Legendary NFL coach Bill Belichick was introduced as the next head coach at North Carolina on Thursday, kicking off what promises to be one of the more fascinating tenures in the history of the sport. At 72-years-old, Belichick was questioned about his age and desire to stick it out with the program if the NFL came calling once more. He was clear in his answer.
"I didn't come here to leave," Belichick said.
The surreal nature of the moment was captured several times. In lieu of the traditional jersey, North Carolina athletic director Bubba Cunningham handed Belichick one of his signature hooded sweaters. He then walked to the side of the stage and pulled out a blazer with the sleeves cut off.
Later, Belichick pulled out a much older sweatshirt, one worn by his father when he coached in Chapel Hill. Belichick's father, Stephen, was an assistant at UNC from 1953-55 before embarking on a lengthy career at Navy. Bill never coached at the collegiate level, starting his career as an office assistant in the NFL. Now, he believes his moment has come full circle.
"I always wanted to coach in college football but it never really worked out," Belichick said. "I did some good years in the NFL, and that went okay, but this is really kind of a dream come true."
Belichick ranks as perhaps the top coach in NFL history after winning six Super Bowls during a legendary run with the New England Patriots. He is one of three coaches in professional football with more than 300 wins, joining only Don Shula and George Halas.
However, things grew stale in New England after quarterback Tom Brady left for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. After his departure, the Patriots under Belichick went 29-38 in three seasons, headlined by falling to 4-13 in 2023. Belichick was fired in January 2024 and was ultimately passed over for any NFL jobs.
According to Belichick, his love of coaching football was the primary driver behind taking on a new opportunity at North Carolina.
"Beats working," Belichick said. "When you love what you do, it's not work. I love what I do. I love coaching. I love the interaction with the players, the building a team, working, the assistants, game planning, the games itself."
The Tar Heels present a unique challenge for Belichick as he transitions into the collegiate game. The program has not won an ACC championship since 1980, though prior two coaches Mack Brown (2022) and Larry Fedora (2015) led the program to the ACC Championship Game.
North Carolina is coming off a 6-6 season, including both a two-game and four-game losing streak. Brown, the winningest coach in program history, was pushed out. Fourteen players have entered the transfer portal, along with 14 other seniors on the depth chart.
"I want to be versatile and take advantage of the personnel that we have," Belichick said. "I've always coached that way. I don't want to just run one front, run four or five plays. I just don't believe in that. I believe in attacking the defense and defending what the offense does well. We'll have a system that can incorporate any good player. I've never told Michael, hey, that's a good player, we can't use them. Give us a good player and we'll try to find a way to work that player into the game."
Belichick confirmed that run game coordinator and interim coach Freddie Kitchens would remain on the staff after two years with the program and a long history in the NFL, including a 2019 stint as head coach of the Cleveland Browns. Belichick has also been tied to several of his former assistants. Ole Miss analyst Joe Judge and Washington defensive coordinator Steve Belichick (his son), spent the 2024 season at the collegiate level.
"I've had a lot of people contact me," Belichick said. "I think there'll be a strong presence of NFL people on the staff, I think that's a certainty, not just in the staff but in the training area."
Belichick demurred when asked about the conversations he had with close friend Nick Saban, who worked under Belichick on the Cleveland Browns staff in the 1990s -- the first crack of his trademark surliness during a press conference that began warmly.
A similarly Belichickian response came when Belichick was asked about the 400-word document he had reportedly prepared in advance of taking the job.
"Don't believe everything you read in the papers, all right?" Belichick said with a scoff. "I have no idea where that came from. I don't have a 400-page document. And to think I'd just go out and hand it [off], I mean, come on."
Later on, Belichick offered a lengthy answer for how he began warming to the idea of coaching college football during his year away from the NFL and working in the media.
"College kind of came to me this year. I didn't necessarily go and seek it out. I had many coaches — probably a couple dozen coaches -- talk to me and say, 'Hey, can we sit down and talk to you about these things?' Let's call it the salary cap of pro football relative to college football, the headsets, the green dot, the 2-minute warning, the tablets on the sideline. Those were all rules changes this year in college football that were either the same or similar to what we had in the NFL. …
"As those conversations started -- and then the personnel conversations started relative to salary cap and how you spend whatever the allotment of money you have … I had multiple conversations with several coaches. … Sometimes, there were coaches who were on the staff that were responsible for situational football -- or in some cases a person in the organization that was maybe in football but was moved to a semi-general manager type role that wasn't familiar with that aspect of what was now invading college football with the revenue sharing and the NIL.
"That started to make me a lot more aware of it because the first thing I had to do was learn about it. … As you learn different things about different programs, you start to put it all together. There are some common threads, and there are some variables."
Belichick ended his press conference by noting "there's so much opportunity," at North Carolina. North Carolina signed Belichick to a five-year, $50 million contract, which pays him an annual average salary near the top of the FBS ranks.
