Bill Belichick has agreed to a three-year deal to take over as the head coach at North Carolina, according to multiple reports Wednesday night.
According to The Athletic, the deal reportedly could be worth up to $30 million.
The six-time Super Bowl-winning head coach has been in contract discussions with the program following multiple meetings with the search committee. WTVD reported that the UNC board of trustees met Wednesday to approve the contract.
He will replace Mack Brown, whom North Carolina fired at the end of the regular season.
Belichick, 72, parted ways with the New England Patriots following the 2023 season after 24 years with the franchise. He was out of coaching this year despite interviewing for multiple NFL vacancies last offseason, and has been working multiple roles in the media.
Belichick has 333 wins as an NFL coach and needs 14 more to break the all-time wins record for NFL coaches held by Don Shula. But according to reports earlier this week, he was surprised not to hear from the NFL teams with existing vacancies.
Belichick’s father, Steve Belichick, was an assistant coach at UNC from 1953-55. Bill Belichick now takes over a Tar Heels program that has not won a conference title since 1980.
It will be his first coaching position at the collegiate level. His son, Steve, is currently the defensive coordinator at the University of Washington and a prominent role for him at UNC was reportedly a part of his father’s pitch to the Tar Heels. Huskies head coach Jedd Fisch was a former assistant for Bill Belichick, who spent significant time around the Washington program over the past year.
During an interview with “The Pat McAfee Show” on Monday, Belichick outlined what he believed he could bring to a program during the NIL era that has contributed to other coaches such as Nick Saban leaving college football.
“The college program would be a pipeline to the NFL for the players that had the ability to play in the NFL,” he said. “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 and an education that would get the players ready for their career after football, whether that was (at) the end of their college career or at the end of their pro career.
“But it would be geared toward developing the player, time management, discipline, structure and all that, that would be life skills, regardless of whether they’re in the NFL or somewhere in the business.”
