NIL
Has Bill Belichick ever coached college football before?
Bill Belichick press conference: UNC football practicing in full pads
UNC football coach Bill Belichick held his third press conference of the preseason inside the Bill Koman Practice Complex. Here’s what he had to say.
- Bill Belichick is the oldest active head coach in college football this season at 73 years old.
- UNC hired Bill Belichick as its football coach in December of 2024.
- Bill Belichick is in his first season coaching UNC football.
When Bill Belichick leads UNC football out of the tunnel at Kenan Stadium on Monday, Sept. 1 for its season-opener vs. TCU, the legendary football coach will be making history on multiple fronts.
The first is his age: the six-time Super Bowl champion winning coach is the oldest active coach in college football at 73 years old, a position his predecessor, Mack Brown, used to hold.
Then there is the elephant in the room: he’ll be making his coaching debut in college football after nearly five decades of coaching.
The fact that Belichick hasn’t coached college football before, and is starting during a time that the sport is driven by NIL earnings and rosters being built by the transfer portal, has made it one if not the most anticipated storylines heading into the season.
The Belichick-led Tar Heels brought in over 70 new players this offseason and did not receive a single vote in both the preseason US LBM Coaches and AP Top 25 polls. Things for Belichick and UNC get underway on Sept. 1 at 8 p.m. ET vs. TCU.
Here’s what to know about Belichick’s history in college football:
Has Bill Belichick coached college football before?
No, Belichick will not have coached a college football game before North Carolina’s season opener vs. TCU on Sept. 1. The 73-year-old coach will be making his coaching debut in the college ranks vs. the Horned Frogs.
Despite this, Belichick does have some experience being around college football in a non-official coaching role, as he spent some time around the Washington football program last season. The reason why Belichick spent some of his one-year hiatus from coaching with the Huskies was that his son, Stephen Belichick, now UNC’s defensive coordinator, was then serving as Washington’s defensive coordinator under Jeff Fisch, who served on Bill Belichick’s Patriots staff in 2020 as the quarterback coach.
At ACC media days, Belichick was asked about the differences between coaching in the NFL and college during an appearance on SiriusXM Radio. He mentioned that there is more time for him and his coaches to spend on player development in college than in the NFL. Here’s his full response:
“The players are very anxious and eager to learn and to be good, and want to be good and want to do the right thing. They haven’t had the kind of college success that most NFL players have had yet, or in some cases, pro success, that some NFL players have had. So they don’t have as many bad habits,” Belichick said. “They’re more anxious to kind of learn fundamentally the right way, or at least the way we’re teaching to do things, and they really embrace it. That’s not always the case in the NFL. Sometimes it is, sometimes it isn’t.”
He added: “The other thing is in college, you just have more time to train the players and you have more practice reps because you have more players. …”
In an appearance on Fox college football analyst Joel Klatt’s podcast back on Aug. 11, one of Belichick’s former NFL quarterbacks, Tom Brady, spoke at length about the challenges his former coach could experience in the college ranks.
“I think the challenge for him is he’s dealing with a lot of underdeveloped players because he’s dealt with guys that are four, five, six years further along than what he’s normally had to deal with,” Brady said on Aug. 11. “So I think there’s probably a learning curve for him. …”
Bill Belichick coaching career, history
Prior to being hired at North Carolina, Belichick spent the 2024-25 football season off after parting ways with the Patriots following the 2024 NFL Season.
Here’s a breakdown of Belichick’s entire coaching career, per his North Carolina profile:
Head coach unless otherwise specified. Assistant role listed in parentheses
- 1975: Baltimore Colts (Special Assistant)
- 1976-1977: Detroit Lions (1976 — Wide Receivers/Tight Ends Coach); (1977 — Wide Receivers/Tight Ends Coach)
- 1978: Denver Broncos (Assistant Special Teams Coach/Defensive Assistant Coach)
- 1979-1990: New York Giants (1979 — Special Teams Coach/Defensive Assistant Coach); (1980-1984 —Special Teams/Linebackers Coach); and (1985-1990 — Defensive Coordinator)
- 1991-1995: Cleveland Browns
- 1996: New England Patriots (Assistant Head Coach/Defensive Backs Coach)
- 1997-1999: New York Jets (Assistant Head Coach/Defensive Coordinator)
- 2000-2023: New England Patriots
- 2025-Present: North Carolina