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Chris Low, ESPN Senior Writer
Bill Belichick, who received six Super Bowl championships with the New England Patriots, has had discussions with North Carolina concerning the Tar Heels’ head-coaching job, sources advised ESPN on Thursday.
Belichick, 72, has been out of soccer this 12 months after leaving the Patriots following the 2023 season.
Sources advised ESPN that Belichick, who has spent his complete profession within the NFL, needs to educate and is open to listening to folks on the faculty and NFL degree.
UNC fired Mack Brown on Nov. 26 after six seasons with the Tar Heels. The 73-year-old Brown, a College Football Hall of Famer, was in his second stint on the college. Belichick is just a 12 months youthful than Brown, who was the oldest coach within the FBS this season.
The Tar Heels went 44-33 below Brown from 2019 to ’24 and completed 6-6 this season. Brown won’t coach in UNC’s bowl sport, and Freddie Kitchens, the previous Cleveland Browns coach who has served as UNC’s run sport coordinator and tight ends coach the previous two seasons, is serving as interim head coach whereas the varsity seeks a substitute.
Belichick is much and away the largest title to floor within the North Carolina search, and sources stated there’s real curiosity on either side. However, Tulane’s Jon Sumrall can be at or close to the highest of North Carolina’s checklist and is anticipated to speak formally with college officers after the Green Wave’s AAC Championship Game towards Army on Friday. Other candidates for the job embody Iowa State’s Matt Campbell, Georgia defensive coordinator Glenn Schumann and Steve Wilks, who was the Arizona Cardinals’ head coach in 2018 and the Carolina Panthers’ interim head coach in 2022. Wilks was a volunteer assistant this season at Charlotte.
North Carolina had initially focused Pittsburgh Steelers offensive coordinator Arthur Smith, a UNC graduate, however he declined the Tar Heels’ overtures and as a substitute needs to remain within the NFL.
During Belichick’s hiatus from teaching, he has made the media rounds this season. He’s a daily on the “ManningCast” throughout ESPN’s “Monday Night Football” and “The Pat McAfee Show” on ESPN and in addition a part of the “Inside the NFL” crew on the CW Network.
Belichick was with the Patriots for twenty-four seasons. He was additionally part of two Super Bowl-winning groups with the New York Giants as Bill Parcells’ defensive coordinator. Belichick’s 333 wins as a head coach are second all time within the NFL to Don Shula’s 347.
Although Belichick by no means has coached in faculty, his father, Steve, was a longtime assistant on the U.S. Naval Academy, and Belichick grew up in Annapolis, Maryland.
InsideCarolina.com was the primary to report that Belichick had interviewed with UNC.
Information from ESPN’s Adam Schefter was used on this report.
