The Chapel Bill era has begun.
Bill Belichick conducted his first official press conference as head coach of the North Carolina football team on Thursday.
Belichick was presented with a short sleeve hoodie by athletics director Bubba Cunningham and chancellor Lee Roberts.
“I can’t express my gratitude to both of you and the board of trustees for this amazing opportunity,” Belichick said, seated between Roberts and Cunningham. “I’ve always wanted to coach in college football. It just never really worked out. Had some good years in the NFL so that was OK, but this was really a dream come true. I grew up in college football with my dad, who was in it for 50 years. All I knew was college football. It’s great to be back in Carolina, an environment I grew up in.”
Belichick said he was told growing up his first words were, “beat Duke.”
It was relatively stunning last week when word first emerged that Belichick and UNC had initial talks about the job, and as recently as this past weekend the idea that the two sides would come together still felt like a longshot.
It is a homecoming nearly 70 years in the making, as Belichick’s father, Steve, was an assistant on UNC’s staff from 1935-55, when Bill was a toddler. The elder Belichick was later an assistant at Navy from 1956-89.
Belichick had already said that he plans to run a professional-style program at UNC.
“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 told Pat McAfee earlier this week before officially taking the job. “It would be a professional program: training, nutrition, scheme, coaching and techniques that would transfer to the NFL … It would be an NFL program, but not at the NFL level.”
Belichick is expected to bring a number of familiar faces with him to Chapel Hill, and that process has already begun with the news that Michael Lombardi is leaving his role as a host at VSIN to be GM of the football program.
Lombardi previously worked with Belichick with the Browns and Patriots.
In the press conference, Belichick said that Lombardi will work with him on scouting high school and college athletes, as well as the proverbial salary cap.
Belichick said that former Browns head coach Freddie Kitchens will also be on his staff.
Belichick won six Super Bowl championships as head coach of the Patriots, and two more as defensive coordinator on Bill Parcells’ staff on the Giants.
The news that Belichick is joining North Carolina is a massive windfall for ESPN, which airs a vast majority of ACC games and now has a number of unexpectedly intriguing TV events involving the Tar Heels.
