Bill Belichick takes over as head football coach at UNC: 'Great to come back home to Carolina'
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (WTVD) -- A new era of North Carolina football is officially underway. UNC-Chapel Hill officially introduced new head coach Bill Belichick on Thursday.
The press conference featured Belichick, UNC Chancellor Lee H. Roberts, Athletics Director Bubba Cunningham and a room filled with players and coaches.
"It's always a great day to be a Tar Heel, but today is an especially great day," Roberts said to kick off the press conference.
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Roberts then unveiled a short-sleeved gray hoodie - a bit of a trademark from Belichick's NFL coaching days - bearing a blue interlocking "NC" logo.
It was the visual confirmation, which will take some getting used to, that the six-time Super Bowl-winning head coach whose name became synonymous with NFL success has taken an unexpected first dive into college coaching. He now leads a program at a school with a national name brand but one that has been unable to sustain fleeting pockets of high-level success when it comes to football.
"I've always wanted to coach in college football," Belichick said during his introductory campus news conference. "It just never really worked out. Had some good years in the NFL, so that was OK."
The school's trustees approved terms of the deal to hire Belichick as the new football coach earlier Thursday. Specific terms have yet to be released, though the school said Wednesday there was a five-year agreement.
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Belichick arrived wearing a dark suit, a light blue dress shirt and a tie bearing a white-and-light-blue pattern. He sat between Roberts and Cunningham, who paid his own tribute by donning a suit jacket with the sleeves cut off to mimic Belichick's cut-off sideline look.
"I'm here to, as Bubba said, teach, develop and build a program in the way that I believe in," Belichick said.
Moving on from the 73-year-old Mack Brown to hire the 72-year-old Belichick means UNC is turning to a coach who has never worked at the college level, yet had incredible success in the NFL alongside quarterback Tom Brady throughout most of his 24-year tenure with the Patriots, which ended last season.
Belichick holds 333 career regular-season and postseason wins in the NFL, trailing only Don Shula's 347 for the NFL record, while his 31 playoff wins are the most in league history.
He had been linked to NFL jobs in the time since his departure from the Patriots, notably the Atlanta Falcons in January. That's why word of Belichick's conversations with UNC stirred such surprise as an unexpected and unconventional candidate.
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There's also at least a small family tie to the UNC program for Belichick; his late father, Steve, was an assistant coach for the Tar Heels from 1953-55.
When asked about fan concerns that he might leave quickly for the next NFL job, Belichick said: "I didn't come here to leave."
And when asked how long he might want to keep coaching, he quipped: "It beats working. My dad told me this: when you love what you do, it's not work. I love what I do. I love coaching."
UNC leaders hope hiring Belichick is the next step to making the traditional basketball school a football powerhouse.
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"Bill has the experience to elevate every aspect of our football program. This bold hire leaves no doubt that football is a priority in Chapel Hill," former UNC tight end Alge Crumpler said. Crumpler was a team captain in 2010 on Belichick's Patriots team.
Belichick has said that any college job he ran would be a pipeline to the NFL and be organized like an NFL operation.
"It would be a professional program: training, nutrition, scheme, coaching, techniques that would transfer to the NFL," Belichick said.
His first known hire is for a General Manager of the football program. He has tabbed Michael Lombardi for that job. Lombardi spent decades as an NFL GM, with stints at the Patriots, 49ers, Raiders and Browns.
Hiring Belichick is unquestionably a big swing from UNC. His hire reportedly comes with a significantly increased budget for the football program, which will be utilized to modernize the organization to better compete in the era of Name, Image and Likeness.
"We know that college athletics is changing, and those changes require new and innovative thinking. Bill Belichick is a football legend, and hiring him to lead our program represents a new approach that will ensure Carolina football can evolve, compete and win -- today and in the future," Roberts said.
"That's what we need, somebody that can come in and take us from good to great. How do we compete for championships - ACC and national championships?" UNC Athletic Director Bubba Cunningham said on a UNC-produced podcast at the beginning of the coaching search.
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The Associated Press contributed to this report.
