Elite 5-star recruit confirms suspicion about Bill Belichick's plans as the head coach of the North Carolina Tar Heels
Bill Belichick is widely considered the greatest NFL head coach of all time, so there’s little doubt he’ll excel at the X’s and O’s aspect of being the head coach of the North Carolina Tar Heels Success in college football, however, is about more than the X's and O's. Mostly, it's about having the most […]
Bill Belichick is widely considered the greatest NFL head coach of all time, so there’s little doubt he’ll excel at the X’s and O’s aspect of being the head coach of the North Carolina Tar Heels
Success in college football, however, is about more than the X's and O's.
Mostly, it's about having the most talented players (just ask anyone who played the Ohio State Buckeyes in the College Football Playoff this past season).
If Belichick is going to have success in Chapel Hill, he'll need to recruit at an elite level.
To do that, Belichick is selling the fact that North Carolina will operate just like an NFL team. In theory, players should leave UNC well-prepared to play in the NFL. Belichick is betting that this approach will be attractive to top recruits.
2026 five-star quarterback Jared Curtis, who recently received an in-home visit from Belichick, told ESPN this week that the Tar Heels will use a playbook that's the "exact same" as the NFL, seemingly confirming Belichick's advanced pro-style approach at North Carolina.
"They're bringing their NFL playbook to North Carolina," said Curtis to ESPN. "It's going to be the exact same as the NFL and it's the place you're going to go to get prepared for the league."
2025 four-star quarterback Au'Tori Newkirk, a North Carolina commit, offered a similar sentiment about Belichick's approach to ESPN, even suggesting that UNC will be like the "33rd team in the NFL".
"The focus with this new staff is on preparing everything for the next level," said Newkirk. "Everything is being run like it's the next level. The motto is that we're going to be the 33rd team in the NFL."
It sounds like a smart approach by Belichick that could pay massive dividends for the Tar Heels.
But like any "smart approach", we'll have to see it in action to know whether or not it will actually work.
Belichick's ideas have a lot of promise, but executing those ideas could be more difficult than he realizes. Either way, it certainly appears that the six-time Super Bowl-winning head coach is all-in on being a college football head coach.
