Bill Belichick and the North Carolina Tar Heels are working to close a deal to make him their next head football coach, which would be his first-ever time coaching in college.
However, ESPN reported that "there are still issues that both sides need to work through."
The report adds that the "ball is in Belichick’s court" as UNC officials are indeed on board with him taking over the program. And there is expected to be a "resolution" soon.
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In fact, OutKick's Trey Wallace reports it's come down to just NIL money, which was among the issues that needed to be worked out in the negotiations. If that can be agreed to, an emergency trustee meeting would be called to finalize the deal.
What exactly are the other issues? Well, the potential role of Belichick’s son, Washington Huskies defensive coordinator Stephen Belichick, is one of them.
It was reported by The Guardian that, among the elder Belichick’s stipulations, his son would be named his heir to the head coach role once the 72-year-old moves on, whenever that would be.
ESPN added Belichick’s salary for taking over and more need to be ironed out before a deal can be agreed to.
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It came as a shock when Belichick’s name was floated for the Tar Heels' vacant position after longtime head coach Mack Brown said he wouldn’t return after this season.
Some of Belichick’s ex-pupils, like Tom Brady, Rob Gronkowski and Julian Edelman, had some fun on FOX NFL Sunday this past week mimicking their old coach trying to deal with recruiting in this NIL age of college sports.
"There’s a lot of things he can do, and obviously he’s tremendous, and even showing his personality. But getting out there on the recruiting trail and dealing with all these college kids," Brady said on the NFL pregame show. "’Listen, do you really want to come here?’" Brady said, acting as Belichick. "’I mean, we don’t really want you anyway, but I guess you could come, we’ll figure out if you play.’"
But this wasn’t just a publicity stunt. There’s more than just mutual interest in Belichick’s return to coaching in Chapel Hill.
ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported that Belichick and UNC officials spent five hours discussing a potential deal on Sunday, and in typical Belichick fashion, he wouldn’t divulge any details during his weekly spot on "The Pat McAfee Show" on Monday morning.
He admitted having a "couple of good conversations" with Lee Roberts, UNC’s chancellor, and added, "We’ll see how that goes."
If a deal goes through, it would be one of the most polarizing head coach hires for a college program in history, as Belichick has only ever been a head coach in the NFL, where he won six Super Bowls with the New England Patriots.
His time with the franchise came to an end before this 2024 season. They mutually parted ways and Belichick’s attempts at finding another role elsewhere were all for naught. He has since joined the sports media space, offering his insight to various outlets, including ESPN, but being open to another opportunity in football was always in the cards.
However, it was always expected that such an opportunity would come from the NFL, and there are several head coaching roles already open in the league, making this situation even more surprising.
But Belichick told McAfee and his crew what would happen if he were to become a college football coach.
"If I was in a college program, the college program would be a pipeline to the NFL for the players that had the ability to play in the NFL," Belichick said. "It would be a professional program: training, nutrition, scheme, coaching and techniques that would transfer to the NFL."
Simply put, Belichick would bring to college football the system he knows works in the NFL, aiming for good players to join his team who will one day turn pro with the tools necessary for easy acclimation.
Time will tell if that program will be at UNC, but it appears some boxes need to be checked before a groundbreaking deal crosses the finish line.
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