And the next coach of Carolina Football is…..

For those not up to speed, our original piece about the state of Carolina’s search can be found here: https://tarredandfeathered.blog/2024/12/06/bill-belichick-other-delights/

The frontrunners have shifted as the final hours of the UNC Football head coaching search tick down.

While Tulane fans savage head coach Jon Sumrall for allegedly being, ‘distracted,’ by the UNC job as his team got run over 35-14 by Army (whose coach also interviewed with UNC) for the American Athletic Conference title, it sounds like Sumrall is out of the race. The word on the street is he and the University could not agree on the terms of a possible contract. In public statements after Tulane’s Friday night loss, Sumrall avoided any specificity, but deflected the idea that he would be leaving New Orleans (for whatever that’s worth – we’ve heard outright lies in pressers like that one before). Might he stick around to see if a SEC job opens up for him after next season? It’s quite possible, and his attraction to the possibility of coaching at his alma mater – Kentucky – is well known in the industry. It is also perfectly possible that Sumrall takes a different job in this year’s hiring cycle. While UCF has been (re)taken by Scott Frost and it sounds like Barry Odom to Purdue is a done deal, the West Virginia job is still open as of this writing.

There has been next to no buzz about AAC Champion Army head coach Jeff Monken since the news of his interview with Carolina broke last week. The same is true for Georgia DC Glenn Schumann and Alabama DC Kane Wommack. Schumann did interview, but his Dawgs are headed to the College Football Playoff, in which they will be the no. 2 seed after defeating Texas for the SEC title. It is unclear if Carolina was simply not interested in taking his candidacy further, or if he is prioritizing UGA’s postseason run, or some combination thereof. Whatever the reason, he appears to be out. Alabama is out of the playoff bracket, courtesy of Clemson, who upset the apple cart by winning the ACC at SMU’s expense. So while Kane Wommack is certainly available and there was credible speculation that he would interview with UNC, there has not even been confirmation yet that such a meeting took place.

This leaves us with our final two: Iowa State head coach Matt Campbell and the man who requires no introduction, Bill Belichick. There are rumors in NFL world that Belichick to UNC is a done deal, the contract is all worked out, etc. We do know that UNC AD Bubba Cunningham and Chancellor Lee Roberts flew to Manhattan to meet face-to-face with him on Thursday. Sources around the University are also saying that the feeling is increasingly that Belichick is the man. If so, it’s the splashiest hire in the history of Carolina athletics.

But don’t count Matt Campbell out just yet. Iowa State’s 45-19 loss to the Arizona State Sun Devils dropped the Cyclones out of the College Football Playoff, making him immediately available for hire. AD Cunningham is reportedly very high on Campbell, who has amassed a 63-51 record (including a 10-win season this year) at a historically sub-.500 institution. While Campbell is a strong contender in the eyes of the search committee, it is worth remembering that he has turned down a number of higher paying and more prestigious jobs in the past, to the point that Iowa State fans have cynically come to regard rumors of, “mutual interest,” between their coach and another team as a regular and unremarkable feature of the offseason. Campbell is an extremely loyal coach, and that rare sensibility is something that has definitely made an impression on Carolina.

Whether the hire is Belichick, Campbell, or someone who blindsides us entirely, UNC has shown in this coaching search that it is indeed committed to football. The sport is integral to the future of every other athletic program at the University and the seriousness of that reality is leading to a healthy renewal within the program in Chapel Hill. It’s an exciting time to be a Tar Heel!