North Carolina sent shockwaves through the college football landscape on Wednesday afternoon with the hiring of Super Bowl legend Bill Belichick as the Tar Heels’ next head coach.
The six-time Super Bowl champion departed from the New England Patriots after the 2023 season and is venturing into his first journey into the college football space with this UNC move.
Mack Brown previously coached the Tar Heels since the 2020 season but fell to just 6-6 during North Carolina’s 2024 campaign. Rather than going with a younger coach, North Carolina is opting to bring in an NFL legend to kick off a new era in UNC football.
Welcome to Chapel Hill, Bill Belichick!
The eight-time Super Bowl Champion has officially been named our next @UNCFootball Head Coach. #GoHeels x #ChapelBill pic.twitter.com/cnngQI7gnC
— UNC Tar Heels (@GoHeels) December 12, 2024
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Chapel Hill, N.C., is only about five hours away from the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, TN. While the Tar Heels aren’t one of the Vols’ SEC opponents on the field, they certainly are in the recruiting world.
Tennessee has found recruiting success in North Carolina recently, but will that change with a figure as well-known as Belichick going to UNC?
Tennessee has three signees from North Carolina in the 2025 recruiting class including five-star OT David Sanders Jr., four-star defensive lineman Isaiah Campbell, and three-star defensive lineman Charles House.
Other notable current Tennessee players from North Carolina include EDGE James Pearce Jr. and DL Daevin Hobbs, two very productive players in the Vols’ front seven. Tennessee also has a commitment from QB Faizon Brandon, the No. 1 overall prospect in the 2026 class, who is from Greensboro, N.C.
In the five recruiting classes from 2022 to 2026, Tennessee has nabbed the top player from North Carolina in three of those five classes.
Tennessee has done a great job of establishing itself on the recruiting trail with consistent Top 15 recruiting classes and a top-notch NIL program in the last three years. But Belichick is an x-factor that the college football world is not familiar with.
Will college recruits see Belichick as a pipeline to the NFL with all of his professional connections? Will some prospects hesitate at the idea and go towards more of a collegiate-established coaching staff? The answer likely lies somewhere in the middle, but it’s hard to immediately dismiss the pull of a figure such as Belichick in the southeastern recruiting scene.
Recruiting is already challenging enough among SEC teams, and now Tennessee will add Super Bowl winner Bill Belichick to their list of non-conference recruiting foes in the region alongside Dabo Swinney and Clemson.
“Most competitive league in America in all facets of what go on in college football,” Josh Heupel said about recruiting in the SEC. “It ultimately shows up on Saturdays, when we’re competing against each other, but it starts with the recruiting process. Highly competitive.”
Heupel spoke about the importance of recruiting North Carolina during the Vols’ fall training camp back in August.
“It is important for us. It’s a border state,” Heupel said of North Carolina. “We believe, look at it, view it as a part of our footprint. We’re intentional in how we recruit that state. You look at our early signing classes, a guy like James Pearce that has come into this program grown and really develop himself as a player and as a person. Obviously the opportunity, or where he is projected. The state of North Carolina is really important to us and that’s how we recruit it. The opportunity that we have in week two to be over there in front of them playing inside of that state is a real unique opportunity for us as a program as well.”
The Vols went into Bank of America Stadium in Week 2 in punked NC State to the tune of 51-10 in an early season blowout. Tennessee fans packed the stadium that is known for hosting Carolina Panthers home games.
Tennessee’s 2025 recruiting class is currently ranked 10th in the nation according to 247 as 25 of its 26 commitments have signed on the dotted line for next season – Sanders, Campbell, and House are all among the 25 set for Knoxville.
