In one of the crucial beautiful and compelling strikes in school soccer historical past, six-time Super Bowl-winning coach Bill Belichick was named the brand new head coach at North Carolina on Wednesday evening.
UNC officers mentioned the perimeters agreed to a five-year deal pending approval by the board of trustees, which is scheduled to carry an emergency assembly Thursday.
Belichick, 72, labored within the NFL in some capability from 1975 till his divorce from the New England Patriots after the 2023 season. This will likely be his first school teaching job.
Belichick’s father, Steve, served as an assistant coach for the Tar Heels from 1953 to 1955.
“I grew up round school soccer with my dad and treasured these instances,” Belichick mentioned as a part of a launch asserting the transfer. “I’ve all the time needed to teach in school and now I sit up for constructing the soccer program in Chapel Hill.”
Belichick’s hiring at North Carolina, which hasn’t gained an ACC soccer title since 1980, was spearheaded by board chair John P. Preyer, who had homed in on Belichick in current weeks. Sources instructed ESPN that the perimeters met a number of instances at size, together with for 5 hours Sunday, and people talks culminated with Belichick finalizing the deal Wednesday.
For a program awash in apathy and mediocrity, this marks a definite and compelling shift from Mack Brown, as Belichick provides the Tar Heels an unprecedented jolt of star energy for 2025 and past.
Tar Heels athletic director Bubba Cunningham mentioned hiring Belichick positions this system nicely amid the altering panorama of school sports activities.
“Bill Belichick is a soccer legend and hiring him to steer our program represents a brand new strategy that can guarantee Carolina Football can evolve, compete and win — right now and sooner or later,” Cunningham mentioned within the faculty’s information launch. “At Carolina, we imagine in offering championship alternatives and the very best expertise attainable for our student-athletes, and Coach Belichick shares that dedication.”
Michael Lombardi, a former NFL govt who additionally was an assistant underneath Belichick with the Patriots from 2014 to 2016, mentioned Wednesday evening he would function the final supervisor of the Tar Heels’ program.
The Patriots’ six Super Bowls underneath Belichick are an NFL report. (He gained two extra as an assistant coach with the New York Giants.) He enters school soccer with 333 NFL wins, behind solely Don Shula’s report of 347.
North Carolina fired Brown, 73, on Nov. 26 after a 6-6 season, ending his second stint on the faculty with a 44-33 report over six years. He coached the Tar Heels’ regular-season finale, a 35-30 loss to NC State, then mentioned it was a “nice time for me to get out.”
The hiring of the famously aloof Belichick, who joked Monday on “The Pat McAfee Show” about his information convention aura, represents a big shift from Brown’s syrupy Southern allure.
Belichick has spent his 12 months away from the sideline doing a number of media jobs whereas making it clear he needed to return to teaching. After exploring a number of NFL positions final 12 months following his departure from New England, it was anticipated Belichick would discover the NFL market once more.
But sources instructed ESPN {that a} return to teaching typically had been paramount for Belichick. He spent a number of time round his former assistant, Washington Huskies coach Jedd Fisch, and speaking to buddies and former assistant coaches round school soccer. Belichick’s son Stephen is the Huskies’ defensive coordinator and is predicted to be concerned with the North Carolina employees ultimately.
Through the NFL draft yearly, Belichick has constructed up a reserve of school coach confidants, and he has popped up at locations reminiscent of Washington, Rutgers and LSU this 12 months for faculty video games.
Belichick additionally spent current days familiarizing himself with the switch portal and NIL, and he spent a number of time on how the organizational chart of a school system would work.
He made it clear in his interview with McAfee on Monday that he would create an incubator for NFL expertise if he had been a school coach.
“If I used to be in a school program, the school program can be a pipeline to the NFL for the gamers that had the flexibility to play within the NFL,” Belichick mentioned. “It can be knowledgeable program: coaching, diet, scheme, teaching and methods that may switch to the NFL.”
He concluded a prolonged portrait of what this system would seem like by saying: “It can be an NFL program, however not on the NFL stage.”
If talks between Belichick and North Carolina had damaged down, Cleveland Browns passing recreation specialist and tight ends coach Tommy Rees was thought of the favourite to land the Tar Heels job, league sources instructed ESPN. Rees interviewed for the job twice, and he had Nick Saban as an advocate.
Other names that had emerged within the search included veteran NFL coach Steve Wilks, Tulane coach Jon Sumrall, Georgia defensive coordinator Glenn Schumann, Army coach Jeff Monken and Pittsburgh Steelers offensive coordinator Arthur Smith.
Smith indicated he would stick with the Steelers, and Tulane reached an settlement in precept with Sumrall on a contract extension.
