North Carolina is making major changes to ensure that new coach Bill Belichick succeeds in his role with the football program — according to his predecessor, Mack Brown, at least.
Brown said during a recent interview on SiriusXM Sports Radio that North Carolina has overhauled its approach to name, image and likeness (NIL) deals and its rigorous academic standards to aid Belichick in his transition.
“As far as North Carolina and Bill Belichick, he’s arguably the best coach ever,” Brown said. “They’ve committed money to it, they’ve helped him with academics, they’ve lowered those standards some. So there’s absolutely no reason they shouldn’t be successful.”
Brown claims that he did not have the same resources. His second stint with the Tar Heels began in 2019 on the cusp of the NCAA’s sweeping NIL and transfer portal reforms. He went 15-10, with consecutive bowl appearances, in 2019 and 2020.
But in 2021, the first season after the NCAA allowed athletes to profit off of their NIL, Brown’s Tar Heels fell to 6-7.
“We always built programs on fit, and in our last couple years there, we were having to get parents with money,” Brown said. “We were trying to get kids over a 3.0 (GPA) because that’s who we could get. We signed 26 players at North Carolina our next-to-last year — high school players — and didn’t pay them a penny. I felt guilty.”
In spite of North Carolina’s financial woes, the Tar Heels rebounded with a nine-win season and an appearance in the ACC Championship Game — the high watermark of Brown’s second tenure — and produced a respectable eight wins in 2023.
Through it all, the Tar Heels still struggled to pay their top stars. Brown said that running back Omarion Hampton, a two-time CBS Sports…
Source link : https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/mack-brown-opens-up-about-bill-belichick-at-north-carolina-no-reason-they-shouldnt-be-successful/
Author : Will Backus
Publish date : 2025-05-21 15:10:00
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