CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (WBTV) - Legendary NFL head coach Bill Belichick will take the same role at the University of North Carolina, the school announced Wednesday.
The move marks Belichick’s return to coaching and his first time on a collegiate sideline.
He won eight Super Bowls champion as a head coach and coordinator, six of which came during his time leading the New England Patriots. Belichick parted ways with the Patriots following the 2023 season and has spent the past year working for ESPN.
Belichick is widely regarded as one of the best – if not the best – head coaches in NFL history. How that success translates to the collegiate ranks remains to be seen for the 72-year-old.
Now on his way to Chapel Hill, Belichick will take over the reins after UNC fired Hall of Fame coach Mack Brown in November.
The college football landscape has changed drastically over the past few years, in large part due to the emergence of Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) deals. Those changes allow student-athletes to sign endorsement deals, making college sports more similar to professional sports. That could bode well for Belichick.
During an appearance on the Pat McAfee Show on Monday, Dec. 9, Belichick said that if he were to become a college head coach, then the program would become a “pipeline to the NFL.”
“It would be a professional program...training, nutrition, scheme, coaching, techniques...it would transfer to the NFL,” Belichick said on the show. “It would be an NFL program at a college level, and an education that would get the players ready for their career after football.”
Prior to his days as the Browns’ and Patriots’ head coach, Belichick spent more than a decade as a defensive assistant in the NFL.
Belichick’s six Super Bowls are more than any other head coach in NFL history, and his 302 wins are the third-most.
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