Bill Belichick introduced at North Carolina, says he ‘always wanted to coach in college football’
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – Seven minutes after 11 a.m. on Thursday, North Carolina’s football future entered Kenan Memorial Stadium donning a baby blue button-down shirt, an argyle tie – and, for once, sleeves.
Welcome to the Bill Belichick era, college football edition. Because starting Thursday, when the former NFL coach was officially introduced as UNC’s new head coach, Chapel Hill will be ground zero for one of the most fascinating experiments in the history of college athletics.
“I’ve always wanted to coach in college football,” Belichick said. “It just never really worked out. Had some good years in the NFL, so that was OK. But this is really a dream come true.”
To see Belichick – who led the New England Patriots to six Super Bowl titles as head coach, who partnered with Tom Brady to form two different dynasties – actually, in a quaint college town hundreds of miles from Massachusetts, is still difficult to believe. Countless former Belichick players and coaches have said as much from a distance. And that’s why there was such a scene (or circus) inside UNC’s football center on Thursday.
Reporters and UNC officials alike flooded the team’s football center well over an hour before Belichick, athletic director Bubba Cunningham and chancellor Lee Roberts sat at a makeshift podium and explained one of the most unfathomable hiring decisions in recent memory. From their seats, they stared straight through a glass wall of windows at an illuminated jumbotron with an impossible-to-believe graphic: No wonder all 20 rows of navy blue conference chairs were full (former Tar Heels great Julius Peppers among them), all for just a glimpse of the moment.
When North Carolina fired Mack Brown in November, the expectation both internally and across the college football universe was that the Tar Heels would lean younger, hiring someone with the long-term juice to professionalize a program that needed a facelift befitting the modern era. (Technically, yes, the 72-year-old Belichick – who immediately becomes college football’s oldest active coach – younger than the 73-year-old Brown.) But instead, as UNC officials – both from the Board of Trustees and athletic department – began interviewing potential candidates, they realized most of them planned to conduct a pro-style overhaul of the Tar Heels’ program. So if that were the case, why not hire the guy who actually ran a professional franchise with more success than any other coach in history?
“I do think there are a lot of parallels,” Belichick said of similarities between the NFL and college game.
“I think that’s the reason for the general structure with Michael (Lombardi) as the general manager and myself as the coach and working collaboratively as we have done in a professional structure.”
Belichick’s contract is worth $50 million over five years. (His deal was formally approved by the Board of Trustees Thursday morning, but still requires a final stamp of approval from the state Board of Governors; that was expected to come Thursday afternoon.) Between that and his age, it seems likely Belichick won’t be around for the long haul, whether that’s because he retires or because his work in Chapel Hill resuscitates his NFL coaching odds. (Belichick is 15 wins shy of surpassing Don Shula for the NFL’s all-time wins record of 347, which he could reasonably achieve in two more professional seasons.)
“I didn’t come here to leave,” Belichick said.
Still, given those terms, maybe it’s best to view Belichick’s tenure as a bridge between what North Carolina football historically has been – a “sleeping giant” that has relied on its famous laundry and lofty brand value, which has been slow to adjust to the times – and what the program’s top boosters believe it can be. Namely, a program well-suited for the NIL and revenue-sharing model, one which rises above its standing in the third-richest power conference to compete for College Football Playoff berths.
“Great program, but it’s been awhile – 1980,” Belichick said, referencing the last undefeated season for UNC.
“It kind of hasn’t been to that point since. So there’s a lot of pride in this program and I want to do everything I can to help take it to the highest level.”
Days-long negotiations took place between the two sides predicated on increasing UNC’s level of football investment; that’s both big-picture topics like coaching salary pool and NIL funding, as well as more minute details like the chain of command regarding who Belichick reports to. Ultimately, the coach said UNC more than met his requirements across the board.
“Along the way as things got out, if you will, the amount of support that I got from Carolina grads, former Carolina football players and people that are connected to this university was really overwhelming,” Belichick said.
There have been questions about how Belichick, who has never coached in college, would both fill his staff and flip UNC’s roster, which went 6-6 this season. Belichick has hired Lombardi, a former NFL GM, as his new GM at UNC – Lombardi was in Chapel Hill for Belichick’s introductory news conference – and said he’d be retaining interim coach Freddie Kitchens on his staff.
As for his roster, would Belichick plan to completely overhaul it, a la Deion Sanders at Colorado? Or would he try to be more judicious, plugging holes on a team that does have young talent from Brown’s final few recruiting classes?
Belichick said he had talked with players before Wednesday’s news conference, and a few were in attendance, including JJ Jones, Will Hardy and Travis Shaw.
But he emphasized that even in an era of the transfer portal, development would be key, noting that Brady, Rob Gronkowski and Julian Edelman all progressed under his tutelage.
“Developing players is something Michael (Lombardi) and I believe strongly in,” Belichick said.