Rival coach shares theory for Bill Belichick's struggles at UNC

A rival coach thinks Bill Belichick’s big problem at North Carolina is actually a fairly simple one.

The unnamed college football coach, who currently works for a Group of Five school, suggested that Belichick’s roster simply is not good enough to compete at the highest levels of a Power Four conference. 

The coach's insight on recruiting could help explain UNC's issues

The coach said he was frequently recruiting the same players in the transfer portal as North Carolina was, despite the fact that the two schools should not have been targeting the same caliber of prospect.

“What I think they miscalculated is with the way they were taking (players) in the portal and paying dudes,” the anonymous coach told Bruce Feldman and Ralph D. Russo of The Athletic. “It made me wonder, did they actually understand the landscape they were in? Did they understand that they’re in the ACC, not like Conference USA or the Sun Belt? 

"Like, we got beat by North Carolina on a bunch of kids. I was like, why the f— is North Carolina beating us on kids? When I keep running up against the same P4s over and over again in recruiting, I’m like, all right, they’re gonna suck.”

The Tar Heels brought in 41 players from the transfer portal to play for Belichick after he was hired. While that class was praised by talent evaluators, it appears to have been more quantity than quality. North Carolina is just 2-2, but both of those wins came against FCS opposition.

Belichick has dedicated himself to improving the pieces he has. Those pieces simply might not have a high enough ceiling to get where he wants to go, and that is a hard lesson to learn so quickly.