Legendary head coach Bill Belichick will reportedly be returning to the sidelines in 2025, but he won’t be doing so in the NFL.
According to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, Pete Thamel and Chris Low, Belichick is “finalizing a deal” to take over as the head coach of the North Carolina Tar Heels.
The deal comes after a week of rumors linking Belichick to the job opening for the Tar Heels, who fired head coach Mack Brown after their 6-6 finish to the 2024 season. Brown, who was in his second stint as UNC head coach, led the team to a combined 44-33 record over the last six seasons with five bowl game appearances.
Adam Smith of 247Sports reported on Wednesday that UNC was finalizing a contract for Belichick, with the school’s Board of Trustees scheduling an emergency meeting to approve the hire. It apparently didn’t take long for the 72-year-old to be brought in to lead a new era for the Tar Heels.
Undoubtedly one of the greatest football coaches of all time, Belichick is a six-time Super Bowl champion from his iconic run with the New England Patriots. His 333 career NFL wins rank second in league history behind Don Shula’s 347.
However, Belichick surprisingly wasn’t hired by an NFL team after parting ways with the Patriots at the end of the 2023 season following his 24-year tenure. He garnered little interest on the open market, with his only known interview being with the Atlanta Falcons before they hired Raheem Morris as head coach. He spent the 2024 season working as an NFL broadcaster and analyst for multiple networks.
Now, Belichick will be embarking on a new challenge as he tries his hand at coaching in college for the first time in his career. His father, Steve Belichick, was an assistant coach at Navy for 34 years and had stints as an assistant at UNC and Vanderbilt. Bill’s eldest son, Stephen Belichick, spent the 2024 season as defensive coordinator at Washington following a 12-year run on the Patriots staff working under his dad.
It will certainly be interesting to see how Belichick navigates the constantly shifting landscape of college football, where NIL rules, transfer portal changes and conference realignment have created new challenges for coaches.
However, it’s clear that Belichick was ready to return to coaching, and UNC gave him the opportunity to get back to doing what he does best.
There were reports all day on Wednesday saying that Bill Belichick was close to reaching a deal to become the next head coach of the North Carolina Tar Heels’ football team. Perhaps we could have just looked at the Instagram account of his girlfriend Jordon Hudson for clues on the matter.
Earlier this week, a fan commented on one of Hudson’s Instagram photos and told her “Tell Bill to come to UNC!!”
“I’ll pass the message along,” Hudson wrote in response.
Not only that, but Hudson is following multiple North Carolina football-related Instagram accounts. She is following the official accounts of the school and football team, as well as their cheer and football nutrition accounts.
Why would Hudson have done all that if a deal were not imminent? She wouldn’t have. She knew what was going on and that Belichick was close to reaching a deal to coach the Tar Heels.
Now North Carolina will go from having 73-year-old Mack Brown as their head coach to 72-year-old Belichick. They are getting Hudson as part of a package deal.
