On Saturday, Kirk Herbstreit and the rest of the College GameDay crew were discussing the recent headlines coming out of Bill Belichick’s program at North Carolina.
This time around, those headlines included reports that the veteran NFL head coach in the midst of a 2-3 debut season at the college level with the Tar Heels was engaging in discussions about a negotiated buyout.
After that began to circulate, both Belichick and UNC released statements saying there was no truth to that.
Belichick took the podium today and reiterated that point, insisting there was :no truth whatsoever” to those recent reports.
That brings us back to the GameDay set, where, while discussing Belichick and those reports on Saturday, Kirk Herbstreit’s phone rang.
As much as we would all like to picture Bill Belichick in his office, or in the comfort of his living room, watching GameDay just like you and I do on a Saturday during his bye week, and seeing he is the topic of conversation and felt the urge to weigh in….well, that’s not quite what happened.
Belichick explains the whole thing went down quite simply.
Asked if he realized he was calling Kirk Herbstret while the cameras were rolling on the GameDay set, he said he did not.
“I did not. He had texted me asking if we could have a quick conversation about this. I said ‘Sure.’ So then I just dialed it.”
“Then, of course, he didn’t answer,” Belichick said with just enough of a grin that leaves you wondering whether he actually knew Herbstreit wasn’t going to be available for that conversation or not.
“I have great respect for Kirk, and have worked with him a number of times, but no, I didn’t realize he was on the air.”
After dropping their last two games, Belichick and the Tar Heels will head west to take on Cal as they’re coming off their bye week this Friday night in front of a nationally televised ESPN audience.
Remaining games for UNC include a home date with a ranked Virginia squad, a trip to Syracuse, home against Stanford, at Wake Forest, home against Duke, and the season finale in-state rivalry game with Dave Doeren and NC State.
At 2-3 currently, the outlook for a bowl berth may seem bleak at this time, but a win against a 4-2 Cal team that had won their first three to open the year before a surprising 34-0 loss to San Diego State could go a long way in sparking a team that has seem uninspired up until this point.
