UNC, Bill Belichick Come to Cal Next Season

Famed 72-year-old, former NFL head coach Belichick will be the talk of college football next season, and he’s coming to Berkeley with the Tar Heels in 2025

North Carolina Tar Heels new head coach Bill Belichick / Jim Dedmon-Imagn Images

Bill Belichick, considered by many the greatest NFL head coach in history, will come to Cal next season when he brings his North Carolina team to Memorial Stadium in Berkeley. He figures to be the talk of college football when he arrives, partly because he has never coached in college football, partly because of his reputation as an NFL coach, partly because he is 72 years old and partly because he is earning $10 million.

The date of North Carolina’s game at Cal has not been set, but it will not be any earlier than late September.  The first four games of Cal’s 2025 season are nonconference games that have already been scheduled – an August 30 road game against Oregon State, a September 6 home game against Texas Southern, a September 13 home game against Minnesota and a September 20 road game against San Diego State.

The ACC has already set the opponents and sites for Cal's 2025 conference games, but the dates of the Bears’ ACC games have not been announced. Cal also hosts Duke, SMU and Virginia next season, and plays road games against Boston College, Louisville, Virginia Tech and Stanford. But whenever the Tar Heels and Belichick come to Berkeley it will be an event.

Belichick won a record six Super Bowls as head coach of the New England Patriots, and he spent 50 years as a coach in the NFL, including 29 seasons as a head coach.  He was the Patriots head coach from 2000 to 2023 before retiring.

However, he has no experience in college coaching.  That, his age and his reputation as an NFL coach made it big news this week when North Carolina announced that he would be its next head coach.

His five-year contract pays him $10 million a year, making him the sixth-highest-paid college head coach in the country. And he has said he will run the North Carolina program like a pro program, whatever that means.

Will it work? Will the Tar Heels be undefeated when they come to Berkeley? Will people be criticizing the choice of Belichick when he gets to Cal?

Here’s some interesting, albeit unrelated, little trivia notes:

In the 10 NFL seasons in which Belichick was a head coach without Tom Brady as his quarterback (including 2008 when Brady played just one game), how many Super Bowls did Belichick win?

Answer: Zero

In the 10 NFL seasons in which Belichick was a head coach without Tom Brady, how many times did his team reach the playoffs?

Answer: Zero

In the 10 NFL seasons in which Belichick was a head coach without Tom Brady, how many times did his team finish with a winning record:

Answer: Two

The Patriots were 4-13 in his Belichick’s final NFL season. The Browns were 5-11 in his final season as Cleveland’s head coach in 1995.

Just sayin’

Here is his press conference this week after being named North Carolina's head coach:

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