SI

'Truth-Teller' Emmanuel Acho Explains Why Bill Belichick Will Not Succeed at UNC

Acho offers a strong take on Belichick's UNC future.

Kyle Koster

Bill Belichick's time at North Carolina will be fascinating.
Bill Belichick's time at North Carolina will be fascinating. / Bob Breidenbach / USA TODAY NETWORK

Bill Belichick's surprising decision to go after the North Carolina coaching job and the university's willingness to conduct such a grand experiment is fascinating for so many reasons. One of which is that not a single soul on Earth can tell you with any certainty if he'll conquer this brave new world. Considering the available evidence, a person can deduce that the greatest living football coach can probably figure out how to successfully coach football again, even if there are some significant differences for him to navigate on the fly. A different person familiar with his personality and conclude that this is a classic square peg-round hole situation and there's going to be all sorts of friction as he tries to make everything fit.

FS1's Emmanuel Acho is in the second camp.

"This is not going to work," Acho said in a video as he got into his car. "College is all about recruiting and Bill Belichick cannot recruit."

To support his argument, The Facility frontman dove into the research as it pertains to any recruiting-type behavior Belichick has attempted in the past.

"During the COVID year, when players had the ability to opt out without penalty, you want to know the team that had the most opt outs and it wasn't even close? The New England Patriots ... the Patriots had eight players opt out in the COVID year. I think the next closest team had two opt out players."

Acho, who played for Mack Brown, the person Belichick is replacing, compared his former coach and the Hoodie. Per Acho, Brown was one of the most hands-off leaders he ever played for while the new guy in Chapel Hill is intensely hands-on.

"You cannot do that in college," Acho concluded. "You're no longer dealing with grown men, you are dealing with kids maturing into men. You have to have a high E.Q.—emotional intelligence. Bill Belichick has an I.Q. that's incredibly high. It's not going to work. It's not going to work. The only reason you might want to potentially believe it'll work is because he does have a 24-year-old girlfriend who was 23 at the time he recruited her. That's all I'm saying."

More of the Latest Around College Football

feed

Published
Kyle Koster
KYLE KOSTER

Kyle Koster is an assistant managing editor at Sports Illustrated covering the intersection of sports and media. He was formerly the editor in chief of The Big Lead, where he worked from 2011 to '24. Koster also did turns at the Chicago Sun-Times, where he created the Sports Pros(e) blog, and at Woven Digital.

Home/College Football