October 09, 2025
I started this commentary three days ago … sensing that it would be outdated as soon as it was posted … BOY, was I correct. So I decided to wait a few days as speculation is running faster than Usain Bolt with his pants on fire.
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As regular visitors to Ye Olde Website will attest, I avoid jumping on bandwagons when it comes to evaluating sports-related issues. In the grand scheme of LIfe, “sports-related issues” rarely rise above the trivial level. Ask any parent with a child at St Jude’s Hospital how concerned they are about “The Belichick Experiment at UNCCH” … ???
Pretty much EVERY media platform on the planet IS transfixed on whether “The Belichick Experiment ….” is “a Trainwreck” or “a Dumpster Fire”. That it is indeed one of the two is beyond question.
UNLESS one is UNC Football GM Mike Lombardi or a hard-core member of The Franklin Street Sleeping Giant Is Us Society convinced that 3-4 more years and a buncha millions more Booster Bucks and everything will be hunky dory. LOL…
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UNCONFIRMED RUMOR: UNCCH’s self-appointed Head Football Coach Hirer / Former BOT Chair John Preyer is in negotiation with the booking agent for “Bad Bunny” as pre-game entertainment for the next Belichickian Embarrassment “amid Kenan’s lofty pines”. … Again UNCONFIRMED; but with this Preyer character one never knows …
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To maintain a modicum of relevance to the Belichickian Speculation Wildfire allow me to activate Mr. Peabody’s WayBack Machine and remind one & all how UNC Football has become the #1 PunchLine in American Sports.
Among Hall of Famer Mack Brown’s various skill set has always been his uncanny ability to “work a room” and make everyone he meets feel like his new best friend. That is not meant as a criticism, simply a fact.
A large number of UNCCH’s “Lower Level” Rams Club Fat Cats fell under his spell … as did many 18 y/o recruits at both UNC and at Texas. Alas, Mack’s amicability lost much of its value with the arrival of the infamous NIL /Portal Era. These days “a briefcase fulla Benjamins” is about all that matters.
Anyhooo, former UNC BOT Chair John Preyer had, by his own admission, not been much of a football fan … until he became Mack’s latest “new best friend” about two years ago. No fool … Mack knew his future as UNC HFC was in doubt … and having the easily manipulated BOT Chair in his pocket might come in handy.
Between Mack’s aging health issues and the rapid evolution of a New Era of Big Time College Football … Mack’s “stepping down” was a “when” not an “if”.
Mack, and his agent- wife Sally, had worked out – and AGREED TO – an exit strategy with then AD Bubba Cunningham for Mack to “retire” at the end of last season with a nice going away “buy-out” and public plaudits aplenty for his contributions to UNC Football. Again … more than “fair” and AGREED TO by all parties.
After yet another (4th in a row) season-ending loss to Hated Rival NC State … Bubba left Chapel Hill with Hubert’s basketball team for a tournament in Hawaii … and Mack held his season-ending press conference … uh oh …
Mack announced “I WILL be back coaching UNC Football next season …” … in direct violation of his agreement with Bubba. As soon a Bubba heard that … Hawaii DOES have cellphone service – Who Knew? … Bubba FIRED the lying sumbitch.
Mack was sure all his “BFFs” in the upper tier of the Rams Club would back his “power play”. WRONG … but one “new best friend” did …
NOTE: “Mack’s best friends” will forever blame Bubba because they will never know The Truth. The outreach of this commentary not being quite that vast.
Mack’s latest “new best friend” John Preyer was mortified that “his best friend” Mack was treated so rudely. Having no f’in clue what had transpired twixt Mack/Sally and Bubba and without discussing the situation with Bubba, “NumbNutz” Preyer publicly insulted Bubba… and set out on his own to hire UNC’s next HFC …
FWIW … Bubba, knowing he needed to replace Mack, albeit under different circumstances, had already prepared “a short list” of the Tulane guy … the Army guy … and former UNC player and former Atlanta Falcons’ Head Coach Arthur Smith. Each one of which had the experience and skill set to be successful.
BUT … word quickly spread among the tight-knit football coaching fraternity that UNC’s coaching search was a total “Cluster F*** thanks totally to JOHN PREYER … holding secret (?) negotiations with “Belichick’s people”. WTF … BILL BELICHICK ???
Preyer knew as much about Belichick’s career – with / without Brady – and why no NFL team wanted him as your Aunt Betty’s parakeet. I take that back. Aunt Betty’s parakeet would have done a better job of due diligence than Preyer did.
So much for “Bubba’s short list” of legitimate candidates … who could blame’em.
In retrospect, maybe Bubba should have “gone public” and exposed the whole glorious mess with Preyer. That’s not Bubba Cunningham’s style. He’s “a company man”.
Chancellor Roberts’ coulda stepped in … coulda woulda shoulda … ???
UNC Brd of Governors Exec Peter Haas did speak out … to the extent of admonishing Preyer for his totally unprofessional interference.
MAYBE … despite every Warning Sign screaming otherwise … the Belichick Experiment might have worked ??? So “UNC officials” went along with Idiot Preyer’ $50,000,000 harebrained idea .
… and Here We Are …
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To present day … Thurs / October 9 … 5 PM …
Yesterday, Bubba delivered “the kiss of death” to JordOn’s Sugar Daddy … the dreaded Vote of Confidence that traditionally tells a coach on the hot seat “don’t buy green bananas”.
The usual chain of events is “fire a Coordinator” first; but since one of Belichick’s sons is the DC, that won’t work.
Hopefully whatever “parting ways” strategy is negotiated will go better than the one described above with Mack.
Since a majority of Team Belichick are his family or friends and their families and assorted “yes men” from his Patriot days … terminating Belichick prior to the end of this TrainWreck / Dumpster Fire of a season would create unimaginable problems for UNC.
Who knows … they might come within a TD or two of a W over the next six weeks … or not. Am I the only one who still remembers Matt Doherty’s final season … YIKES!
Personally, I do not “blame” Bill Belichick AT ALL for this mess. If someone called you out of the blue and offered you $10,000,000 plus several millions for your sons and friends … with zero downside other than being part of the biggest Screw-Up at UNC since The Great Unpleasantness AKA “Dean’s AfAm Eligibility Scam” … wouldn’t you take it?
Bill, JordOn and their buddies can celebrate Thanksgiving on Nantucket … and not have to pretend they like “sweet tea”, hushpuppies and banana puddin’.
Art Chansky’s idea of bringing in former UNC / NFL player Jeff Saturday to put a team on the field for the remaining seven games would be fraught with its problems.
The oft-noted “70 new players” in the reported turmoil of the Kenan locker room are likely already booking one-way tickets out of Chapel Hill … 2026 “recruits” are back “in the market”.
Future home games “amid Kenan’s lofty pines” this Fall will only require one open concession stand and a coupla porta-potties to handle “the crowd”.
Whoever takes over college football’s version of “The Titanic” will face a monumental challenge but with no unrealistic expectations for 2-3 years. The Sleeping Giant will be in a coma on life support.
And so it goes …. in The Southern Part of Heaven.. Choo Choo weeps. … sigh.
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