Six-time Super Bowl-winning head coach Bill Belichick has agreed to a five-year deal to become the next coach at the University of North Carolina (UNC).
The college confirmed the signing on Wednesday night, roughly a week after 72-year-old Belichick's name surfaced as an unlikely candidate to replace the programme's most successful-ever coach Mack Brown.
The deal requires approval by UNC trustees, with a press conference unveiling Belichick to be held in due course.
"I am excited for the opportunity at UNC-Chapel Hill," he said.
"I grew up around college football with my dad and treasured those times. I have always wanted to coach in college and now I look forward to building the football programme in Chapel Hill."
UNC athletics director Bubba Cunningham: "We know that college athletics is changing, and those changes require new and innovative thinking.
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"Bill Belichick is a football legend, and hiring him to lead our programme represents a new approach that will ensure Carolina football can evolve, compete and win - today and in the future."
The university announced last month that Brown would not return for a seventh season in his second stint in Chapel Hill.
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New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick twirls his whistle during an NFL football practice, Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2019, in Foxborough, Mass. Six-time NFL champion Bill Belichick has agreed to part ways as the coach of the New England Patriots on Thursday, Jan. 11, 2024, bringing an end to his 24-year tenure as the architect of the most decorated dynasty of the league's Super Bowl era, a person with knowledge of the situation told
Back in January, Neil Reynolds reflected on Belichick's incredible tenure in New England after it was announced he was leaving the Patriots after 24 seasons
Moving on from Brown, 73, to hire Belichick, 72, means UNC are turning to a coach who has never worked at the college level, yet had incredible success in the NFL alongside quarterback Tom Brady throughout most of his 24-year tenure with the Patriots, which ended last season.
Belichick had been linked to NFL jobs in the time since, notably the Atlanta Falcons in January.
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