Mike McCarthy Reacts To Bill Belichick Landing The North Carolina Job
12/11/2024 07:07 PM
Former New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick surprised the football world by accepting the North Carolina Tar Heels coaching job, taking his coaching career to the college level for the first time.
Belichick accepting the UNC job means that he's no longer a candidate for any NFL jobs, including the Dallas Cowboys. The eight-time Super Bowl champion had been linked to the team for the last few months, as many cited his relationship with Jerry Jones.
Current Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy is in the final year of his contract, and he's expected to be fired at the end of the season even after endorsements from top players like Dak Prescott and Mike McCarthy.
With one of his potential competitors for his job now out of the running, McCarthy reacted to Belichick taking the Tar Heels job.
"Wow, that's great. That's a beautiful place," McCarthy said, according to ESPN's Todd Archer.
"No, I'm serious. I think it's cool, I really do. Coaching is coaching. I'll say one thing – they'll be someone to be reckoned with."
Belichick will now be in charge of a program looking to find itself in the new ACC. After the addition of teams like SMU, Stanford and Cal, the ACC has grown past the regional conference it used to be.
Belichick has a plan to handle the new realities of college football, choosing to have two separate staffs to handle coaching and recruiting instead of managing the entire program himself.
McCarthy will now focus on finishing the season with the Cowboys, who are now all but eliminated from playoff contention with last week's close loss to the Cincinnati Bengals.
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The Cowboys may choose to run things back in 2025 after the various injuries the team suffered this season, and we'll see if that includes a return for McCarthy as head coach.
If he does come back, the Cowboys would need to sign him to a new contract or offer him an extension as he has no time left on his current deal.
This year was a make-or-break season for McCarthy, and the Cowboys are out of the playoff hunt due to circumstances out of his or anyone else's control.
We'll see what happens with McCarthy in Dallas and with Belichick in Chapel Hill as the coaches prepare to take divergent paths.
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