Bill Belichick did not want to go into details.
But he confirmed Monday that he spoke with North Carolina about its head football coaching vacancy. And he talked about what his vision for a college football program would look like should he take a college coaching job, at UNC or elsewhere.
Belichick made these revelations on “The Pat McAffee Show” amid multiple reports that he had been in talks with North Carolina, including one from his ESPN colleague Adam Schefter that he met with UNC Chancellor Lee Roberts for five hours on Sunday.
“I had the opportunity to speak with Chancellor Roberts and we had a couple of good conversations,” Belichick told McAfee. “So, we’ll see how it goes.”
McAfee then pressed Belichick and asked him about the report of his Sunday meeting with Roberts. Belichick declined to offer further details.
“Let’s leave it at that,” Belichick said, “I don’t want to give away too much information.”
So does Belichick really want to coach in college?
But Belichick was more than happy to talk about the state of college football, also addressing one of the biggest questions surrounding his conversations with UNC. Does Belichick, who most recently spent 24 seasons overseeing the six-time Super Bowl champion New England Patriots dynasty, really want to deal with the headaches of college coaching?
Interested in navigating the changing transfer portal and NIL landscape that coincided with the retirement of college coaching titans including Nick Saban, Mike Krzyzewski and Roy Williams? The answer seems to be a resounding yes.
Belichick went on to discuss how the modern college team-building landscape mirrors that of the NFL salary cap structure he is quite familiar with.
“I think there are a lot of football programs that are structured similarly to NFL programs,” Belichick said. “In college, now you have high school recruiting, but you have the college portal. In professional football, you have the draft and professional free agency.
“So you have a salary cap and negotiations with NFL agents. In college you have negotiations with whoever represents the player, whether it’s a family member, a high school coach, an agent or some other financial advisor, whoever be.
“You have players who change teams in college, as well as players who can change teams in the NFL with a different set of rules but the same general structure. And you have to value your players in some way because you have a limited amount of money. income sharing is.
“I think it’s a little bit different version of the NFL model, much more so than ever before.”
So what would Belichick’s program look like if he accepted the head coaching job? Belichick laid out his vision with an important caveat about taking a college job.
“IF I was in a college program, I would be a conduit to the NFL for players who had the ability to play in the NFL…
It would be a professional program at the University level.
I have no doubt the players would be ready for the NFL.” ~ Bill Belichick #PMSLive pic.twitter.com/JyMDtzs2yR
-Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) December 9, 2024
“Let me put this in all caps, if – I, F – if I were in a college program, the college program would be a pipeline to the NFL for players who had the ability to play in the NFL,” Belichick said. “It would be a professional program (training, nutrition, scheme, training technique) that would transfer to the NFL.
“It would be an NFL program at the college level and an education that would prepare players for their career after football, whether it be the end of their college career or the end of their professional career.”
He sure sounds like a man who has put a lot of thought into college training and has prepared his pitch to potential employers and recruits. So does that mean he’ll be the next head coach at North Carolina or perhaps another program?
That remains to be seen, of course. There are reportedly no offers on the table from UNC yet. But, according to reportsA decision one way or another about Belichick’s future in Chapel Hill is expected to be made this week.