Reports of the UNC football program and Bill Belichick nearing an agreement had been circulating all week. And on Wednesday afternoon, NFL Network's Ian Rapoport reported that the former New England Patriots legend and six-time Super Bowl champion head coach is officially set to take the reins in Chapel Hill.
"Former Patriots coach Bill Belichick, the greatest coach of all time," Rapoport wrote, "will become the next coach at the University of North Carolina, sources say. The deal is done.
"From Super Bowls to college football. Just like Bill Walsh. Just like Deion Sanders. Now, Belichick."
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Former #Patriots coach Bill Belichick, the greatest coach of all time, will become the next coach at the University of North Carolina, sources say. The deal is done.
From Super Bowls to college football. Just like Bill Walsh. Just like Deion Sanders. Now, Belichick. pic.twitter.com/OtY4Ekbqgv
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) December 11, 2024
Just over two weeks ago, UNC football parted ways with the 73-year-old Mack Brown, who was the active FBS wins leader. Enter the 72-year-old Bill Belichick, who was at the Patriots' helm until January of last season.
"If I was in a college program, then the college program would be a pipeline to the NFL for the players that had the ability to play in the NFL," Belichick, whose father was on the UNC football staff in the 1950s, said on ESPN's First Take while addressing the escalating talks with the brass in Chapel Hill earlier this week. "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 and an education that would get the players ready for their career after football, whether that was the end of their college career or at the end of their pro career."
Freddie Kitchens became interim head coach upon Brown's departure.
UNC (6-6) faces UConn (8-4) at the Fenway Bowl in Boston on Dec. 28.
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