ESPN radio host compares Bill Belichick at UNC to Deion Sanders at Colorado

How does Bill Belichick’s path to the UNC head coaching job compare him to Colorado’s Deion Sanders?

Despite the fact we’re in the middle of college basketball season, all the excitement surrounding the North Carolina Tar Heels is within their football program.

On Wednesday, December 11, UNC hired NFL legend Bill Belichick as its next head football coach. Belichick won six Super Bowl as the New England Patriots‘ head coach, plus several more AFC East titles, so the hope is he can turn North Carolina into that same powerhouse.

We’re already starting to see several high-profile players commit to the Tar Heels, plus several more withdraw their names from the transfer portal.

With the Bill Belichick effect in full swing – and if Belichick can turn UNC’s offseason momentum into victories – ESPN radio host Paul Hembekides says North Carolina will soon contend for a National Championship.

“Hembo,” as the radio host is more commonly known, compares Belichick’s potential at UNC to what Deion Sanders did with Colorado.

The Tar Heels haven’t come remotely close to the CFP Title game, but they did appear in the 2015 and 2022 ACC Championships. UNC has three ranked finishes since 1997, with its highest being sixth in the 1997 AP Poll.

“If Bill Belichick can improve Carolina to the same extent to which Deion Sanders improved Colorado, we’re talking about a legitimate National Title contender,” Hembo said on the air Wednesday. “We’re talking, at minimum, about a College Football Playoff team and a team at the very top of the ACC. To me, that is attainable. It is achievable because I think Bill Belichick is smart enough – and is going to outsmart and out-coach – 90 percent of those guys in his sleep. It’s going to come down to the finer points, the details about running a college program. But you just can’t really know until you’re in it – and that, of course, is going to be the thing that Bill Belichick and his staff have to do a lot of catching up on.”

Sanders, an 8-time Pro Bowler and 1994 NFL Defensive Player of the Year, never coached in college before taking the Jackson State in 2020.

Belichick, who hasn’t coached in college before, is in good company. I’m confident Belichick’s NFL success will translate to UNC, as college football becomes increasingly professional in the NIL world.

Follow us @TarHeelsWire on X and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of North Carolina Tar Heels news, notes and opinions.