Bill Belichick shares players are asking to be part of North Carolina program

Bill Belichick has nothing to prove in the NFL. In college, however, he is entering his first season as a head coach, taking over at North Carolina. With that have come some concerns about how he’s going to handle the unique challenges that come with coaching in college, including the Transfer Portal.

Despite that, as Belichick revealed on The Pat McAfee Show while discussing recruitment in his first week as a college coach, he’s found that players want to be a part of the North Carolina program.

“We’ve been talking to a number of players,” Bill Belichick said. “We have more coming in this week as part of the portal. That closes on Sunday. So, we have guys coming in pretty much every day this week. Still talking to a couple of high school players. Signed the quarterback. You know, we signed Bryce [Baker] and announced that at the basketball game on Saturday afternoon. So, that’s a big one for us locally here.”

The Transfer Portal opened on December 9th, before Bill Belichick was announced as the head coach at North Carolina. This is one of two chances for players to move this offseason and it’s a unique challenge for college coaches.

“But there’s still a few players involved there but the majority of them are transfer players in the portal. Again, that portal will extend a little bit as the College Football Playoff goes and teams get eliminated and then those players will be eligible to jump in it as well,” Belichick said. “Right now, the numbers are pretty high but that will start to taper off a little bit as we go.”

To this point in the process, North Carolina has seen nine players announce that they’re ready to leave in the Transfer Portal. In the short time since he’s taken over, Belichick has yet to add a player from the portal, though retaining Class of 2025 quarterback Bryce Baker was massive. Now, as more players are making it clear they want to play for Belichick, the number of portal players coming in should expand quickly.

“Absolutely, we’re selling the program,” Belichick said. “But, quite honestly, a lot of players and agents are coming to us, saying, ‘We want to be a part of the program. Is there a spot for us? Will you take this player or that player?’ And so forth. A lot of the agents are also representing players in the Transfer Portal that we’ve dealt with in the National Football League. So, a lot of those relationships now carry over into college football.”

Despite recruiting and the Transfer Portal being unique to college football, Bill Belichick still sees similarities between it and the NFL. In its own right that should give the Tar Heels an advantage under Belichick.

“So, it’s been an interesting process. It’s going fast but it’s fun. It’s great to be at North Carolina, great to be at this great university, and back in the game,” Belichick said. “We’re spending money, not as much as we spent in the NFL, but were tossing around a little bit of money. I enjoy seeing the players get compensated for the arrangement that they’re going to be going into. So, it’s a new landscape in college football but, honestly, it’s different but not too different. This part of the process isn’t too different than what we’ve dealt with in the NFL.”

From here, Bill Belichick is going to need to manage the remainder of the Transfer Portal and sign the rest of North Carolina’s high school class before getting to Spring practice and building his team on the field.