CHAPEL HILL – While expectations are understandable Bill Belichick will attract tremendous talent to North Carolina, that is just part of the process in building a winning program with championship aspirations.

A winner of six Super Bowls as a head coach and two more as a defensive coordinator, Belichick knows what he’s looking at. He can see something in unheralded prospects others may miss. He sees value in a potential transfer from a smaller school than many others.

Or so it would seem.

His success as head coach and general manager of the New England Patriots was littered with unsung players becoming stars there. Evaluating potential and then developing those players are one of his specialties, and it goes back to learning alongside his father, who was an assistant at UNC for three years in the 1950s and then for three decades at the Naval Academy.

Bill Belichick is a lifer, and he’s taking all of that into his new job in Chapel Hill.

"What I remember from being with my dad was when we would go scout a game, you had one look at every play. That's it,” he said during his introductory press conference last week. “There was no replay board. There were no TVs in the press box. You had one look at it.

“And he had a pad, that's what he worked off of, and didn't matter was a kickoff return that he was diagramming, a blitz that he was diagramming, or a running player or a pass play. He had to get the whole play. And you had one look, and that's it… He taught me how to watch football, how to watch the key things, how he learned, how he trained his eyes to go from one part of the play to another part of the play based on what the initial read was as a scout.”

That’s how a seventh-round draft pick like Tom Brady becomes a legend. That’s how a quarterback-turned-receiver can have a sensational career, or how so many other players from either obscure situations or facing long odds ended up helping the Patriots sustain themselves as the NFL’s greatest dynasty ever.

At UNC, Belichick took over right in the midst of the transfer portal frenzy with some Tar Heels departing for new schools and a need to replace them and then some.

Belichick had a fair idea of what Carolina’s roster was like before taking the job, so it wasn’t as if he just got started last week on that front. But looking at transfer prospects from Holy Cross to Mercer to South Carolina requires the legend leaning on what his dad taught him.

Once the player arrives, Belichick relies on his ability to get maximum value from a player. It trickles down to his staff, too. That aspect of taking the UNC job excited Belichick perhaps as much as any other. It will be different from the NFL.

“The NFL is a combination of a lot of things,” Belichick said. “But if you look at the players we had in the NFL, Tom Brady was a fourth-string quarterback as rookie year. He didn't exactly come in with any playing time at all. (Rob) Gronkowski, he didn't do too much his rookie year. Julian Edelman played quarterback in college, then he was a wide receiver, then he was a punter returner.

“So, developing players is something that Michael (Lombardi) and I believe strongly in, and we'll support that with the staff, and we'll support that with the program.”

Lombardi is UNC’s general manager. He will run a massive staff focused on player personnel from scouting high school prospects, transfers, and gauging effectiveness from helping immediately or long term within the program. Lombardi worked closely with Belichick for three of his six Super Bowls with the Patriots.

Together, they will build football bridges for so many young Tar Heels hoping to have football remain in their lives after they leave.

“There's a lot of opportunity and room for growth for all players, whether 19, 20, or honestly, 22 or 23,” Belichick said. “Now look, there's a certain point in their NFL career where they kind of level off, or maintain that is really where they're really at. But there's so much growth in players. And again, I just think there's a little more time to do it here at the college level, and I'm excited about that opportunity."

That Belichick is at UNC and embarking on running a college program for the first time is the most intriguing sports story in the nation and has placed UNC Football on front pages everywhere.

Belichick will use this and his track record to reel in a tremendous amount of diverse talent. Then, he and his staff will coach them up like they did in the NFL. That’s the mission.