In the resolution to a stunning saga, Bill Belichick is set to return to coaching — now at the college level.
Belichick is finalizing a deal to become the head football coach at the University of North Carolina, according to ESPN, marking the first-ever collegiate gig for the NFL great.
The hiring follows days of speculation, including an ESPN report Wednesday that UNC officials were on board with the decision but that Belichick was still working through issues including the school’s name, image and likeness (NIL) resources.
Also among the reported hurdles was a job for Belichick’s son Stephen Belichick, the defensive coordinator at Washington.
Belichick, 72, spent nearly four decades in the NFL, during which he achieved unprecedented success over his 24 seasons as head coach of the New England Patriots.
He led the Patriots to a 266-121 record, six Super Bowl championships and 19 AFC East titles while earning three NFL Coach of the Year honors. His partnership with Tom Brady is the most-prolific pairing between a quarterback and coach in NFL history.
Belichick also won two Super Bowls as the Giants’ defensive coordinator under Bill Parcells.
Belichick parted ways with the Patriots in January and, despite interviewing with the Atlanta Falcons, failed to land another head coaching job.
He has spent the 2024 season as an analyst for The CW’s “Inside The NFL” and as a host of the “Let’s Go!” podcast.
Belichick’s 333 wins in the NFL — including the postseason — rank second all time, behind only the 347 compiled by Don Shula.
The general sentiment was that Belichick would eventually return as an NFL head coach in order to break the record, but a move to the college ranks gained traction this week, including Monday when he appeared on ESPN’s “The Pat McAfee Show.”
“If I was in a college program, the college program would be a pipeline to the NFL for the players that had the ability to play in the NFL,” Belichick said on the show, speaking generally. “It would be a professional program — training, nutrition, scheme, coaching, techniques that would transfer to the NFL. It would be an NFL program at a college level.”
Belichick played college football at Wesleyan, but he has never been an NCAA coach. His father was a college coach for more than four decades, including three years as an assistant at UNC from 1953-55.
Belichick is replacing Mack Brown, whom UNC fired last month. The 73-year-old Brown, who won a national championship with Texas in 2006, went 113-78-1 in 16 seasons across two separate stints at UNC.
Patriots rookie quarterback Drake Maye played college football at UNC before the Patriots drafted him in April, less than four months after Belichick’s departure.
“Legendary coach, the success he had here, and what a great place Chapel Hill is,” Maye said Wednesday of the Belichick-to-UNC rumors. “Anytime you have a legendary NFL coach going back to college, I think it’s cool. It’s pretty interesting for me.”