Things would've been much better.
North Carolina's football program has not gone according to plan since hiring Bill Belichick, and while that can change if Belichick starts to win more games, many other factors are at play in why things haven't gone as well as they should have.
For North Carolina, it will now enter its toughest stretch of the season, taking on Notre Dame and Miami at the end of October.
This Notre Dame game over the weekend will be one of the toughest in college football, and North Carolina obviously isn't expected to win, at least according to the odds.
It also hurts that North Carolina might have had a better head coach if it had done some things differently over the past couple of years.
I'll never say that bringing in Belichick was the wrong idea, as the NFL legend has done a lot of good throughout his coaching career, but it felt like there was a lot of unnecessary drama in bringing him in.
Per the latest report from The Athletic, North Carolina also could have had Jon Sumrall, as he was one of the other candidates the Tar Heels considered.
“Many around Chapel Hill are unsatisfied with an investigation that produced no published or detailed findings. Then there’s the on-field product, which is still struggling in several areas. Even after hiring Bobby Petrino as offensive coordinator, UNC ranks 102nd nationally in scoring offense and is coming off a blown 14-point lead at Clemson that would have counted as a breakthrough victory. Four of UNC’s next five games are against teams currently 4-0, punctuated by a Halloween home tilt against No. 4 Miami.
“Meanwhile, one of the other candidates UNC considered hiring instead of Belichick — Jon Sumrall — has Florida undefeated and ranked No. 8 nationally,” The Athletic wrote.
Sumrall in North Carolina would have been a perfect pairing, so long as the university gave him the same type of figures to work with as Florida has.
Florida is certainly the better football program, and there's no debate about that, but Sumrall also brings a different type of attitude that seemingly would have been loved in North Carolina.
Not to say that everything would have ended up being perfect, but it does feel like he would have been a better hire than Belichick at the moment.
