Bill Belichick set to become North Carolina’s head coach in football stunner

Bill Belichick is going back to school.

The 72-year-old coaching legend is making a shock move to the college ranks, finalizing a deal to join UNC as its head coach nearly a year after his split from the Patriots following 24 years and six Super Bowl victories, the school announced Wednesday.

Belichick’s deal is for five years, according to North Carolina.

“I am excited for the opportunity at UNC-Chapel Hill,” Belichick said in a statement. “I grew up around college football with my dad and treasured those times. I have always wanted to coach in college and now I look forward to building the football program in Chapel Hill.”

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The UNC Board of Trustees met Wednesday to approve Belichick’s contract, according to ABC 11 in North Carolina.

Per ESPN, Belichick has been eyeing people to add to his staff and is looking to potentially make acquisitions in the transfer portal, which opened Monday.

Belichick, who played collegiately at Wesleyan, has spent his entire 49-year coaching career in the NFL, though his father, Steve, was an assistant at UNC from 1953-55.

After his breakup with New England, Belichick interviewed for the Falcons job during the last coaching cycle but Atlanta hired Raheem Morris.

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When he ended up without an NFL coaching job, Belichick secured a bevy of media jobs for the 2024 season, which include appearances on “The Pat McAfee Show,” ESPN’s ManningCast and “Inside the NFL.”

A potential lack of interest in the upcoming cycle may have led Belichick, whose 333 total wins between Cleveland and New England over a 29-year career rank second all-time to Don Shula’s 347, to Chapel Hill, where he’s taking over for the recently fired 73-year-old Mack Brown.

Known as a basketball school, the Tar Heels football program has just one double-digit-win season in the last 27 years and hasn’t won a conference title since 1980.

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On Monday’s episode of “The Pat McAfee Show,” Belichick made it clear what kind of program he’d want to run.

“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,” he said. “It would be a professional program: training, nutrition, scheme, coaching and techniques that would transfer to the NFL.

“It would be an NFL program, but not at the NFL level.”

Belichick was most recently spotted on the red carpet for The Museum Gala at the American Museum of Natural History Thursday night in Manhattan with his 24-year-old girlfriend, Jordon Hudson.

He reportedly met with UNC officials in Manhattan the same day.

Since rumors of the UNC flirtation began, he’s gotten plenty of support from the NFL community.

“’There’s a lot of things he can do, and obviously he’s tremendous, and even showing his personality,” former Patriots QB and longtime Belichick running mate Tom Brady said during Fox’s NFL coverage on Sunday. “But getting out there on the recruiting trail and dealing with all these college kids…”

That led to fellow ex-Patriots stars Julian Edelman and Rob Gronkowski wondering how the notoriously gruff coach would handle enticing teens to Chapel Hill.

Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy — someone whom Belichick may have been considered a replacement for at the end of the season — offered up a warning to opposing NCAA teams.

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“Wow, that’s great … I’ll say one thing, they’ll be someone to be reckoned with,” he told reporters of Belichick’s move. “I have a lot of respect for Bill and the job that he’s always done. He was always very difficult to compete against. … Congratulations to him. I’m happy for him.”