It’s almost like a fever dream, and yet there he was: sitting in a press conference room in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, wearing a Carolina blue argyle tie, and smiling in a way that very few football fans have ever seen before.
Bill Belichick. Head football coach. The University of North Carolina. The sentence is as strange to type as it is to read, and yet that’s the reality.
It’s a move that is impossible to parallel with any other sport in the world. Trying to make a comparison is folly. Nowhere other than the United States of America would a coach do this, let alone one considered to be the greatest in the history of their respective sport.
2024 has been a year of change for the eight-time Super Bowl champion. He left his job, got himself a new one in an entirely new field, and even began dating someone new.
But coaching came calling back at a level he has never been at before – and now a whole new dimension of challenges faces him.
So what exactly has the man gotten himself into?
Bill Belichick is officially unveiled as the new football coach at the University of North Carolina
Belichick, seen smiling at his introductory press conference in Chapel Hill on Thursday
Why has he dropped down to college football?
Here’s the way that Belichick put it in his introductory press conference: ‘College kinda came to me this year, I didn’t go and seek it out.’
He explained that he had always shown some interest in coaching college football. And after having conversations with other college coaches about the salary cap and technology advancements, he learned more about the college game and realized there were plenty of similarities between the pro level and the collegiate level. Now, possibly more than ever, someone with an NFL background could succeed at this level of the sport.
It’s important to address the fact that there are currently three NFL head coaching vacancies: the Chicago Bears, the New York Jets, and the New Orleans Saints. It’s highly likely the Dallas Cowboys, the Jacksonville Jaguars, and the Cincinnati Bengals could all move on from their coaches as well.
Either Belichick didn’t like his odds of success at any of those teams or he found out, or guessed, that none of those teams would be interested in him.
He said, possibly jokingly, that he enjoyed being a part of the media at his introductory press conference. But coaching is his true calling – and when faced with the option of talking to Pat McAfee every Monday or standing on a college sideline, it appears the coach chose the latter.
Belichick’s jump to North Carolina is the first time in his 49 year career he’d coach in college
Prior to that, he developed the NFL’s greatest ever dynasty across 20 years in New England
What do NFL teams have against hiring him?
It could be fair to say that football fans from New England have, in a sense, studied Belichick as much as they’ve studied the game. With the Patriots, Belichick exercised a level of control that very few head coaches have elsewhere – not just over plays, but players and personnel (and their contracts) as well.
Last season, Belichick’s name was seemingly at the top of the list on the NFL’s proverbial coaching carousel. After he got off the proverbial ride, rather than on a proverbial horse, rumors suggested that Belichick wanted to have a similar role that he had in New England if he took a job elsewhere. Simply put, that’s just not how the NFL works nowadays.
It’s also highly possible that owners and general managers heard about Belichick’s strict rules, discipline, and high expectations and decided to look elsewhere. Knowing all of this about the coach, one wonders how that will translate to the college level.
But another reason could simply be his age. At 72, Belichick is six years older than Andy Reid of the Kansas City Chiefs – the current oldest head coach in the NFL – and 35 years older than the league’s youngest head coach, Mike Macdonald of the Seattle Seahawks.
Even if an NFL team came calling, it’d probably take a lot for Belichick to pack his bags. As he put it in his introductory press conference, ‘I didn’t come here to leave.’
Belichick left New England this year and couldn’t find a new job within the NFL this offseason
What’s he been doing since leaving the Pats?
Since leaving Foxborough, Belichick has been transitioning into a soon-to-be short-lived media career – paralleling a move made by his long time quarterback, Tom Brady.
He’s made regular appearances on ESPN’s ‘Pat McAfee Show’ and the ‘ManningCast’ edition of Monday Night Football.
Belichick also made appearances on the weekly-recap show ‘Inside the NFL’.
Over the summer, it was revealed the Belichick had begun a relationship with 24-year-old pageant queen, entrepreneur, and former cheerleader Jordon Hudson.
Since departing Foxborough, Belichick has spent the past year working in sports media
It’s a similar move to one made by his long time New England quarterback, Tom Brady
This summer, Belichick also began dating someone new – 24-year-old Jordon Hudson
Why UNC?
Belichick does have a connection to the school through his father, who was a backfield coach there for three seasons. In his introductory press conference, Belichick held up an old sweatshirt that belonged to his dad, Steve.
It was those connections that the coach pointed to as a reason for him to make the jump to the Tar Heels – that, and the fact that his first words as a child were apparently ‘Beat Duke’, referencing UNC’s most hated rival.
He also stressed the importance of North Carolina’s academic success as a way to attract players to the school.
But all that aside, North Carolina plays in a ‘Power 4’ conference (the ACC), has a pre-established commitment to athletic excellence (a combined 51 national championships across all sports), and a very wealthy endowment ($5.1billion).
He has plenty of resources and public backing to succeed and to build the school’s current football department into one that rivals an NFL organization from the ground up.
Bill Belichick holds up an old sweatshirt which belonged to his father when he coached at UNC
Can they compete immediately?
The short answer is no. The long answer is much more complicated, especially in the current era of college football.
Thanks to NIL, players can now essentially be free agents. In his introductory presser, Belichick likened student-athletes to professionals and said that now there are more parallels between the college and NFL than ever. So, depending on who he can bring in over the offseason, he might just be able to turn this team around.
On the field this season, under Mack Brown, the Tar Heels went a poor 6-6 in a campaign where they were expected to fight for an ACC title. Using that team as a base, don’t expect much improvement in 2025.
Even if he wanted to completely change the team’s makeup, it would likely not work in his favor. Coaches who have tried to build programs from the ground up in their first season often fail to capture success right away.
Want a recent example? Look to Colorado. In his first season, Deion Sanders completely overhauled the Buffaloes roster and was rewarded with a 4-8 season. This year, they went 9-3.
So don’t expect that Belichick will be winning the ACC next season or reaching the College Football Playoff. If he does? It’ll just add to his legacy.
North Carolina went 6-6 this season, vastly underperforming the team’s expectations
Much like Deion Sanders’ first year at Colorado, Belichick might struggle in his debut season
An empty Kenan Memorial Stadium in Chapel Hill, North Carolina welcomes Bill Belichick
What sort of challenges is he going to face that he wouldn’t in the NFL?
Aside from the obvious differences between being a pro head coach and a college head coach – recruiting, program building, scheduling – Belichick will also have an image battle to deal with.
The University of North Carolina, has been, is, and always will be first and foremost a basketball school. The six national titles the Tar Heels have won and the countless NBA stars that have graced its court – Michael Jordan chief among them all – have earned them a reputation as a college basketball blue blood. Hiring Belichick will not change that.
Football? That’s not the case at all. The Tar Heels have three Pro Football Hall of Fame inductees – with Lawrence Taylor the most famous and Julius Peppers the most recent – but they’ve only won five ACC football titles and none since 1980.
They have only finished a season ranked in the AP Top 25 twice since 2000 – never higher than 15th. They have never once competed in the College Football Playoff and have made just two ‘New Years Six bowl’ appearances since 2000, losing both of them.
But that makes North Carolina, a school without a well-developed football identity, a perfect spot for Belichick. It’s a program he can now mold into his own image with plenty of financial support from the university.
He can succeed with the Tar Heels. It all depends on how well he transitions from the pro level to college and how he adjusts to the game – or how the game adjusts around him.
It’s likely that the legacy of Belichick’s move to UNC will not make itself known until years down the line – and that the foundation he builds in Chapel Hill leads to lasting success decades later, rather than just right now.
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