Six-time Super Bowl champion Bill Belichick said Monday he had “some good conversations” with North Carolina Chancellor Lee Roberts about becoming the Tar Heels’ head coach.
Speaking on ESPN’s The Pat McAfee Show, Belichick said that in the 11 months since leaving the New England Patriots, he had “taken a longer look” at college football throughout the season, as opposed to during the spring leading up to the draft as a professional coach .
“So it’s been a good year for me. I learned a lot,” Belichick said. “So I had the opportunity to talk to Chancellor Roberts and we had some good conversations. So we’ll see how it goes.”
Belichick chose not to go into further detail when McAfee asked him about the job. Instead, Belichick joked about his reputation for giving short responses during press conferences with the Patriots.
“Yeah, let’s leave it at that, Pat,” Belichick said with a grin. “I mean, I don’t want to give away too much information. I want to get my press conference aura back.”
Inside Carolina first reported that Belichick interviewed with UNC last week, a report later confirmed by the Associated Press, as the Tar Heels search for a replacement for Mack Brown. The school announced on Nov. 26 that Brown would not return for a seventh season in his second stint with the school.
Moving on from the 73-year-old Brown to hiring the 72-year-old Belichick would mean UNC is turning to a coach who has never worked at the college level. But Belichick had incredible NFL success alongside quarterback Tom Brady for most of his 24-year tenure with the Patriots.
In the time since, he had been linked to NFL jobs, most notably the Atlanta Falcons in January.
While Belichick didn’t go into detail about his UNC discussions, he did provide insight into the parallels he sees between running an NFL and a college team, especially now that players can capitalize on their athletic fame with endorsements.
“If I was going to a college program, the college program would be a pipeline to the NFL for the players that had the opportunity to play in the NFL,” Belichick said. “It would be a professional program: training, nutrition, schedule, coaching, techniques that would transfer to the NFL. It would be a college-level NFL program.”
There is also at least a family connection to the UNC program for Belichick; his late father, Steve, was an assistant coach for the Tar Heels from 1953-55.