"We had 4000 kids on this campus": Bill Belichick reveals dealing with overwhelming transfer portal experience after his transition from NFL

Bill Belichick is currently having his first ever season coaching a college football side, with the former New England Patriots coach taking charge of the North Carolina Tar Heels.

He has not been able to adjust well, with the Tar Heels coming into their week six clash with the Clemson Tigers at 2-2 for the season.

Before the game against the Tigers, Belichick spoke with College Game Day. Here, he revealed one of the main differences between college football and the NFL that he had to cope with.

"The volume of recruiting is alot. In the month of June alone we had 4000 kids on campus."

One of the most notable differences between the professional and collegiate game is the way that the teams obtain players for their roster. In the NFL, it is all to do with contracts. These contracts (especially their duration) give coaches an idea of which players could be on the lookout for a new team in the coming offseason, allowing the teams to plan accordingly.

However, this is not the case in college football. Here, any player can move programs irrespective of how long they have been with their current program.

This can lead to the kind of situations that Belichick described in his interview to College Game Day, with over 4000 kids making a visit to Chapel Hill in a month all considering making the switch or commitment to play with Belichick and the Tar Heels. The relaxing of the rules concerning transfers (and the rise of NIL playing a key role in dictating which players stay or leave) only complicated proceedings.

As this was Belichick's first time being involved with this, he was always going to struggle. But, as he slowly learns and adapts to the way college football works (if he stays in the role), he is going to improve.

Bill Belichick on what he learnt from Nick Saban

During his interview with College GameDay, Bill Belichick was able to speak with Nick Saban, with whom he has a prior relationship. Saban spent four years as Belichick's defensive coordinator at the Cleveland Browns in the 1990s. Today, Belichick spoke about what he has learnt from Saban

"I learned an awful lot from Coach Saban. We came from different defensive systems and we merged them together in Cleveland. I learned a lot from him on man-to-man coverage, which we didn't play a lot of in New York (with the Jets). And the 4-3 defense, which he played at Michigan State and Toledo. It was a great experience watching Nick handle the free agents and recruit and build a program at Alabama. I'm very grateful for the relationship that I have with him and all the things that I learned from him. He's the best to have ever done it."

Belichick needs to put this knowledge into action. The Tar Heels opened their ACC campaign against Clemson today, a game they already look very likely to lose. He is going to need to oversee a major turnaround from his team if UNC are going to be a competitive side for the rest of the season.