Bill Belichick announced as North Carolina's next head football coach

Bill Belichick is head coach again.

North Carolina announced on Wednesday that it has hired Belichick as head football coach, which confirms previous reports. According to UNC, the two parties have agreed to a five-year agreement.

Veteran NFL director Michael Lombardi announced that he joins Belichick in Chapel Hill to serve as general manager of UNC Football. Lombardi spent decades as a scout and front office executive in the NFL with the 49ers, Browns, Raiders and Patriots.

Lombardi was general manager of the Browns in 2013 worked as an assistant to the coaching staff with the Patriots under Belichick from 2014-16. Lombardi and Belichick first worked together in the 1990s with the Browns when Belichick was head coach in Cleveland. North Carolina has not announced Lombardi's hiring.

The agreement between Belichick and the school comes after talks between the two sides regarding the Tar Heels' open head coaching job became public a week ago.

Belichick, 72, replaces Mack Brown, who was fired after six seasons in his second stint as head coach in Chapel Hill. The Tar Heels finished 6-6 in 2024. Run game coordinator and tight ends coach Freddie Kitchens will coach UNC at the Fenway Bowl on December 28.

Belichick parted ways with the New England Patriots after last season after 24 seasons in which he won a record six Super Bowl championships. He was expected to be a candidate for the seven available head coaching openings this offseason, but he only interviewed with the Atlanta Falcons. The Falcons ultimately selected Raheem Morris.

The New York Jets, Chicago Bears and New Orleans Saints currently have interim head coaches, but none of those teams have contacted Belichick about their openings. according to Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk. Another handful of teams could make coaching changes after the season, and it's unclear whether Belichick would have been seriously considered by an NFL team that has yet to make a move.

North Carolina was the best head coaching job available at the highest level of college football this season as there was limited coaching movement between the power conference schools. If North Carolina is Belichick's final coaching stop, his pursuit of Don Shula's record is now over. Belichick, who has 351 wins as an NFL head coach, is 18 wins away from passing Shula as the winningest NFL coach of all time.

Belichick is about eight months younger than the 73-year-old Brown, who was in his second stint as head coach of the Tar Heels. Belichick, meanwhile, has no experience coaching college football. Although he grew up watching the college game.

Belichick's father was a Navy aide and coached running backs at UNC from 1953-55. His son, Stephen, is currently the defensive coordinator at the University of Washington. Bill is a close friend of former Alabama coach Nick Saban, the most successful coach in modern college football history. Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz was also an assistant to Belichick with the Cleveland Browns.

The college football world has also changed significantly over the past five seasons. College football has become more like the NFL in that players can make money through name, image and likeness deals and make money directly from schools starting in 2025, while also having the option to transfer to another school without to sit out a season.

After reports emerged that Belichick had held discussions with North Carolina officials about the head coaching vacancy, he confirmed it this week during an appearance on “The Pat McAfee ShowBelichick said he met with Roberts and discussed the changes in college football that have made the sport more like the NFL than ever before.

Additionally, Belichick indicated the kind of thought he has put into building a college program and what he would do to appeal to recruits who want to play in the NFL.

North Carolina announced it would fire Brown prior to the final game of the regular season. The program had seen declining win totals in each of the past two seasons after a 9-5 campaign in 2022. UNC went 8-5 in 2023 before a 6-6 season in 2024, a 70-50 home loss to James Madison and a shocking defeat. loss to Georgia Tech after North Carolina gave up a 68-yard TD run with 16 seconds left in a tied game.

While Clemson still sits atop the ACC and SMU made the College Football Playoff after a trip to the ACC title game, there is an opening for North Carolina as Florida State failed in 2024 and Miami will have many key contributors in 2025 need to be replaced. UNC is clearly hoping that Belichick's success in the NFL and his ability to develop talent will be an incentive to bring players to Chapel Hill.