For any of this to have a chance to matter outside of North Carolina’s famed Research Triangle, Bill Belichick has to make the College Football Playoff. Even that might not get him the recognition he’s craving.

On Monday night in Chapel Hill, Belichick will be back on the sideline. After a year of dabbling in punditry, book-writing and performative dating , the six-time Super Bowl winner will pull on a headset and grab a play sheet to coach North Carolina against TCU.

UNC was already a solid program. It’s coming off of a down year in Mack Brown’s final season in charge, but the Tar Heels have been a team that regularly wins between six and nine games. In most years, they go to a bowl game. Not one of the sport’s venerable classics, but usually a bowl in a mid-sized Southern city (or

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