Joel Klatt explains why Bill Belichick could succeed at North Carolina

The hiring of Bill Belichick by the North Carolina Tar Heels shocked the college football world over the last couple of days, but Joel Klatt is a believer in the potential of the move.

It may sound a little silly debating whether a six-time Super Bowl champion head coach can succeed at the college football, but there’s a real question as to whether Belichick can adjust to an arena he hasn’t fought within. During the latest episode of The Joel Klatt Show, the namesake made Belichick’s case.

“In the new-age, modern style of college football, I believe that the evaluation of talent is paramount. Not just the recruiting of talent, but the evaluation of talent, because it’s just a different way that we are constructing rosters now versus four, five, six years ago, and then throughout the history of college football. It’s such an annual cycle of constructing these rosters due to the transfer portal, due to high school recruiting — it really matters who you’re bringing in on an annual basis. So, the evaluation of talent is really important,” Klatt started. “That’s one of the areas that I think Bill Belichick would really excel. I don’t think that there’s been many guys in the history of our sport, any level, that have evaluated talent better than Bill Belichick.

“Think of all the value he got out of guys, whether they were veterans, when he would bring them in on one and two year contracts. Whether it was middle to late round draft picks that he got a ton of value out of and understood how to get that value out of them on the football field. When it comes just to evaluating talent, as that becomes more paramount and important in college football, a guy like Bill Belichick would absolutely thrive in that environment.”

Aside from the evaluation of talent, Klatt believes Belichick will excel at the valuation of said talent in building North Carolina’s roster: “You’re basically going to be working under a salary cap. … You’re going to have to really be smart in terms of who’s getting those dollars,” he added. “You’ve got to evaluate the talent in order to bring them on the roster, and then you’ve got to value that talent correctly, in terms of the revenue share. That’s a pro model. Bill Belichick did that as well as anybody in the history of the NFL.

“That’s why they were able to sustain such an incredible dynasty over essentially two decades in a league that does everything to drive parity. They don’t want dynasties in the NFL. Everything in the NFL is designed to be 8-8, and yet he sustained success, in large part due to the fact that he was a great evaluator, and then he valued that talent properly, in terms of the way that they paid those players, and I think that is coming to college football.”

Joel Klatt on Bill Belichick, North Carolina: ‘Coaching on the field is gonna matter a lot more’

Finally, Klatt believes that due to the parity we’re going to see throughout the rosters in college football, coaching is going to be paramount moving forward, and Belichick is only arguably the greatest of all time when it comes to that.

“Coaching on the field is gonna matter a lot more,” the FOX Sports analyst proclaimed. “The value of a great coach, an in-game coach, a guy that can coach, I would say, the specificity of the situation and doing it well — they’re going to have a lot more value. They’re going to have a lot more success. Well, again, that is exactly where Bill Belichick is strong. So as the college game moves and morphs and evolves towards a pro model … a guy like Bill Belichick can and will succeed at the college level. I fully believe that.

“… This sport is ready for someone like Bill Belichick, more than it’s ever been. So, that’s why I think it could, and maybe will, work.”

Time will tell if Joel Klatt is right, and whether Bill Belichick is a good fit at the college level. Regardless, it’s going to be fascinating to see how the NFL icon performs, and whether or not he’s able to get the job done in Chapel Hill.

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