UNC & Bill Belichick Turmoil Recap with Pat Welter on the Dan Patrick Show
We make the segue into the situation with Bill Belichick
at North Carolina
Pat Welter has done a wonderful job
Uh he's all over this story
He's a sports anchor WRALTB in Raleigh North Carolina
Pat how would you sum up what's happened the last
couple of days here with Bill Belichick and North Carolina
football Yeah uh Dan it's an honor to be on
with you guys today
Happy birthday to to Todd Fritz and It's been a
whirlwind
Um you know I felt like we were ready to
break the story as recently as Friday Dan uh before
the Clemson game uh and we made a decision to
to wait a couple more days and I think that
was instrumental in allowing our reporting to kind of Start
the the the avalanche of information that's come out
Um you know I was able to speak to a
lot of sources at the Clemson game and that's when
I really knew I had something Dan was when there
was sources I've had relationships with for years on this
story
When I was just walking around meeting people
With direct knowledge of the program that I had no
relationship with and they were immediately volunteering information to me
Things like from a parent my son has no idea
what's going on
It is a complete mess
So that's what we've reported and we're seeing the fallout
of it since and we're seeing UNC make direct action
after some of the things that have come out
OK but where are we today with this story So
yesterday kind of the development was we're coming off this
statement right We have this statement that comes out uh
late the night prior and it's very brief and it
comes from Baba Cunningham and it comes from Bill Belichick
basically saying Belichick's committed to UNC football and UNC athletics
is committed to him
And this was on the heels and based on conversations
I had yesterday with sources multiple levels UNC decision makers
They wanted to calm the noise
They wanted to calm what they referred to as rumors
and those rumors were related to uh 247 Tar Heel
sports uh report about there being exit strategy conversations and
other reports of Bill Belichick looking into triggering his own
contract
Now I spent basically all day on the phones trying
to run this down and I think it's clear I
think it's important to note that I was told by
multiple levels of UNC decision makers and my colleague Brian
Murphy that there were no exit strategy conversations that there
were no conversations of Bill triggering his own buyout
But I have to acknowledge right that that does not
mean necessarily that that did not happen
Like I'm not in those rooms
These are what these people are telling me they're all
telling me the same thing
So there's no obligation I think to report it in
fairness but I think you also have to acknowledge there's
a gap there
We can only know so much and I respect uh
Andrew Jones who had that report so I think you
have to just take the information and sort it out
with what you know and and what you wanna believe
Is Bill Belichick coaching North Carolina against Cal a week
from Saturday I can't tell you I can't tell you
I just know that this has escalated day by day
and I would say hour by hour
Uh it's to be quite literally Dan minute by minute
I'll tell you this morning uh I sent an email
to UNC Athletics trying to get confirmation of a player
to see if he was still with the program
An hour later the player I asked about has a
graphic ready to go on social media that's just broke
from running back Caleb Hood
After much thought prayer and discussion with my family I've
decided to retire from football
My journey at UNC has been special and I appreciate
my time here
You can look on on social media if you want
to see that full statement
That is the player I asked about because of the
tip that I got there
Ironic in a way Dan because this season if you
remember that first game versus TCU there was that one
moment where everyone all the hype all the buzz which
was so real right This was incredible
Carolina drives down their first possession of the season
Caleb Hood scores the touchdown the place goes bonkers
Skip Bayless had some tweet about it being amazing
I know I I was like this guy's Nick Saban
I'm like he's gonna do it
They're doing it you know and uh it has been
downhill ever since and uh it's it's fitting poetry that
I think now Caleb Hood after this week is leaving
the program and obviously I'm gonna look into more as
to why but I think just kind of that paints
a picture for you where we're at
I don't know what role the media played in this
The national media in hyping this up
It's Belichick it's North Carolina
It's the ACC it's not the SEC or the Big
10
Um certainly can win more than Mack Brown does when
Mack would win 6 games
Occasionally he'd win you know a few more and go
to a bowl game there
But I locally did you guys have the same expectations
as maybe the national media had on Bill Belichick Yeah
we're we're all complicit in this in a way right
And and I really don't fault
I my point of my story was never to fault
the people that decided to hire Bill Belichick
I think you could certainly make an argument they should
have vetted this more right Because they have access to
that information that nobody else has during their hiring process
But yeah I think we're all part of the hype
you know and how could you not be This is
an incredible story
This is the story of my of my lifetime
It's certainly the biggest thing I've ever covered and I
grew up in New England
I'm from Londonderry New Hampshire
As a student at Emerson College I got to go
to the Super Bowl versus the Giants
I asked Bill Belichick a question at the Super Bowl
and then for me to come to Carolina
And then for him to end up here and I'm
covering him breaking news about his hiring process after Matt
Brown was fired around Thanksgiving which is really when this
all started for me
Um it's been a trip so I think you know
I've tried to just kind of I tell people I'm
trying to bring the same energy and the same passion
and same disciplined reporting
That I did to the hiring process that I did
to the excitement and to the fun and what I'm
doing right now to I guess if you want to
call it downfall but uh there's no there's no agenda
here
I'm just trying to tell people what I know
I've been covering this team for 4+ years
I know a lot of people and people are very
very upset
And when you look at the results on the field
when you're gonna be the highest paid employee in the
state
And you're gonna be one of the worst teams in
all of college football
That's not me saying that Dan that is statistical fact
Completely uncompetitive in power for games
120 to 33 is the scoring differential
People deserve to know what's going on and why and
I think our reporting has shed a light on that
If I gave athletic department a do-over you keep Mac
Brown
What would they do I think Macro I think really
it's diammetric right the difference between Mac Brown
Yeah and in some ways that's what they were seeking
because you know Matt Brown came here 2nd stint in
Chapel Hill
So respected national champion University of Texas has had some
of the best seasons Carolina football has ever seen
Means a lot to this state means a lot to
this community and he treated people as such uh and
he welcomed the media as such
But I think if you were gonna criticize them you
look at the downfall of Matt Brown was James Madison
last year where they gave up 70 points inexplicable
Then they go on the road lose to Boston College
in a If I'm allowed to say a kind of
uninspired performance at a minimum and that was the nail
in the coffin for Rack Brown and his time here
and you know it was honestly probably time to move
on
They had tapped out so what they wanted to do
was take another step
Everybody knows like in the world of conference realignment you
have to be all in on football
You can't be just a basketball school
So everything for Carolina was well-intentioned in bringing Bill Belichick
in
It's just has gone spectacularly wrong in ways that I
don't know that anyone really could have foreseen
Does Belichick have any media availability coming up aside from
game days Yeah it's been both convenient for him and
maybe convenient for us uh reporting on this as well
that this came as a bye week uh and it
was a bye week before Clemson as well and I
think that's allowed me to do a lot of work
um cause like I I've been working on this since
the spring band like that's when the tip came in
and I I I've been just running this down until
I thought I had it
Uh he is a media availability on Monday um I'm
gonna go
That's gonna be an interesting experience for me
Um I'm certainly gonna try to ask a question you
know I I've been coordinating with UNC trying to work
with them throughout this when I have information
I'm not breaking it until I run it by them
for a chance to respond
Uh and and we're working on that right now
We have a story that we were ready to break
yesterday
And just to give you an example of how strange
this is Dan
I'm at the point now where I can't even assume
the people I am texting and calling are the people
that they say to be
That's all I can say but at this point now
like I am questioning like that's not the level we
are at because inside the building in Carolina they know
there's a leak they're trying to find it and I
am kind of ears and eyes wide open to really
everything and anything at this point but I could tell
you that our reporting directly led to the suspension of
assistant football coach Armand Hawkins
And our continued prying into that story led to the
statement and the official confirmation from UNC on his suspension
yesterday afternoon and there's a key piece in their statement
that they say he will remain on leave as the
Department of Athletics further investigates other potential actions detrimental to
the team university
Those are what we are looking into
So that's all I can share at this moment but
I think there's more stories to come
OK
Uh good luck with that
And trust your gut trust your instincts but man you
know nail it down nail it down because there this
is serious stuff
But it hey that's why we do this
When you get these opportunities go for it
Yes sir
I appreciate that and uh this means a lot being
on here with you
You're one of the reasons I do this so I
really appreciate the opportunity
Thank you Pat
Good luck
That's uh Pat Welter W R A L TV sports
anchor Raleigh North Carolina
Yeah all of a sudden you get a tip then
you get in and then all of a sudden you're
in and then you start to find out more and
more and that's when people start questioning your reporting you
know you're local why aren't you on our team Why
don't you support the team Like there's a lot of
things that go on when you do local reporting especially
at a university whether it's a you know high-end basketball
or high-end football
Hey we're all in this together
Why are you uh you know reporting negative stuff But
you got to hold true to what you're doing
And uh you know hopefully Pat has that opportunity