Legendary NFL head coach Bill Belichick will return to where it all began amid his hire as a collegiate coach with North Carolina on Wednesday.
His father, Steve Belichick, coached at UNC from 1953 to 1955, which was during Bill Belichick’s earliest year. The younger Belichick was born in April 1952 when his father coached at Vanderbilt.
The older Belichick moved on to coach at Navy in 1956 and stayed there the rest of his career through 1989.
Bill Belichick primarily grew up in Annapolis, Maryland, and spent time around the Navy football team and learned the game from his father.
It set the stage for Bill Belichick to become the six-time Super Bowl champion coach with the New England Patriots during the past two decades. Belichick mutually parted ways with the Patriots in January but he continued searching for coaching opportunities—only in the NFL at the time.
He was a finalist for the Atlanta Falcons job but the team went with Raheem Morris instead.
Despite five decades in coaching, Belichick has only coached in the pros but he saw a new opportunity in taking on the Tar Heels, a college program that hasn’t won a conference title since 1980. UNC fired Mac Brown on Nov. 26 after a 6-6 season.
Belichick reiterated “if” he took a college job, that he had a clear vision for what he would do. He described his program as “a pipeline to the NFL for players that had the ability to play” in the league.
“It would be a professional program: training, nutrition, scheme, coaching, techniques, that would transfer to the NFL. It will be an NFL program at a college level,” Belichick said.
“I feel very confident that I have the contacts in the NFL to pave the way for those players that would have the opportunity to compete in the National Football League,” he continued.
UNC athletic director Bubba Cunningham expressed his confidence that Belichick can adapt from the NFL to college football, coaching players ages 17-22 instead of 22 and older, in addition to recruiting younger players.
“We know that college athletics is changing, and those changes require new and innovative thinking. Bill Belichick is a football legend, and hiring him to lead our program represents a new approach that will ensure Carolina football can evolve, compete and win—today and in the future,” Cunningham said in a release.
“At Carolina, we believe in providing championship opportunities and the best experience possible for our student-athletes, and Coach Belichick shares that commitment. We are excited to welcome him to Chapel Hill,” he continued.
Belichick began coaching in the NFL as a special assistant with the Baltimore Colts in 1975 under head coach Ted Marchibroda. It took until 1991 for Belichick to land his first head coaching job with the Cleveland Browns, but he won two Super Bowls before that as assistant with the New York Giants under head coach Bill Parcells.
Belichick didn’t succeed in Cleveland and lasted four years, but his second opportunity with the Patriots turned historic. He joined the Patriots after the New York Jets traded his coaching rights, and Belichick led New England to nine Super Bowl appearances until his departure after the 2023 season.
Belichick has spent this season involved in various football media gigs and appearances.
