UNC's new headman

After a disappointing 2024 season, which saw the University of North Carolina Tar Heels football team go 6-7 this season, the school decided to move on from legendary college football coach Mack Brown.

While some may say Brown’s tenure was underwhelming, it was not without success. He coached the team to six consecutive bowl game appearances, including an Orange Bowl appearance in 2020 and an ACC Championship Game appearance in 2022.

Brown also leaves UNC as the winningest coach in program history, which is aided by his previous stint as Tar Heels head coach from 1988 to 1997.

North Carolina opened their new coaching search after the regular season ended with a loss to rival NC State 35–30, in what was a hectic rivalry week in college football.

What the University found was an unbelievable candidate and a surefire home run of a hire.

Who did they find? None other than former New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick.

After a lengthy interview process, it was announced on Dec. 11 that North Carolina and Belichick had reached a five-year deal for him to become the new head man in Chapel Hill.

Belichick brings with him a laundry list of achievements from the NFL.

He is an eight-time Super Bowl champion, winning two with the New York Giants and most notably winning six as the head coach of the New England Patriots.

He was also named as AP NFL Coach of the Year three times and is second all-time in wins in NFL history, with 333. He holds the record for most playoff wins, with 31.

Belichick was named to the NFL’s All-Decade Team twice, for the 2000s and 2010s, and is also a member of the NFL’s 100th Anniversary All-Time Team.

With all of these accomplishments, he also brings a boatload of experience to UNC. Belichick brings along with him 49 years of NFL coaching experience, with 29 of those years coming as a head coach.

He has been in and around the game for pretty much all of his life. After being fired from New England after posting a 4-13 season in 2023, the 72-year-old looks to Chapel Hill to begin a new chapter in his coaching career and his legacy.

In this new age of college football, head coaches need to be more like CEOs, and that fits Bill Belichick perfectly.

He is the architect of one of, if not the greatest dynasties in NFL history, so he has plenty of knowledge on how to build rosters. With this new age of NIL and revenue sharing, he can also flex his NFL brain with how and where to spend for certain parts of the roster.

Chapel Hill is not new to Belichick, however. His father Steve Belichick was a UNC assistant from 1953 to 1955.

Belichick now becomes the head man for a program his father used to work for, and maybe even push them to the top of college football.

Evan Pochas is a second-year majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact him, email ejp5753@psu.edu.