How did UNC, Invoice Belichick do in his faculty debut? – NBC Boston
Invoice Belichick’s first run as a university coach at North Carolina is formally underway.
The NFL teaching nice took the sphere Monday night time for his faculty debut with the Tar Heels in opposition to TCU, sporting a well-recognized look from the professional sideline with a grey hoodie — solely this one bearing the identify “Carolina Soccer” in that particular shade of sunshine blue.
His Tar Heels bought off to a dash of a begin, too. They marched 83 yards on the opening drive and located the top zone with Caleb Hood’s 8-yard run by way of the precise facet — ending what was almost a flawless first possession, then pressured a fast punt on the Horned Frogs’ first possession.
Belichick, 73, led the NFL’s New England Patriots to 6 Tremendous Bowl championships and trailed solely Don Shula on the league’s all-time wins checklist. Now he is making the transition to the faculty degree, the results of an all-in second for UNC to raise its soccer program at a faculty higher identified for its storied males’s basketball program.
The buildup to the season right here had included loads of added buzz, together with the college promoting out all its season tickets — at an elevated worth — and single-game seats for the season. The sport additionally attracted ESPN to carry a pregame studio present from the Kenan Stadium sideline, the place Belichick popped over earlier than the sport to share a whats up with former Alabama coach Nick Saban and the remainder of that crew.
Belichick additionally roamed the sphere throughout pregame warmups as if taking all of it in for the higher a part of a half-hour. At one level, he stood on the UNC finish of the sphere with basic supervisor Michael Lombardi watching the Tar Heels, then shared a fast handshake with Atlantic Coast Convention commissioner Jim Phillips as he made his manner towards midfield.
As soon as there, he shook fingers with members of the officiating crew and stood close to midfield watching the Horned Frogs gamers as they went by way of warm-up drills.
The sport additionally attracted notable former UNC figures from years previous, together with NBA legend Michael Jordan — who received a nationwide championship below Dean Smith right here in 1982 — and former UNC star linebacker Lawrence Taylor, who performed below Belichick when Belichick was an assistant and ultimately defensive coordinator with the New York Giants through the Nineteen Eighties.
