The Giants’ head-coaching job is open. Given that he has been linked to the position in the past (and in light of the fact that he won two Super Bowls there as a defensive coordinator), North Carolina coach Bill Belichick was asked about the vacancy during a Tuesday press conference.
“Getting ready for Wake Forest,” Belichick said. “That’s all I got this week.”
Belichick then was asked whether he has been asked about NFL vacancies by players or recruits.
“I’ve been asked about it from time to time, but look — I’ve been down this road before,” Belichick said. “I’m focused on Wake Forest. That’s it. And that’s my commitment to this team. And next week, it’ll be to our next opponent and so forth, but, you know, I’m here to do best I can for this team.”
The reality is that no NFL team wants him. He has gotten one interview since he was fired by the Patriots. His reputation for taking over a football operation will limit his options to a franchise that is willing to give him the keys and let him reshape the entire operation. Firing anyone, perhaps everyone. Hiring whoever he wants, including his consigliere, Mike Lombardi.
What owner will do that, especially given the extent to which Lombardi has crapped on NFL jobs, on Belichick’s behalf? Consider the petty feud Belichick maintains with the Patriots. Anyone who hires Belichick will simply be the next one to be on the wrong end of Belichickian pettiness.
Throw in the whole Jordon Hudson situation and the fact that Belichick’s record without Tom Brady is 84-104 (with Brady, it’s 249-75) and what owner in his or her right mind would hire a 73-year-old curmudgeon who will want to become emperor of the organization?
The easiest way for Belichick to deal with NFL-related questions would be to say, definitively, “My NFL days are over.” He didn’t say that.
Which means that, if someone is ever interested in him, he’ll be interested in them. And he’ll reserve the right to feign disinterest in NFL jobs as a defense mechanism against the fact that, even if he won’t say his NFL days are over, he really doesn’t need to say it.
That said, dysfunctional teams do dysfunctional things. It’s therefore impossible to rule out the possibility that one team will be sufficiently dysfunctional to hire Belichick.
Bill Belichick and Frank Reich met again on Saturday, for the first time since both exited the NFL.
In their latest meeting, Belichick’s North Carolina team beat Reich and Stanford, 20-15.
It wasn’t pretty. UNC had 47 yards of total offense in the first half. The game was tied, 3-3, at intermission.
Belichick is now 3-1 against Reich, when both are working as head coaches. Reich still holds the Super Bowl bragging rights; he coordinated an offense that scored 41 points against Belichick’s Patriots to win the 2017 NFL title.
The victory moved the Tar Heels to 4-5 on the season. With two wins in their final three games, Belichick’s program will be bowl eligible.
“We’ve improved significantly over the course of the season,” Belichick told reporters after the game, via Justin Williams of TheAthletic.com. “It’s not just one guy or one thing. A collective effort.”
UNC has now won two in a row, after weathering an early-season storm that featured ugly games and off-field drama.
The Tar Heels finish the season with games against in-state rivals Wake Forest, Duke, and N.C. State.
Bill Belichick isn’t the only former NFL coach making his head-coaching debut at the college level this year. Former Colts and Panthers coach Frank Reich is serving as the full-year interim coach at Stanford. On Saturday, they meet for the fourth time as opposing head coaches.
The game also marks Reich’s return to Carolina, two years to the month after he was abruptly fired by an owner who applied an unprecedented and illogical mispronunciation — twice — of Reich’s last name in the press conference explaining the decision to part ways with Reich during his first season on the job.
Belichick’s team is favored for the first time against a Power Four opponent, by 7.5 points. Which says less about the 3-5 Tar Heels than it does about the 3-6 Cardinal.
The game, which begins at 4:30 p.m. ET, will be televised by the CW. Which is good news for YouTube TV customers, since the network isn’t owned by Disney.
At the pro level, Belichick leads the series, 2-1. All three games happened during Reich’s time with the Colts. Their last meeting was also Reich’s last game in Indianapolis. He was fired three years ago yesterday and replaced by Jeff Saturday.
Belichick and Reich had another fairly important meeting during Reich’s last game as offensive coordinator with the Eagles. In Super Bowl LII, Philadelphia upset Belichick’s Patriots. And when New England offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels decided not to follow through on a verbal agreement to take the Colts’ head-coaching job, Indy pivoted to Reich.
There’s another interesting piece of connective tissue in this one. Stanford’s G.M. is Andrew Luck. He was the quarterback of the Colts in the 2014 AFC Championship, a blowout win for the Patriots that sparked the #Deflategate scandal.
Both Belichick and Reich have had the air taken out of their first seasons at the college level. The stakes this time around are much more modest than they were in February 2018; both coaches need a win to keep alive their slim hopes to become bowl eligible.
Bill Belichick and Tom Coughlin squared off in a pair of Super Bowls between the Patriots and Giants and they’ll square off again as they try to make it into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
The Hall named nine coaching semifinalists for election as part of the Class of 2026 and the group includes both Belichick and Coughlin. Coughlin’s teams prevailed in both of the Super Bowls while Belichick won six others during his time with the Patriots.
Mike Holmgren, Chuck Knox, Buddy Parker, Dan Reeves, Marty Schottenheimer, George Seifert, and Mike Shanahan are the other semifinalists. Coughlin, Holmgren, Knox, Reeves, Schottenheimer, Seifert, and Shanahan also reached this stage last year.
Holmgren moved on as a finalist, but fell short of the votes needed for election. The coach blue-ribbon committee will meet on November 18 to select this year’s finalist for consideration by the Hall’s selection committee.
It was a long time coming. On Friday night at Syracuse, it finally arrived.
Long-time NFL coach Bill Belichick got his first conference win with North Carolina.
“Feels good,” Belichick told reporters after the game, via the Associated Press. “Feels great. We had a couple of opportunities the last couple of weeks that we couldn’t capitalize on. It was good to get this one. So we look forward to all the rest of the games in the ACC.”
The 3-5 Tar Heels have four ACC games remaining this season. With three more wins, Belichick’s team becomes bowl eligible.
“Things didn’t go great at the beginning of the game, but then they just kept on battling and we had a really good second half defensively,” Belichick said. “We all know in football it’s not who you play, it’s when you play them. We were probably fortunate to get them [now] as opposed to the week they played Clemson.”
Syracuse beat Clemson on September 20, 34-21. Against North Carolina, the Orange used walk-on lacrosse phenom Joe Filardi at quarterback. He completed four of 18 passes for 39 yards.
SYRACUSE, N.Y. (AP) — Demon June accounted for two touchdowns and nearly 200 yards on offense, Gio Lopez threw for two scores, and Bill Belichick won his first Atlantic Coast Conference game when North Carolina came from behind to defeat Syracuse 27-10 Friday night.
“Feels good. Feels great,” Belichick said. “We had a couple of opportunities the last couple of weeks that we couldn’t capitalize on. It was good to get this one. So we look forward to all the rest of the games in the ACC.
“Things didn’t go great at the beginning of the game but then they just kept on battling, and we had a really good second half defensively,” he added of a defense that shut out the Orange after intermission. “We all know in football it’s not who you play it’s when you play them. We were probably fortunate to get them (now) as opposed to the week they played Clemson.”
The win snapped a four-game losing streak for the Tar Heels (3-5, 1-3 ACC), while the Orange (3-6, 1-5) lost for the fifth consecutive time. North Carolina lost its previous two games by a combined four points.
The Tar Heels had not scored more than 20 points against an FBS team and trailed 10-6 when Lopez hit June for a short gain of 9 yards on the team’s first play of the second half. June then broke a tackle and scampered 63 yards down the right sideline for a 72-yard scoring play to give the Tar Heels a 13-10 lead they would never surrender. On the team’s next series, June ran it in from 5 yards out for a 20-10 margin. A 21-yard scoring strike from Lopez to Jordan Shipp gave the Tar Heels a 17-point lead and 21 unanswered points.
Lopez was 15-of-19 passing for 216 yards and two touchdowns. June had 101 yards on the ground and 81 yards on two receptions. Shipp had six catches for 64 yards.
“He did a great job giving us a spark tonight,” Lopez said of June. “He does a great job in every aspect. He’s picking up blocks better. That screen got us out of the funk we were having.”
Syracuse walk-on Joe Filardi, a true freshman, started at quarterback for the Orange. He was 1 of 11 in the first half and didn’t complete his first pass until 6:12 remained in the half. He finished 4 of 18 for 39 yards. Filardi replaced struggling LSU transfer Rickie Collins, who had gone 0-4 as a starter in relief of Steve Angeli. Angeli, who directed the Orange to a 3-1 start, suffered a season-ending Achilles injury against Clemson. Syracuse hasn’t won since.
“It was a month straight of football and we got other kids on the football team,” Brown said in defense of starting Filardi. “Just trying to get a new spark or something different to be able to move. I’m hoping that would give our team a little bit of momentum.”
Brown said the decision was “just strictly” based on Filardi’s performance in practice.
“I thought he tried to protect the football, running the football. A lot of times you guys just want to blame the quarterback but there’s a lot, like 10 other people out there also.
Practice didn’t make perfect for Filardi or the offense on this night.
The only touchdown in the first half came courtesy of the Syracuse defense. Devin Grant knocked the ball loose from Shamar Easter on a short completion from Lopez. Linebacker Anwar Sparrow scooped up the ball and ran 51 yards for the score with 4:38 to go in the first quarter, giving the Orange a 7-3 lead.
Rece Verhoff had field goals of 24 and 43 yards while Tripp Woody had a 31-yarder for the Orange.
Syracuse managed 12 first downs, generated 147 yards on offense, and averaged only 2.9 yards per play.
Pinstripes in the House
New York Yankees manager Aaron Boone was on hand. Boone’s son, Brandon, is an offensive student assistant for the Tar Heels.
A Visitor They Wish Could Play
Also on hand was last year’s Syracuse savior, quarterback Kyle McCord, now a member of the Philadelphia Eagles practice squad. Coach Brown may have been tempted to put him in disguise on this Halloween night.
The Takeaway:
North Carolina: The Tar Heels are showing some fight. After two tough losses, North Carolina dominated Syracuse in the second half, albeit against a walk-on quarterback, and could be turning things around.
Syracuse: The Orange are competing without a functional quarterback and a functioning offense. They simply cannot score, putting an awful burden on a defense that is spending too much time on the field.
Up Next:
North Carolina: Home against Stanford Nov. 8.
Syracuse: Travels to No. 10 Miami Nov. 8.
It took longer than most expected it would, but it finally happened.
North Carolina coach Bill Belichick has gotten his first conference win.
It happened on Friday night, at Syracuse. Down 10-3 late in the first half, the Tar Heels rallied for a 27-10 victory.
North Carolina held the Orange to 147 total yards, while gaining 425.
The victory moves UNC to 3-5 on the season (and 1-3 in the ACC) with four games to play. Syracuse is now 3-6.
Next Saturday, North Carolina faces Stanford. It’s a rematch, of sorts, of Super Bowl LII; Stanford interim coach Frank Reich coordinated the Philadelphia offense the day the Eagles upset Belichick’s Patriots for an NFL title.
The 2-5 North Carolina Tar Heels get another chance at their first ACC win of the season tonight, against the 3-5 Syracuse Orange.
Syracuse is favored by only 2.5 points in the game that kicks off at 7:30 p.m. ET on ESPN. (If you have YouTube TV, don’t bother checking the dial.)
In their last two games, against Cal and Virginia, UNC nearly won. A victory tonight would go a long way toward quieting the noise surrounding the program.
Then again, things have largely died down, mainly because the Tar Heels haven’t been getting blown out. The situation has stabilized, significantly.
That didn’t stop coach Bill Belichick from airing grievances regarding the storm of reports that emerged after the 38-10 home loss to Clemson on October 4.
Asked earlier this week whether the statement he issued clarifying his commitment to the school contributed to the team’s improved performance, Belichick scoffed.
“It’s never been anything but that, and wherever that story came from, obviously, it’s already been taken down and everything else, and it was just total, you know, as Trump would say, ‘Fake news,’” Belichick said. “I mean, it’s just, I don’t know, it’s just a novel. There’s plenty of that out there, too, by the way, but I’m not going to deal with that. Look, our consistency has been here since the day that, you know, [G.M.] Michael Lombardi and I came in and started hiring people and come into the organization in December. We got here the same day, and we’ve been doing it every day, and that’s the way it’s going to be. So, I’m sure there’s a lot of other people out there that want to get, you know, clicks and views and, you know, post on ‘MyFace’ or whatever but, like, it’s just a bunch of garbage.”
It’s easy to cry “fake news” generally and to never address specific reports. And, despite Belichick’s claim, we’re not aware of a single negative UNC report that was ever “taken down.”
If Belichick and his staff have a way to show that any, some, or all of the reports are “a bunch of garbage,” they should do it. Last week, when Pablo Torre took a deep dive into Lombardi’s NFL credentials and accomplishments, the school’s response was to respectfully decline comment as to the report that Lombardi (who claims to have been awarded three Super Bowl rings) wasn’t given a ring by the 49ers in 1984 or by the Patriots in 2016.
There needs to be something more substantive and more specific to make the “fake news” claim credible. Anyone can say “fake news” in response to a report they don’t like. Not everyone can prove that specific reports are incorrect — especially if, you know, they aren’t.
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (AP) — J’Mari Taylor scored on a 1-yard run in overtime, lifting No. 16 Virginia to a 17-16 victory over North Carolina on Saturday.
The Tar Heels answered with Davion Gause’s 9-yard touchdown grab, but Gause was stopped just short of the end zone on the ensuing 2-point try.
Chandler Morris threw for 200 yards with one touchdown and one interception for the Cavaliers (7-1, 4-0 Atlantic Coast Conference), who are off to their best start since 2007.
Gio Lopez finished with 208 yards, one touchdown and two interceptions for the Tar Heels (2-5, 0-3), who lost their fourth straight.
For the second time in two weeks, a goal-line gaffe by North Carolina proved costly when wide receiver Kobe Paysour fumbled at the 1 while stretching for the pylon early in the first quarter. The football trickled out of the end zone, resulting in a touchback.
A week earlier in a loss to California, Nathan Leacock coughed up the ball in similar fashion as the Tar Heels were on the verge of grabbing a fourth-quarter lead and possibly their first ACC win under coach Bill Belichick.
The teams traded field goals before Virginia took a 10-3 lead with 6:36 left in the second quarter on Trell Harris’ 30-yard touchdown grab. North Carolina tied it again on a 1-yard run by Lopez just 1:24 before halftime.
North Carolina turned it over once more in the red zone later in the game when defensive end Mitchell Melton picked off Lopez at the Cavaliers’ 5-yard line. The Tar Heels’ five red-zone turnovers are tied for most in FBS.
The takeaway
Virginia: The Cavaliers continue to show they can win in a variety of ways. Their last three victories have come by a total of six points.
North Carolina: The Tar Heels have been more competitive in recent weeks, but that’s no consolation given the expectations under Belichick.
Poll implications
After starting the season outside the poll, Virginia could crack the top 15 for the first time since 2004.
Up next
Virginia: Visits California next Saturday.
North Carolina: Visits Syracuse on Friday.
As the North Carolina football program has struggled, despite being the self-styled “33rd NFL team,” more attention has been devoted to the person who accumulated the players who, in most games, have simply not been good enough: General Manager Mike Lombardi.
Sufficient attention has been directed to Lombardi to put him on the one radar screen everyone in pro and college sports currently hopes to avoid. The one monitored by Pablo Torre.
The latest episode of Pablo Torre Finds Out focuses on Lombardi’s NFL credentials.
We’ll defer to the full episode for all relevant details of the deep dive performed by Torre and David Fleming. There are three major takeaways to be shared here.
First, Lombardi loves to quote the late Bill Walsh. In his book, Gridiron Genius, Lombardi creates the impression that he was essentially Walsh’s right-hand man. Walsh’s son, Craig, said this to Pablo Torre Finds Out: “He was just there in a very, very limited role. I don’t think he really had any personal contact with Bill outside of seeing him in a hallway, or sitting in the back of a meeting. . . . He might have been like the gofer/chauffeur, pick him up here. In fact, that does kind of ring a bell. You know, that this is your entryway into it, to get to wear a 49ers shirt. But that’s about as far as it goes. . . . I’ll jump on the wagon a little bit, just because I don’t like him using the fact that he was part of the 49ers organization when all he did was go get sandwiches.”
Second, Lombardi has claimed he left his job with the Patriots to write Gridiron Genius. According to Pablo Torre Finds Out, however, Lombardi was fired amid a near mutiny within the Patriots’ staff, with complaints about Lombardi coming from offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels, defensive coordinator Matt Patricia, director of player personnel Nick Caserio, director of football/head coach administration Berj Najarian, and director of football research Ernie Adams, among others. Specifically, when Lombardi’s contract with the Patriots expired after the 2016 draft, owner Robert Kraft told coach Bill Belichick (who had full control over the football operation) that Lombardi had to go.
Third, Lombardi calls himself a three-time Super Bowl winner. Craig Walsh told Pablo Torre Finds Out, however, that Lombardi did not receive a Super Bowl ring from the 49ers for the 1984 season. “Did he get a ring?” Craig Walsh said. “No. . . . He might have got a Balfour pendant.” (Lombardi, through North Carolina P.R., declined to comment.) Also, Pablo Torre Finds Out reports that Lombardi did not receive an official Super Bowl ring from the Patriots for the 2016 season, because he was fired after the 2016 draft. Instead, Belichick personally bought a friends-and-family-level ring for Lombardi after the Patriots won Super Bowl LI. (Lombardi, through North Carolina P.R., declined to comment.)
So the self-described three-time Super Bowl-winning strategist actually has won only one Super Bowl ring that was issued to him by the team that won the Super Bowl. Not three.
