As the football world waits to hear if Bill Belichick takes the coaching job at North Carolina, his former player Rob Gronkowski spoke a bit about what he would expect of his former coach in the college landscape.
While Gronkowski, who played for Belichick with the New England Patriots for nine seasons, didn't doubt Belichick's ability to coach a winning and strong football program, he worries about him taking the job for other reasons: the transfer portal and NIL.
"When you're a head coach in college, it's kind of like not really being a head coach. It's not about all football, it's more about managing the program and also managing these kids and recruiting them," Gronkowski said on the . "I can't see coach Belichick being all-in in that situation. Coaching wise, 100%—on the field getting these players ready for the NFL, that's what he would do. When it comes to recruiting, I think that's the question mark and that's really up to him if he can see himself doing that. Me personally, I could see him getting tired and old with all that transfer portal, NIL stuff going on."
Coaching UNC would be a different atmosphere than what Belichick is used to, for sure. He never had to deal with recruiting or NIL deals when coaching players in the NFL.
Belichick did mention during that he would treat a college football team as an NFL team if he were to work in college. He said it would be a "professional program."
