North Carolina hires NFL legend Bill Belichick in landmark move

Bill Belichick is going back to school, as it appears he will become the next head coach at North Carolina in a stunning move.

Bill Belichick appears on track to become the next head coach of the North Carolina football program. / Bob Breidenbach / USA TODAY NETWORK

Bill Belichick has been named the head football coach at North Carolina in the most remarkable coaching addition in modern college football history.

“I am excited for the opportunity at UNC-Chapel Hill. I grew up around college football with my Dad & treasured those times. I have always wanted to coach in college and now I look forward to building the football program in Chapel Hill,” Belichick said in a statement.

Known as arguably the most accomplished head coach in NFL history, Belichick will embark on a collegiate-level job for the first time in his storied career.

As head coach of the New England Patriots from 2000 to 2023, Belichick won six Super Bowl championships, the most by a single coach in NFL history.

Belichick also owns the NFL record with 31 postseason victories and his 302 all-time wins are the third-most among any head coach at the professional level.

Inside Carolina first revealed Belichick's candidacy, and the coach revealed that he and North Carolina were discussing the head coaching vacancy in remarks made this week, and offered a general plan for how he would run the program.

The guiding principle of a Belichick tenure would entail reshaping the program in the image of an NFL organization and using it as a training ground for future professional players.

Belichick noted that college football is starting to look more like pro football in the modern era, as the sport embraces NIL, a transfer portal that is effectively a free agency period, and a future revenue-sharing model the NCAA is expected to implement in the near future.

As such, any deal between Belichick and North Carolina will include a series of demands the coach spelled out in a 400-page “organizational bible,” according to Ollie Connolly of The Guardian.

That document includes “structure, payment plans, staffing choices, etc.,” and lays out a plan for “historic levels of investment from the school.”

Some of those plans include salary minimums for some coaching and staffing positions and different development offices for collegiate and professional preparation.

“A lot of colleges are looking at NFL-type models to structure personnel and coaching,” Belichick said of the changes. 

“The job is obviously too big for one person,” he added. “You need a general manager, a coach, and a salary cap manager.”

Belichick, who was named NFL Coach of the Year three times, will replace Mack Brown, who the school fired on Nov. 26.

His father, Steve Belichick, was coach of North Carolina’s backfield from 1953 to 1955.

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