UNC Football Candidate Bill Belichick Envisions Potential NFL Pipeline

The legendary Patriots coach is in discussions with UNC football brass and says he knows what he'd try to build in a college program.

UNC football coaching candidate Bill Belichick | Bob Breidenbach / USA TODAY NETWORK

Talks are ongoing between the UNC football program and former six-time New England Patriots Super Bowl champion head coach Bill Belichick to potentially become the replacement for recently fired Tar Heel head coach Mack Brown.

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And on Monday afternoon, the 72-year-old Belichick, whose father was an assistant coach at UNC in the early 1950s, teased those talks by laying out his vision for a college program while appearing on The Pat McAfee Show:

"Let me put this in capital letters: if, I-F, if I was in a college program, then the college program would be a pipeline to the NFL for the players that had the ability to play in the NFL.

"IF I was in a College program it would be a pipeline to the NFL for the players that had the ability to play in the NFL..

It would be a professional program at the College level..

I don't have any doubt that the players would be ready for the NFL" ~ Bill Belichick #PMSLive pic.twitter.com/JyMDtzs2yR

— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) December 9, 2024

"It would be a professional program: training, nutrition, scheme, coaching, techniques that would transfer to the NFL. It would be an NFL program at a college level and an education that would get the players ready for their career after football, whether that was the end of their college career or at the end of their pro career.

"But it would be, you know, geared toward developing the player, time management, discipline, structure, and all that, that would be life skills, regardless of whether they're in the NFL or somewhere in business."

For now, the Tar Heels (6-6) are under the command of UNC football interim head coach Freddie Kitchens as they gear up for the 2024 Wasabi Fenway Bowl against the UConn Huskies (8-4) in Boston on Saturday, Dec. 28, at 11 a.m. ET (ESPN).

Stay tuned to North Carolina Tar Heels On SI for more UNC football and basketball news.