North Carolina hired Bill Belichick as its new head coach. This was a stunning move that wound up being arguably one of the biggest moves in college football coaching history. With Belichick’s hire, UNC hopes to change the future of its football program.
Hiring arguably one of the greatest football minds in history automatically puts UNC on the college football map again. Recently, details have emerged as to how “chaotic” the pursuit of Bill Belichick was, and even an “internal backstabbing” that took place to get Belichick to Chapel Hill.
UNC’s ‘Chaotic’ Pursuit of Coach Bill Belichick and an ‘Internal Backstabbing’
The UNC’s new head coach hire was about as chaotic as you’d imagine. Recently, more details emerged about the hire that almost didn’t happen. This was a pursuit that had plenty of political support and involved the current Secretary of State, Marco Rubio.
The person who got the ball rolling on bringing Bill Belichick to North Carolina? That would be none other than current Secretary of State Marco Rubio, according to a new ESPN story.https://t.co/iXt0REr8lN
— Zach Barnett (@zach_barnett) March 7, 2025
ESPN spoke with UNC Chancellor Lee Roberts, Athletic Director Bubba Cunningham, and more than a dozen other sources who knew all about the process of hiring Belichick. They also reviewed a document over 700 pages long, which detailed the pursuit to get Belichick.
Over the years, Belichick kept a ton of detailed and personal notes about how to run an organization. One source stated this was kind of his “how-to-guide,” which gave a “mythical aura” to UNC in their pursuit. Reports then ran rampant of a “400-page manifesto” that Belichick himself gave to UNC leadership as a blueprint for their football program.
A big condition that UNC used to land Belichick was a pretty simple one: autonomy. “He missed coaching, and he wanted a chance to build his own program and do it his way,” O’Brien said. “That’s hard to do in the NFL nowadays because you have partnerships with a GM and an owner. Bill’s always done it his way, his program.”
According to several sources, Belichick’s hire was similar to that of Deion Sanders. Simply put, it was a public relations “windfall” with the additional benefit of bettering the team’s on-field performance. In other words, this hire made UNC look good, as they landed arguably the best coach in football.
When it became more known that Belichick to UNC was a very real possibility, other coaching candidates questioned the commitment of UNC to the coaching search. “Things just didn’t align, and it seemed like [Cunningham] was being boxed out,” a source said. “It was like, ‘What’s really going on?'”
This divided just about everyone. While some fans and board members viewed Belichick as a “dream hire,” others gave some pushback about the potential hire of Belichick. “This is embarrassing,” read one email obtained via a public records request. “We’re being dog-walked by a 72-year-old coach after we just let a 73-year-old call the shots for years.”
KEEP READING: Bill Belichick Aims to Instill Accountability at UNC
Whether the publicity was good or bad from everyone, this showed UNC one major thing: they could get eyes on their program with Belichick. On Dec. 5, Belichick met with UNC officials in New York City. At the time, UNC remained skeptical that Belichick may just be leveraging UNC for another NFL job.
Cunningham continued to interview other candidates. This was something that angered the board. So, they took an unorthodox and untraditional step and went above everyone’s head to submit an offer sheet to Belichick’s agent without the approval of Roberts and Cunningham.
Ultimately, Belichick wound up accepting UNC’s offer. However, it wasn’t without stabbing Cunningham and Roberts in the back. It remains to be seen how well UNC will play under Belichick, but they could very well make it back to the promised land as they are led by one of the greatest football minds in history.
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