Bill Belichick joins other NFL head coaches who have taken college gigs | LIST
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. -- Bill Belichick has a trophy case full of titles from his time in the NFL. But the allure of a college championship still calls to him.
It was announced Wednesday the legendary former New England Patriots boss will be the new head football coach of the North Carolina Tar Heels. This comes almost a year after parting ways with the Pats.
Belichick cuts a fascinating profile as a hire. Few -- if any -- in the industry have won like the six-time Super Bowl champ head coach has. But Belichick, 72, also has never held any official college coaching position in his nearly five-decade-long career.
Belichick's complete lack of college experience is an anomaly. But, while he'd be starting his collegiate résumé next year, plenty more have returned to the college level after an NFL head coaching stint, though the results of such moves have been a decidedly mixed bag.
Here are some of the most notable head coaches to move from the pros to college over the past 20 years.
Matt Rhule, 2023, Nebraska
Rhule rose to fame thanks to his stints leading the Temple Owls and Baylor Bears. At Temple, he produced back-to-back 10-win seasons at a school that hadn't won double-digit games since 1979, and left Baylor after transforming a scandal-ridden program back into a New Year's Six participant.
His subsequent tenure leading the Carolina Panthers didn't go as swimmingly, where he was fired midway through his third season in charge after a lackluster first two campaigns. Soon afterward, he was tabbed by the Nebraska Cornhuskers to return to the college game, where he's currently 11-13 across two seasons. The Cornhuskers' Pinstripe Bowl appearance this December will be the team's first bowl game since 2016.
Chip Kelly, 2018, UCLA
A torrid 46-7 run -- including three consecutive 12-win seasons -- with the Oregon Ducks earned Kelly a ticket to the NFL. His time in the professional ranks started well, piloting the Philadelphia Eagles to an NFC East title in his first season and another 10-win campaign the next fall. But the wheels fell off in his third year when he was fired before the season's final game with the Eagles sitting at 6-9. A bounce-back gig with the San Francisco 49ers didn't prove much better, and Kelly was fired after a single 2-14 campaign.
Eleven months later, the UCLA Bruins brought Kelly back to the Pac-12. Success wasn't immediate -- the Bruins won no more than four games in each of their first three seasons under Kelly -- but the offensive guru eventually turned in three consecutive 8+ win campaigns to end his tenure in Westwood. Last offseason, Kelly left UCLA to become offensive coordinator for the Ohio State Buckeyes.
Herm Edwards, 2018, Arizona State
Headlines ran aplenty during Edwards' run with the Arizona State Sun Devils, which started with a bang when the school issued a news release corresponding with his hiring detailing a "restructured ASU football model" styled after the NFL.
Edwards, whose most recent coaching gig had come almost a decade prior with the Kansas City Chiefs, produced a seven-win campaign in his first year and an eight-win effort the next fall. A .500 effort during the pandemic-shortened 2020 season was followed up by another eight-win season in 2021.
The ensuing offseason, however, the headlines turned more sour. The NCAA investigated an alleged culture of rule breaking, and a number of key staff and players departed. The final nail in the coffin was an embarrassing home loss to Eastern Michigan in 2022, after which the school announced a change in leadership.
WATCH | ESPN's Herm Edwards shares advice to Belichick on college football transition: 'be yourself, coach'
Jim Harbaugh, 2015, Michigan
The Michigan Wolverines alum took over his alma mater after parting ways with the 49ers following his first season without double-digit wins in December 2014. Harbaugh's early years in Ann Arbor were up and down -- the Wolverines won 10 games in three of his first four seasons, but Harbaugh lost his first five editions of "The Game" against Ohio State, and was 1-4 in bowl appearances a half-decade into his tenure.
But a switch was flipped after Michigan's ugly 2-4 2020 season. Across Harbaugh's final three years, the Wolverines went 3-0 against Ohio State, won three Big Ten championships and a national championship in 2023. The national title proved Harbaugh's ticket back to the NFL stage, where he accepted the Los Angeles Chargers' head job soon after.
Jim Mora, 2012, UCLA
Before the Bruins looked to the ranks of ex-NFL head coaches to bring in Chip Kelly, they did the same to hire his predecessor in Westwood: Jim Mora.
Like Kelly, Mora's tenure in the NFL started strong with a divisional title and playoff berth in his first year with the Atlanta Falcons. Also like Kelly, however, Mora's next two seasons in charge of the Falcons would include a dip in record, and a subsequent one-year stint with the Seattle Seahawks proved a bust.
Just under two years after his departure from Seattle, Mora was hired by UCLA to try his hand as a head coach in the college ranks. Mora's tenure proved to be a reverse of Kelly's arc with the Bruins -- starting strong with 29 wins in his first three seasons before petering out with back-to-back losing seasons in 2016 and 2017.
Lane Kiffin, 2009, Tennessee
Kiffin's rise in the coaching world was rapid, with his first head coaching position coming in the NFL with the then-Oakland Raiders when he was just 31 years old. His tenure with the Raiders was far from stellar, going 4-12 in his first season before being fired after a 1-3 start in the next campaign.
A few months later, Kiffin was back in a head coaching role, this time in the college ranks with the Tennessee Volunteers. He became the youngest active coach in the FBS when he was hired.
The Volunteers improved from 5-7 in 2008 to 7-6 during Kiffin's first season as coach, but that first year would be his only one in Knoxville. He decamped to take the recently vacated head coaching job with the USC Trojans, where he had served as Pete Carroll's offensive coordinator prior to taking the Raiders job.
Bobby Petrino, 2008, Arkansas
Petrino spent less than one season as an NFL coach with the Falcons, going 3-10 before resigning to return to the college ranks and take the Arkansas Razorbacks job.
The Razorbacks improved during each year of Petrino's time in Fayetteville, culminating in an 11-win campaign and a Cotton Bowl win during his fourth season in 2011. An off-field incident during the ensuing offseason, however, led to Petrino being put on administrative leave before being fired.
Nick Saban, 2007, Alabama
Though he emphatically statedin December 2006 that he would not be taking the Alabama Crimson Tide job, Saban landed in Tuscaloosaweeks laterand returned to the college ranks after two seasons with the Miami Dolphins.
Though Saban's tenure with Miami was forgettable (a 15-17 overall record), the former national champion coach of the LSU Tigers turned Alabama into a dynasty. A 7-6 first campaign was followed up by 16 consecutive double-digit win seasons, including six national championships.
Steve Spurrier, 2005, South Carolina
After an excellent spell with the Florida Gators, Spurrier was tabbed by the Washington Commanders to come serve as "Head Ball Coach" in the NFL ranks. But Washington failed to finish better than third in the NFC East in either of his two seasons.
After a season away from the game, Spurrier went back to the SEC -- this time with the South Carolina Gamecocks -- where he'd return to his winning ways.
The Gamecocks finished .500 or better in ten of his eleven seasons in Columbia, highlighted by a stretch of three consecutive 11-win campaigns with top-10 final rankings from 2011 to 2013. Spurrier resigned with South Carolina sitting at a 2-4 record midway through 2015, offering a typically frank comment in his departure.
