CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (WGHP) — The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has finalized a deal with former New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick on Wednesday to make him their next head football coach, ESPN and CBS Sports have reported.
InsideCarolina’s Grant Hughes first reported that Belichick interviewed for the job around a week ago. Belichick met with Carolina a second time in New York on Thursday, according to InsideCarolina.
ESPN’s Adam Schefter went on “The Pat McAfee Show” on Monday and reported that Belichick and UNC officials spoke for five hours on Sunday.
All of those meetings led to the sides beginning to finalize terms to bring the eight-time Super Bowl-winning coach to Chapel Hill.
Board Chair John P. Preyer reportedly lead the push to get Belichick to North Carolina.
Belichick’s qualifications
Belichick, 72, is considered by many to be the greatest NFL head coach of all time and was the architect of the New England Patriots dynasty from 2001-2019.
Belichick served as New England’s coach and de-facto general manager during those years and led the team to six championships. He also won two Super Bowls as the New York Giants’ defensive coordinator in the 1980s.
Belichick appeared on “The Pat McAfee Show” on Monday and outlined his plan if he were in charge of a college program.
“If I was in a college program, the college program would be a pipeline to the NFL for the players that had the ability to play in the NFL,” Belichick said. “It would be a professional program with training, nutrition, scheme and coaching techniques that would transfer to the NFL. It would be an NFL program at a college level. It would be an education that would get the players ready for their career after football, whether that’s college or the NFL.”
Belichick would replace Mack Brown, Carolina’s all-time wins leader, who the team fired on Nov. 26. Brown first coached the program from 1988-1997 before he left for the University of Texas where he won a national championship. He returned to Chapel Hill for a second stint in 2018.
Belichick, also considered by many to be among football’s greatest defensive minds, could help fix the Tar Heels defense that has struggled mightily the last five seasons.
The defensive struggles that Carolina fans often bemoaned about likely played a large part in the decision to fire Brown. With the exception of 2020, the Tar Heels consistently fielded a below-average defense which cost the team greatly during Brown’s second stint.
The issues persisted through several changes at defensive coordinator throughout the past six seasons and reached a breaking point following a 70-50 loss to James Madison University in Chapel Hill during the 2024 season.
Belichick, despite his professional accolades, has never coached on a full-time basis at the college level.
He “mutually parted ways” with the Patriots following the conclusion of the 2023 NFL season after a disappointing 4-13 finish.
He served in a consulting role with the University of Washington during the 2024 season. His son, Stephen Belichick, is currently Washington’s defensive coordinator.
Belichick’s ties to Chapel Hill
His father Steve
Belichick’s father, Steve Belichick, served as an assistant coach at UNC in the 1950s before spending over 30 years as an assistant coach at the United States Naval Academy.
Belichick has cited his father as the man who inspired him to become a football coach.
“He wanted to be with me, and I wanted to be with him,” Steve said of a young Belichick to the Washington Post in 2005. “He was probably 5 or 6 years old when he started to get interested. The three of us drove down to William & Mary to scout a spring game because we were going to play them in the next year, and that’s when I remember him showing his first interest. I’d take him to games with me when I could. He was always interested in what I was doing. He was never a bother.”
Steve died in November 2005, but Belichick still strives to keep his father’s legacy alive many years later.
He wore his father’s fedora ahead of the Patriots’ game against the Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl LII.
“It’s my dad’s hat,” Belichick said to the media during the opening night festivities, according to ESPN. “That’s who I learned from, working hard, doing your job, paying attention to details, treating the players as fairly and honestly as you can treat them. If it’s good, it’s good, if it’s bad, it’s bad. Just being honest with them. I would say all of those things I got from a lot of coaches, but I certainly got it from him.”
Belichick’s potential arrival to North Carolina would grant him the chance to win at a place where his father cut his teeth as a young coach.
Schefter reported on “The Pat McAfee Show” on Monday that; “There’s a sentimental tie with his father having been there [at UNC].”
Lawrence Taylor
As mentioned earlier, Belichick made his name in professional coaching as the defensive coordinator of the New York Giants in the 1980s working under Hall of Fame coach Bill Parcells.
During that time, Belichick got to coach Lawrence Taylor, a player that many consider to be the greatest defensive player in the history of football.
Belichick holds great reverence for Taylor. That showed when he was asked to compare him to Dallas Cowboys star Micah Parsons in 2023.
“I would just say I wouldn’t put anybody ahead of Lawrence Taylor, period,” Belichick said, according to CBS Sports. “Maybe I’m prejudiced but I saw that guy every day for over a decade and he tilted the field for a decade. Until somebody does that, and there’s a lot of great players. I’m not taking anything away from anybody else. There’s a lot of great players that have been in this league, that are in this league, but personally, I’m not putting anybody ahead of Lawrence Taylor. Not yet.”
Before he starred in the NFL though, Lawrence Taylor spent his college days in Chapel Hill.
