New North Carolina coach Bill Belichick is getting used to college football while his players are getting used to him.
“Man coverage is man coverage. Double-team blocks are double-team blocks,” Belichick said Wednesday in his first news conference since being hired in December. “The hash marks are a big change, and I’d say the overall skill level. In the NFL, there are some pretty elite players, especially in the passing game.”
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UNC general manager Michael Lombardi said last month that Belichick will run his squad as “the 33rd NFL team.” For players, part of adjusting to their new coach during spring practice, which started earlier this week, means practicing without numbers.
“That’s just what we do. We go out there and earn it. The numbers and what color gloves we wear and all that’s not as important as doing your job and being responsible and accountable to your teammates,” Belichick said.
Belichick’s program was in discussions to appear on the offseason edition of “Hard Knocks,” which traditionally chronicles NFL teams. But UNC and NFL Films, which produces the show, couldn’t come to a final agreement, so cameras won’t be peering inside Belichick’s first offseason as a college head coach. Belichick wasn’t asked about the deal falling through in his 16 minutes with reporters on Wednesday.
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He arrived at UNC after being out of coaching last season, though he remained visible, making frequent appearances on ESPN’s “ManningCast” alongside Peyton and Eli Manning. He’d won six Super Bowls in 24 seasons as the head coach of the New England Patriots before mutually agreeing to part ways after going 4-13 in 2024, his third losing season in four years.
Belichick said he’ll emphasize welcoming back former UNC players to campus and to practices. He also said the Tar Heels will run a “pro system” on both sides of the ball and in the kicking game, calling it the “foundation” of his program. For now, he’s still learning his roster, which includes 18 incoming transfers to a team that went 6-7 under Mack Brown last season.
“We want to play to the strengths of our players and it probably takes awhile to figure that out,” he said.
Belichick said he doesn’t have any expectations for his first team in Chapel Hill.“We’ll see. I don’t know. We’ll go out there and do what we do and see what happens. See how it goes,” he said.
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Monday, the Tar Heels officially announced Belichick’s coaching staff, which features his sons Steve as defensive coordinator/linebackers coach and Brian as defensive backs/safeties coach. Former FBS head coaches Bob Diaco and Garrick McGee are also on staff, along with former Cleveland Browns head coach Freddie Kitchens, who was retained from last year’s staff and will serve as offensive coordinator. Mike Priefer, a longtime NFL special teams coordinator, will do the same job for the Tar Heels.
“Steve, Freddie and Mike have a ton of experience. They’ve performed well in multiple situations. Steve’s coached our defense for a long time. Whatever his years as a coach were, he was involved way before that,” he said.
Belichick said he won’t focus on any particular position as head coach.
“That’s the great thing about being a head coach. I can coach anybody I want. I can coach the line, I can yell at the tight ends. I can yell at the DBs. I can yell at the kickers. I can go to any group I want and coach ‘em,” he said. “And honestly, that’s the fun part. You see something you want to address and talk to a player about, you can go talk to ‘em.”
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(Photo: Grant Halverson / Getty Images)
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