yet, as Brendan, Ralph and Dianna Russini reported last night, Belichick is indeed weighing an offer to become the next Tar Heels head coach. As we wrote last week, Belichick spent time at Washington last season with his son Steve, the Huskies’ defensive coordinator. There is an expectation Steve would follow his father to Chapel Hill and possibly even be named coach-in-waiting.

But I still have this nagging question rattling my brain: Is this a good idea for anyone?

I went to the insiders. Dianna told me Belichick would lean on his NFL expertise to attract recruits and — I admit, I am beginning to see the reasoning — Belichick knows how to run an NFL operation. As the college game creeps toward an NFL structure with NIL money and revenue sharing, maybe the 72-year-old would be ahead of his peers.

But there is skepticism, as The Athletic’s Bruce Feldman told me. It wouldn’t be a disaster, per se, but … here’s Bruce:

💬 “I don’t see ‘home run.’ Talent acquisition is so pivotal, and my sense is UNC will not have that robust of an NIL operation. It’s one thing to pitch that you can get guys ready for the NFL, but these days, most of the kids are still going to ask, ‘So how much am I getting?’ And if it’s a lot less than what Miami, Clemson, Ohio State and the SEC is offering, I think Belichick isn’t going to be able to get the kinds of players to win more than eight or nine games.”

Bruce also reminded me that Bill Walsh, winner of three Super Bowls with the 49ers, went back to college and coached Stanford for three seasons. Final record in that stint: 17-17-1. Walsh was also a second-time college head coach and younger than Belichick is now, plus never had to encounter the phrase “NIL.”

Our Mike Sando says Belichick coaching in the college ranks is more realistic than you might think. I still won’t believe it until he has an introductory news conference. Stay tuned.