College football talking season is here, and there’s only one way to look at this annual media carnival.
Imagine, if you will, the sheer unknown racing around the mind of Team Belichick.
No control, no contrived theater.
No backing out.
We’re about two weeks from ACC Media Days, and there’s nothing North Carolina coach Bill Belichick or his muse – if Belichick calls his 24-year-old girlfriend his muse, so should we – can do about it.
No interrupting media from asking questions, no explaining after the fact that those asking questions knew the ground rules and ignored them, anyway. Or were too stupid to get it.
No hiding behind the NFL shield or ESPN comfort blanket. No demanding to be treated differently because you’re Bill (and the Muse) and everyone else isn’t.
The media days carnival bends the knee to no one. Not the greatest coach in NFL history, not his 20-something muse.
This won’t be some cushy, softball interview from a network weekend morning show that randomly stumbled into an innocent question of how Beli and the Muse met.
For the love of pigskin, it sounds like an Elton John song.
Beli, Beli … Beli and the Muuuuuse.
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Earlier this spring, Belichick showed up at the ACC spring meetings, held annually at the posh digs of the Ritz-Carlton on Amelia Island, Florida. A laid-back, relaxed environment where all ACC coaches and officials speak freely and openly.
Except, of course, Beli. He strolled into the joint about 20 minutes late for his first meeting, banging his roller luggage against the heavy doors before trudging all the way to the front of the ballroom.
Seventeen rows ahead (for 17 schools) to North Carolina’s front row status, hang a right and all the way to the boundary. I made the same walk a few hours later, and half expected Tom Brady to hit me on a perfectly timed post-corner.
Later that day – and I know this is going to shock you – Belichick sat for his first of two (and only two) controlled interviews. One with ACC television partner ESPN, and the other with a local Raleigh, North Carolina, television station.
That’ll all change in two weeks at ACC Media Days. Everyone – and I mean, everyone – will have their chance with Team Belichick. It doesn’t mean Belichick will answer every question, but it does mean it won’t be for a lack of trying by more than 500 media members.
Unlike the NFL, college football conferences hold these events to drum up publicity for the coming season, and more recently, to give television partners offseason content. They’re free-for-alls for any credentialed media member, with no limitations on questions — only time limits.
Belichick, who isn’t exactly the most engaging coach with the media, will have to decide if he wants to filibuster or answer questions. One option is just as painful as the other.
Former Ole Miss coach Hugh Freeze once filibustered his opening remarks for nearly his entire 15-minute time allotment on the main stage. He and Ole Miss were under NCAA investigation, and he didn’t want to answer questions.
So he talked about his backup left tackle, and walk-ons, and anything else he could shovel to prevent media questions. But it never works.
Because the main stage is followed by a round of more question and answer from various other media outlets. Television, radio, electronic media, content partners and finally the ACC Network.
It’s a full four- or five-hour day of the same dang questions over and over, and maybe, just maybe, a few Beli doesn’t want to deal with. A few The Muse better see coming.
Because no matter how much he prepares, how much he’ll try to avoid answers and move on or away from specific questions, Belichick is no different than new Wake Forest coach Jake Dickert in this ball yard. Just a new coach in the league chasing the guy who has done it better than anyone else.
“He’s going to be great for our league,” said Clemson coach Dabo Swinney, whose program has owned the league for more than a decade. “But as great as he’s been, we’re all lifetime learners.”
Translation: six Super Bowl rings and all that NFL capital mean nothing in college football.
Especially on this stage, where the expectation of professionalism went out the window years ago when Tim Tebow was asked at SEC Media Days if he were still a virgin.
If Tebow can handle that, Belichick can surely answer how much power The Muse has within the UNC football program. Much less, how they met.
The Media Days carnival bends the knee to no one.
Not even Beli and the Muse.
Matt Hayes is the senior national college football writer for USA TODAY Sports Network. Follow him on X at @MattHayesCFB.