Legendary NFL Super Bowl winning coach Bill Belichick has officially been named the next coach of the North Carolina football program, the school announced this week.
Super Bowl winning NFL coach Bill Belichick is going back to college. The University of North Carolina announced this week that Belichick will be coaching their football program in a five-year deal.
Belichick is a legend in the NFL with 333 wins, eight Super Bowl victories, and 12 Super Bowl appearances. This marks his first time entering the world of college football professionally after over 50 years in the NFL. The Tar Heels are now preparing for the NFL icon to join their team.
Part of the allure of Belichick replacing national championship coach Mack Brown is the fact that his resume can now entice NFL recruits to transfer potential players wanting to make it to the NFL.
“If I was in a college program, the college program would be a pipeline to the NFL for the players that had the ability to play in the NFL,” Belichick said Monday, before the deal was finalized and announced, according to CBS Sports.
“It would be a professional program: training, nutrition, scheme, coaching, techniques that would transfer to the NFL.”
Members of the UNC’s Board of Trustees, led by John Preyer, fully championed Belichick’s addition to the team. Preyer was a leader in Belichick’s candidacy, while some were concerned over her age and the level of commitment he was stating he would give.
“By Sunday evening, Belichick became the sole focus for North Carolina, which was facing the opening of the transfer portal the next day. Army coach Jeff Monken had drawn some interest as well, but Belichick remained the goal,” wrote Jonathan Jones for CBS Sports.
“As one university source put it, UNC has been blessed in recent years by having great coaches on below-market deals. Williams won three titles but didn’t ask for John Calipari money. Before his firing, Brown was one of just three active coaches who had won a national championship, and he was on a deal averaging $5 million,” Jones wrote.
Belichick confirmed his conversations with North Carolina during an interview “The Pat McAfee Show,” and while he didn’t go into specifics about the negotiations, he did give an outline for what he’d like to see come out of coaching the college team.
“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 the end of their college career or the end of their pro career.”
Men’s basketball is the leading sport currently for UNC. Some members of the community are worried that Belechick’s hiring will take away from basketball, while others believe it will emphasize the general sports life on campus.
The last time the university made a major hiring decision in their football program was when they took on Butch Davis from the NFL.
“North Carolina’s yearning for Belichick has been obvious, but his fascination with the position is not. First, there is no path toward breaking Don Shula’s all-time NFL wins record in Chapel Hill. Belichick stands 15 wins shy of eclipsing the mark, and that could have been accomplished with two solid seasons in the NFL,” Jones wrote.
Eric Mastrota is a Contributing Editor at The National Digest based in New York. A graduate of SUNY New Paltz, he reports on world news, culture, and lifestyle. You can reach him at eric.mastrota@thenationaldigest.com.
