Bill Belichick ‘always wanted’ to give college coaching a try. Now he will at North Carolina

Bill Belichick had just been introduced Thursday as North Carolina’s next football coach when chancellor Lee Roberts came armed with a gift: a short-sleeved gray hoodie — a bit of a trademark from Belichick’s NFL coaching days — bearing a blue interlocking “NC” logo.

It was the visual confirmation, which will take some getting used to, that the six-time Super Bowl-winning head coach whose name became synonymous with NFL success has taken an unexpected first dive into college coaching. He now leads a program at a school with a national name brand but one that has been unable to sustain fleeting pockets of high-level success when it comes to football.

“I’ve always wanted to coach in college football,” Belichick said during his introductory campus news conference. “It just never really worked out. Had some good years in the NFL, so that was OK. But this is really kind of a dream come true.”

Belichick, who met with his new team before the media, certainly seemed at ease Thursday. He bypassed the terse and grumpy responses he became known for during his time with the Patriots — something he joked about as his news conference “aura” during Monday’s appearance on ESPN’s “The Pat McAfee Show.” Instead, he came with a grin and quips, starting when he walked into the room and scanned the large crowd of reporters, former players and others with university ties.

“Big crowd,” he said lowly to Roberts, then scanned the room with a smile before taking his seat.

And it was, along with the magnitude of a hire that had seized a national spotlight that typically falls on UNC more for its tradition-rich blueblood basketball program.

The school’s trustees approved terms of the five-year deal earlier Thursday, followed by the governors of the state’s public university system after the news conference. The deal pays Belichick $10 million in base and supplemental salary per year — though it is guaranteed only for the first three years, including for buyout purposes — and there is also up to $3.5 million in annual bonuses.

As for the buyout if Belichick leaves, there’s a $10 million fee if done before June 2025, which would discourage an unexpected jump to an NFL opening before next season, and then $1 million after that date.

There are also estimates for the school to allocate $10 million for assistant coaching salaries, $1 million for strength-and-conditioning staff, $5.3 million for support staff such as general manager, and $13 million in eventual revenue sharing to athletes.

“I do think football is the economic driver in college sports, and we need to be really good in football to continue to remain relevant on a national basis,” UNC athletic director Bubba Cunningham said after the news conference. “We’re there in basketball, we’re there in a lot of our Olympic sports. But we need to make sure our football program is elite.

“I think this demonstrates our commitment to it. Now the performance is going to demonstrate whether or not we can do it.”

Belichick arrived wearing a dark suit, a light blue dress shirt and a tie bearing a white-and-light-blue pattern. He sat between Roberts and Cunningham, who paid his own tribute by donning a suit jacket with the sleeves cut off to mimic Belichick’s cut-off sideline look.

“I’m here to, as Bubba said, teach, develop and build a program in the way that I believe in,” Belichick said.

Moving on from the 73-year-old Mack Brown to hire the 72-year-old Belichick means UNC is turning to a coach who has never worked at the college level, yet had incredible success in the NFL alongside quarterback Tom Brady throughout most of his 24-year tenure with the Patriots, which ended last season.

Belichick holds 333 career regular-season and postseason wins in the NFL, trailing only Don Shula’s 347 for the NFL record, while his 31 playoff wins are the most in league history.

He had been linked to NFL jobs in the time since his departure from the Patriots, notably the Atlanta Falcons in January. And he had seemingly settled into the media world, including appearances on former NFL quarterbacks Peyton and Eli Manning’s “Manningcast” broadcasts during Monday Night Football as well as appearances on McAfee’s show.

That’s why word of Belichick’s conversations with UNC — first reported by Inside Carolina and confirmed by the AP last week — stirred such surprise as an unexpected and unconventional candidate.

There’s also at least a small family tie to the UNC program for Belichick; his late father, Steve, was an assistant coach for the Tar Heels from 1953-55. Belichick offered a nod to that by pulling out a white school sweatshirt of his father’s during the news conference.

When asked about fan concerns that he might leave quickly for the next NFL job, Belichick said: “I didn’t come here to leave.”

And when asked how long he might want to keep coaching, he was quick with a quip.

“It beats working,” Belichick said, drawing chuckles. My dad told me this: when you love what you do, it’s not work. I love what I do. I love coaching.”

He’s arriving on campus at a time of rapid changes in college athletics, from free player movement through the transfer portal and athletes’ ability to cash in on endorsements to the looming arrival of revenue sharing. And he’s taking over a program that for a school with a national name-brand that has never sustained elite football success in its long history.

Belichick said his staff, both in coaching and support, would certainly have a “strong presence of NFL people.” Interim Tar Heels coach Freddie Kitchens is an example; Belichick said he intends to retain the former Cleveland Browns head coach on his staff.

Another is Michael Lombardi, a former NFL general manager and executive who is leaving a media job to become UNC’s GM. Lombardi attended Thursday’s news conference.

“To work again with Belichick is probably another dream come true,” Lombardi said. “We had success in Cleveland, we had success together in New England, and it feels right to work that way. And I love building football teams.”

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