Legendary NFL coach Bill Belichick confirmed Monday during an interview on "The Pat McAfee Show" that he has had conversations with North Carolina and school chancellor Lee Harriss Roberts to potentially fill the Tar Heels' coaching vacancy. This comes amid multiple reports indicating mutual interest between the 72-year old Belichick and North Carolina.
"We've had a couple of good conversations," Belichick said. "We'll see how it goes."
Belichick has not coached since 2023 when he led the New England Patriots to a 4-13 record. Belichick and the Patriots agreed to mutually part ways in January 2024.
Belichick has been open to a return to coaching since leaving the Patriots. In January, shortly after the parting of ways, Belichick was interviewed by the Atlanta Falcons for their head coaching vacancy. The Falcons eventually hired Raheem Morris.
"I think anytime as a coach you join with an organization, whether it's -- whatever level it's at, you just want to share a vision with that person," Belichick said. Talking through a lot of things -- I don't think it really matters where the program is. There are a lot of things that go into that. Team building and the structure of the program and so forth that take some time to just talk through. It's a discussion. It's not an argument or a debate. It's just understanding what resources are available. What we need. How does that mix together? Who's working for who? That's all pretty common.
"Every interview I've had has had an element of that in it. This will be no different. Whatever the organization or team is, there still has to be a structure to it and I'd say a common vision for it to work well."
Were something to materialize, this would be Belichick's first foray into the college coaching world. He did grow up around the game under his father, Steve Belichick, who was an assistant coach at Vanderbilt, North Carolina and Navy from 1949-89.
Belichick is an eight-time Super Bowl winner. He took home the NFL's top prize twice as a defensive coordinator with the New York Giants from 1985-90 and led the New England Patriots to six Super Bowl wins during his 23-year tenure as head coach.
With a 302-165 overall record through his stints with the Patriots and the Cleveland Browns, he is also second all-time in NFL head coach wins.
Despite Belichick's professional success, there are some concerns about his ability to acclimate to the college game. Belichick did note that he has spent the last year studying college football and paying closer attention to its inner workings on his own time.
He also laid out his vision if -- and Belichick emphasized the if -- he gets the opportunity to run a college program.
"If I was in a college program, the college program would be a pipeline to the NFL for the players that had the ability to play in the NFL," Belichick said. "It would be a professional program. Training, nutrition, scheme, coaching, techniques that would transfer to the NFL. It would be an NFL program at a college leve and an education that would get the players ready for their career after football, whether that was the end of their college career or the end of their pro career."
North Carolina is searching for a new coach after moving on from Mack Brown, who had two separate stints leading the Tar Heels. The 73-year old Brown went 44-33 during his second tenure at North Carolina from 2019-24.