Bill Belichick calls into College GameDay while Herbstreit and crew discussion of his future with Tar Heels
The College GameDay set was buzzing bright and early as the showed aired from the shadow of Autzen Stadium.
While Dan Lanning’s appearance with Nick Saban, Desmond Howard, Pat McAfee and the rest of the crew ended with a viral moment between the Ducks leader and McAfee standing on chairs and taking their shirts off, it was an incoming phone call from an embattled coach who has dominated headlines for all the wrong reasons that surprised many more viewers at home.
With a 9am EST start time, the GameDay set went live well before the sun came up in Eugene, and one of the storylines the crew covered was the report days earlier that Bill Belichick and UNC had discussed a potential exit strategy / negotiated buyout following a disappointing start to his tenure in Chapel Hill.
Both North Carolina and Belichick came out with joint statements rebuffing those claims, with Belichick stating he was “fully committed” to the program they’re building there, and AD Bubba Cunningham sharing that Belichick has “the full support” of the athletic department and university,
Regardelss, Belichick reportedly spent the next few evenings doing damage control with recruits and Tar Hells commits, all of which led to Pete Thamel and the rest of the crew weighing in with their thoughts on the Belichick era and where things seem to be heading at UNC earlier today.
While Herbstreit was providing his insight, which opened with, “I think the most important thing is, is to understand,” he paused momentarily to show his phone in the direction of Saban and McAfee, before going on to add “that he is completely bought into what’s happening with this team and with this program. And him leaving or the idea of him leaving…I can’t answer that,” he grinned.
McAfee pressed Herbstreit to answer it, insisting Belichick was watching the show and was hearing his name being brought up.
“Answer that. He has to be watching right now. That’s literally Bill Belichick calling Kirk Herbstreit. He probably has something to say,” McAfee said.
“Yeah, he probably does,” Herbstreit added.
Answering that phone call could have provided an absolute must-watch moment in the show’s storied history, but instead we’re left to wonder what could have been.
