UNC football rolls out welcome mat for coach Bill Belichick amid fanfare at Kenan Stadium
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UNC football hires Bill Belichick to be its next head coach
Bill Belichick led the New England Patriots to six Super Bowl victories during the 2000s and 2010s. He has never been a college football head coach. UNC picked him to lead the the Tar Heels following the firing of Mack Brown. Here is ongoing coverage from The News & Observer.
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The Bill Belichick era has begun at North Carolina, amid much fanfare and excitement.
How it will end is anyone’s guess, but the university, athletic director Bubba Cunningham and many Tar Heel fans are eagerly waiting to see what plans the legendary coach has for the football program.
A national title? North Carolina has never been close to one in football.
An ACC title? North Carolina has not won one since 1980.
Belichick won a record six Super Bowl championships with the New England Patriots — with Tom Brady at quarterback — and was a part of two other Super Bowl-winning teams. But he’s now 72, a year away from coaching, and has never coached college football.
He comes to UNC with questions about his age, about his longevity as head coach and how successful he will be in his stated intent of molding the football program into a NFL type model while making it a pipeline to pro football for those who long to play in the NFL.
The university board of trustees approved the terms of Belichick’s employment during a closed session Thursday — UNC announced Wednesday that Belichick would have a five-year contract.
Approval from the UNC system Board of Governors came later in the day. Belichick will receive $1 million a year in base salary and $9 million a year in supplemental income. He also can receive as much as $3.5 million in bonus pay per year, including $750,000 if the Tar Heels reach the College Football Playoffs.
The first three years of Belichick’s contract are guaranteed. An interesting aspect: if Belichick seeks a buyout before June 1, 2025, he must pay $10 million, but that drops to $1 million after June 1, 2025.
Belichick was formally introduced in an afternoon press conference at UNC’s Loudermilk Center for Excellence at Kenan Stadium, referred to as the “Blue Zone.” The room was packed with a couple of hundred people, including former UNC star Julius Peppers, recently inducted into both the Pro Football and College Football halls of fame
“I always wanted to coach in college football,” Belichick said. “It just never worked out. I had some good years in the NFL, so that was OK.
“I’m here to teach, develop and build a program in the way that I believe in.”
Beliichick, famous for his sleeve-less, hoodie sweatshirts, was presented a new one by Cunningham and then showed off one that once worn by his father, Steve, who coached as an assistant at UNC in the 1950s.
“This is really kind of a dream come true,” Belichick said. “I grew up in college football with my dad, as a coach at Navy for 50 years. As a kid all I knew was college football. So it’s great to come back home to Carolina and back in an environment I really grew up in..”
Belichick said he can’t remember much from those early days in Chapel Hill but said, “One story I always heard was, Billy’s first words were, “Beat Duke’ So, full circle.”
Belichick will attempt to do what Mack Brown was unable to do — bring a championship to UNC. In his first stint at UNC, from 1988 to 1997, Brown built a Top 10 program before leaving to coach at Texas.
When Brown returned to UNC in 2019 for a second run as head coach, one player said it was almost like meeting a celebrity — Brown won a national championship with the Longhorns in 2005, then spent some time at ESPN. At least at first, Brown wore his national championship ring as a reminder that he had been there and done that.
Brown was a masterful recruiter and could corral talent. But college football changed. College sports changed. More and more it has come to resemble professional sports with payments to athletes and constant movement of athletes through the transfer portal — Belichick has compared it to free agency in the pros.
Brown was the winningest active college coach last season. But he was unable to win an ACC title in his second run at UNC with two quarterbacks headed to the NFL, Sam Howell and then Drake Maye, and the Heels were 6-6 this season after a fourth straight loss to rival N.C. State.
The ending for Brown was messy. When he refused to step down before the N.C. State regular-season finale, Brown was fired Nov. 26. Assistant coach Freddie Kitchens was named interim head coach.
Belichick said Kitchens, who has NFL experience, would be retained on the new staff. Belichick will have a 10 million pool for his assistant coaches.
Belichick said he was grateful to have former NFL general manager Michael Lombardi joining his staff as the program’s GM. Lombardi, 65, was an assistant for Belichick’s Pats staff and held several NFL executive jobs.
“North Carolina can attract great players,” Lombardi said Thursday. “We’ve got the greatest coach of all time in Bill Belichick.
“Football is not a complicated sport. It comes down to players, coaches and scheme. When you’re in the football business you’re like a veterinarian. The patient doesn’t talk to you. You have to analyze the team on those three areas.”
During UNC’s coaching search, potential candidates emerged — Tulane’s Jon Sumrall and Iowa State’s Matt Campbell among them. But there was a preliminary discussion with Belichick, then a longer discussion with Roberts in New York.
“When you can hire Bill Belichick, you hire Bill Belichick,” UNC trustee Jennifer Lloyd said Thursday. “I was hoping, beyond hope, that we could make a move like this.”
Belichick, seemingly at ease throughout the 35-minute press conference, was asked why at age 72, with his Super Bowl rings and his football legacy in place, he wanted to continue coaching.
“It beats working,” he said, smiling.
““When you love what you do, and my dad told me this, it’s not work. I love what I do. I love coaching, I love the interaction with the players, I love building a team, working with the assistants, game-planning, the game itself. Working with young kids, with the energy and enthusiasm they have to want to be good, to want to be successful
“It’s great every day to wake up and come into that environment.”
This story was originally published December 12, 2024 at 2:22 PM with the headline "UNC football rolls out welcome mat for coach Bill Belichick amid fanfare at Kenan Stadium."
