By Bruce Feldman, Brendan Marks, Dianna Russini and Ralph D. Russo
Former New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick has spoken with North Carolina officials multiple times about the school’s head-coaching vacancy, multiple people who have been briefed on the situation told The Athletic on Thursday.
How serious the two sides are about continuing to talk is unclear, and no decision on who the Tar Heels want to hire to replace Mack Brown appears imminent, sources said.
Sources spoke on the condition of anonymity because North Carolina was not making details of its coaching search public. Inside Carolina first reported Belichick’s interview.
The 72-year-old six-time Super Bowl winner has become intrigued with college football while spending considerable time inside a major college football program this past year, and is believed to be open to either college or the NFL. His 37-year-old son, Steve Belichick, a former Patriots assistant coach, is Washington’s defensive coordinator, working with Huskies head coach Jedd Fisch, another former New England coach under the elder Belichick.
Belichick has been involved with the Huskies staff and has been engaged with the program. Last spring, when his son was installing the new defense, Belichick spent extended time with the defensive staff for the seven days he visited.
“He is fully invested in our program,” Fisch told The Athletic in July. “When we were at Arizona, I would get emails or calls from Bill and he would give me things that he saw in our film. He watched our film every week. He would give me a whole rundown of certain things to look at and think about, which was just incredible. Now he has a little more investment, got grandkids here, too, which is more of an advantage. It’s not just his own son. Everyone likes grandkids better.”
The Patriots parted with Belichick in January after 24 seasons, and he spent this year out of coaching after failing to land another NFL job. Belichick interviewed with the Atlanta Falcons last offseason before they hired Raheem Morris and could again be up for an NFL job. Three teams — the New York Jets, New Orleans Saints and Chicago Bears — have already fired coaches this season.
At 333 total wins, Belichick sits 14 back from matching Don Shula’s NFL coaching record of 347 career victories.
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North Carolina fired Brown, 73, days before the final game of the regular season, which concluded with a loss to North Carolina State to drop the Tar Heels to 6-6.
A source at Washington told The Athletic on Thursday that Belichick has been around the program consistently “and got a very up-close, in-depth look at what today’s college football looks like now” around the Big Ten program in Seattle. The source added that Belichick has seen his scheme being run in college and that college players can make it work.
Under Steve Belichick, the Huskies, despite replacing nine of 11 starters from last year’s defense, rank No. 27 in the nation in yards per play allowed — up from No. 79 last year. They’re No. 4 in the country in fewest pass yards allowed per attempt.
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(Photo: Steph Chambers / Getty Images)
