CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (WNCN) – One of the greatest to ever work the sidelines on the gridiron is set to join the college ranks in Chapel Hill.
Legendary NFL coach Bill Belichick, who led the New England Patriots to six Super Bowl titles, will be the next head football coach at the University of North Carolina, according to Ian Rapoport of the NFL Network and NFL.com.
“The deal is done,” Rapoport posted on social media around 5:30 p.m. Wednesday.
The 72-year-old coach stepped away from football this year after parting ways with the Patriots following the 2023 season. CBS 17 first learned of Belichick’s consideration from Inside Carolina.
He’s set to replace Mack Brown, who was fired nearly two weeks ago after six years leading the Tar Heels. Under Brown’s tutelage, UNC compiled a 44-33 overall record during his second stint at the school, ending this season at 6-6.
Brown, inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2018, concluded his time with the Tar Heels as the winningest coach among active FBS head coaches, accumulating a career record of 282-149 between his stints at Tulane, Texas and UNC. The 73-year-old also finished his tenure winning a program-record 113 games.
UNC tight ends coach and run game coordinator Freddie Kitchens, a former head coach of the Cleveland Browns, is currently slated as the Tar Heels’ interim coach in preparation for their upcoming bowl game against UConn later this month.
Belichick, who’s only about seven months younger than Brown, arrives at UNC during a turbulent and ever-changing landscape in college football, amid the rise of name, image and likeness (NIL) deals for student-athletes as well as free player movement through the transfer portal era.
He even has slight ties to the university, dating back to when his father, Steve Belichick, spent two seasons as UNC’s backfield coach between 1953 and 1955. A photo of Belichick inside Kenan Memorial Stadium as a child went viral on Monday after being shared during a media appearance on ESPN.
This marks the first time Belichick has ever worked at the collegiate level, following monumental success alongside quarterback Tom Brady across most of his historic 24-year tenure with the Patriots. Since departing from New England, he’s been in the running for other NFL job openings, most notably the Atlanta Falcons back in January.
On Monday, the Super Bowl-winning coach appeared on “The Pat McAfee Show,” saying he had “a couple of good conversations” with UNC Chancellor Lee Roberts amid recent speculation of him being linked to the job opening.
“I’ve had the opportunity to talk to Chancellor Roberts and we’ve had a couple of good conversations,” Belichick said. “So we’ll see how it goes.”
Although he didn’t go into extensive detail about his UNC discussions, Belichick broke down the parallels between overseeing an NFL franchise and running a college program, especially now that players can profit off their athletic exploits with endorsements and revenue sharing on the horizon.
“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 Monday. “It would be a professional program: training, nutrition, scheme, coaching, techniques that would transfer to the NFL.”
“It would be an NFL program at a college level,” he added.
The exact contract details regarding Belichick’s hiring are unknown at this time.
