CHARLOTTE — The first game of the Bill Belichick era will be a spectacle in Chapel Hill with ESPN hosting a live pre-game show and assigning its top college football broadcast team for the sold-out opener against TCU on Sept. 1.
Even Belichick has been surprised by the backing that he and the Tar Heel program has gotten since he took the job in December.
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UNC announced Wednesday that it had sold out of every ticket for its six home games – the earliest in program history that it had done so. Most of that is attributable to the frenzy surrounding Belichick, who won six Super Bowl titles as the head coach of the NFL’s New England Patriots.
“It’s honestly more than I expected,” Belichick said in an interview session Thursday with local media at the ACC Kickoff. “The support, I expected it to be good, but really it’s been fantastic. Everybody has reached out. What can we do to help? What do you need? How can we give you more [of] what you need so we can be successful? There’s a big, obviously, interest and excitement in the season coming up.”
Belichick’s presence at the league’s annual football preview event attracted a throng of media on the final day. Clemson, the league’s top football brand and an expected national title contender, is also at the event Thursday. There was a notable uptick in security for the event.
Among the ESPNers that will be in Chapel Hill for a one-hour live College Football Countdown are former Alabama coach and Belichick assistant Nick Saban, commentator Pat McAfee and former NFL linebacker Tedy Bruschi, who played for Belichick on the Patriots. ESPN’s top college football broadcast team Rece Davis and Kirk Herbstreit will call the game with Holly Rowe as the sideline reporter.
“When you get the greatest coach of all time, there’s going to be a lot of buzz going on,” UNC wide receiver Jordan Shipp said. “But that’s not really what we’re worried about. We’re worried about just getting better every day and just staying where our feet are and really just growing together as a team. It’s great for the hype. It’s great for the program, of course, but I mean like I said, we’re focused on winning games.”
Belichick said he and general manager Michael Lombardi have attended donor events with several hundred people there. And Belichick has been a presence at games involving other programs at UNC, including baseball.
“It’s really fun to be part of a school,” said Belichick, who compared it to growing up in Annapolis, Maryland, where the U.S. Naval Academy is located.
He added: “It’s fun to go to the other games, talk to the other coaches, interact with those student-athletes. We have student-athletes on our team that have also played other sports at Carolina, and so you’re really part of a community.”
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