Bill Belichick, the recently hired football coach at the University of North Carolina, said on Thursday that he is committed to the collegiate game and is not searching for a way back to the professional ranks.
A large portion of the football community was taken aback this week when the University of North Carolina hired Belichick, whose stellar NFL career contrasts sharply with a bare collegiate curriculum.
The six-time Super Bowl winning coach told reporters in Chapel Hill, “I didn’t come here to leave.” “I m here to do the best I can for the University of North Carolina and the program.”
The University’s Board of Trustees and Board of Governors must approve Belichick’s five-year deal.
“We’ve been playing football at Carolina since 1888 and I suspect that in those 136 years, there are few days that have been as auspicious as this one,” Lee Roberts, the UNC Chancellor, stated.
In an attempt to emulate the former New England coach’s sideline style, Roberts wore a suit jacket with the sleeves cut off while seated at a table with Belichick and athletic director Bubba Cunningham.
“I ve said many times that we want to be the best public university in the United States and that means excellence in everything that we do,” Roberts stated. “Our college football program is going to be outstanding. We have the best coach, and we want to compete with the best.”
Belichick, 72, was the Patriots’ coach from 2000 to 2023. Following the 2001, 2003, 2004, 2014, 2016, and 2018 seasons, New England won Super Bowls. In January, he and New England agreed to split ways.
Belichick now aspires to become one of the few coaches who have won everything in both the NFL and college.
-
Pete Carroll reestablished USC as a college powerhouse,
going 97-19 over nine seasons
in Los Angeles and capturing a pair of Associated Press national championships. He went on to a successful
14-year run with the Seattle Seahawks
, winning two NFC titles and
one Super Bowl
.
-
Jimmy Johnson
led the Dallas Cowboys
to Super Bowl wins following the 1992 and 1993 regular seasons
.
Before landing in Dallas, Johnson had spent 10 successful years running the sidelines of Oklahoma State and Miami, winning the 1987 AP title for the Hurricanes. -
Former Oklahoma coach
Barry Switzer inherited
Johnson’s Cowboys and led Dallas
to the Super Bowl title
following the 1995 regular season.
His Sooners
won three
AP titles
, in 1974, 1975 and 1985.
Only 11 months after he and the Patriots decided to part ways after an incredible 24-season run that featured six Super Bowl victories under quarterback Tom Brady’s leadership, Belichick made an odd professional decision.
He leads the Patriots and Cleveland Browns with 302 regular season victories, ranking third on the all-time list behind only Don Shula (328) and George Halas (318).
It has long been assumed that Belichick wanted to win another NFL contract because he wanted the Shula record.
But by moving to Chapel Hill at his age, time might be running out for Belichick to get back to the NFL and possibly score at least 26 wins tocatch the late Shula.
Belichick was asked why he’s even coaching at all with nothing left to prove.
Well, it beats working,” he joked. “When you love what you do, it s not working. It s really, I love what I do. I love coaching. I love the interaction with the players.”
Belichick also said the transition from pros to college isn’t the gulf it used to be now that the NCAA game includes technology, rules and even a pay structure that can be compared to the pros.
In his brief time away from pro football, Belichick said a host of college coaches have been asking his advice on how to implement those pro football features into college.
“Here s what I would say college kind of came to me this year. I didn t necessarily go and seek it out,” Belichick said.
“I’d say that (those conversations) started to make me a lot more aware of it, because the first thing I had to do was learn about it,” he saidl.
Belichick takes over a UNC program that’s solidly in the upper-middle tier of college football, but still far from elite.
The Heels last wonan Atlantic Coast Conference title in 1980 when they were led by futureHall of Fame linebackerLawrence Taylor.
Belichick’s father, long-time Navy assistant coachSteve Belichick, had a stint at UNC from 1953 to 1955.
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