North Carolina reportedly interviewed Super Bowl winning coach for vacancy
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North Carolina interviewed former New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick for its head coaching vacancy earlier this week, according to a report from Inside Carolina.
According to the outlet, Belichick is believed to be on a list of candidates alongside Tulane coach Jon Sumrall and Georgia defensive coordinator Glenn Schumann. Belichick has been out of coaching since he and the Patriots agreed to part ways in January 2024.
Belichick initially interviewed for the Atlanta Falcons job once he split from the Patriots, but the Falcons chose to go in a different direction. ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported in September that Belichick hoped to return to coaching in 2025 but would be “choosy” about the job.
Schefter reported that Belichick also had interest last offseason from the San Francisco 49ers and the Los Angeles Rams for their defensive coordinator positions.
Belichick is a 6-time Super Bowl winner and a 3-time AP NFL Coach of the Year recipient. He would bring a wealth of football knowledge, having served as either an assistant or head coach from 1975-2023, but the entirety of his coaching career has thus far been spent in the NFL.
At 72 years old, he’s also less than a year younger than Mack Brown, whom the Tar Heels just moved on from. Belichick was a de facto general manager during his time in New England — even winning the PFWA Executive of the Year award in 2021 — but there would be a distinct learning curve for him to get up to speed on all the off-field aspects of the modern college coaching position.
North Carolina went 6-6 this season to end Brown’s second tenure with the school. Brown was brought back ahead of the 2019 season to resurrect a Carolina program that had fallen into the cellar of the ACC — 5-18 in the 2 seasons prior. And while Brown sent quarterbacks to the NFL, his teams finished with fewer than 5 losses in a season only once.
The Tar Heels signed just 7 high school recruits on Wednesday — a class that ranks 89th in the country. The next head coach will have to hit the road exceptionally hard over the next 2 months to recruit or lean entirely on the transfer portal.
It could take a significant rebuilding effort in Chapel Hill.
“We are very optimistic of where we are, the interest in our program is just extraordinary, and we’ll get a great coach to lead us,” athletic director Bubba Cunningham said earlier this week. “Who can lead us in the next 3, 5, 10 years? We need somebody that can come in and take us from good to great.”
Derek Peterson does a bit of everything, not unlike Taysom Hill. He has covered Oklahoma, Nebraska, the Pac-12, and now delivers CFB-wide content.
