Bill Belichick may have found his next home.
The six-time Super Bowl winning head coach has reportedly found his first coaching role since leaving the New England Patriots, but only if his demands and conditions are to be met.
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If they are, he will be patrolling the sidelines in Chapel Hill in Carolina blue next season as the next head football coach at the University of North Carolina.
It has been reported by The Guardian’s Ollie Connolly, that Belichick has agreed to become the next UNC head coach if the university signs off on his list of demands.
Fox Sport Insider Jordan Schulz followed up on those reports by suggested the talks were ‘very fluid’ and that ‘no agreement’ had been reached.
Off the back of his open pitch on the Pat McAfee Show on Monday, it has been claimed that Belichick handed the university a 400 page “organizational bible” that includes outlines on payment plans, staffing decisions, salary pools by position, etc.
Belichick also wants to hire two staffs: a coaching staff ran by himself, and a recruitment staff, ran by a sitting college general manager.
It will take historic and unprecedented levels for the athletic director, chancellor, trustees and boosters to all be on board with Belichick’s masterplan.
Connolly has reported that there has already been pushback within the group of trustees to Belichick’s requirements.
When the reports first surfaced that Belichick and UNC had mutual interest in one another, it was assumed that both sides were just using this as a ploy to gain leverage for future jobs and candidates.
Apparently it is now a very real and tangible outcome that Belichick will be headed to the college level.
It’s a major surprise, as it was presumed Belichick would find his way back to the NFL after taking a year off from coaching, particularly with three job openings already in the big league and the suggestion more will follow.
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Steve Wyche, the chief national reporter for NFL Network, spoke exclusively to talkSPORT to shed light on the Belichick buzz to North Carolina.
“In terms of Belichick exploring the college opportunity, to me that says the guy really wants to coach,” Wyche said.
“I don’t think he fits with today’s college functionality. He talks about, ‘Hey, I can run it like an NFL team.’
“They already to some degree run like NFL teams, where having to pay players this NIL, name, image and likeness deal.
“You’re dealing with actual agents who are brokering which players get paid, where the money comes from, you have to deal with so much.
‘People say, ‘Oh, he can’t go out and recruit.’
“He won’t need to go out and sit in the kid’s living room and recruit. Deion Sanders doesn’t go out of Colorado and recruit kids. He doesn’t go to homes. He doesn’t necessarily need to do that.
“But every other function, Bill Belichick is used to answering to Bill Belichick.
“When you have to answer to a board of directors and boosters and these maniacal collegiate fan bases, that is something that would be different for him.
“I just don’t, I don’t know how it fits.”
It is an odd choice for a 72-year-old, wanting to try and run a college program.
However, as Wyche alluded to, now more than ever are collegiate programs being ran like NFL organizations.
Something that Belichick did better than anyone in the history of the National Football League, as he presided over the most successful dynasty in the sport.
Alls eyes will be on the University of North Carolina and if they are comfortable giving Belichick total autonomy on the program.
As Wyche said, “Bill Belichick is used to answering to Bill Belichick.”
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