Six-time Super Bowl champion Bill Belichick is continuing to explore the head coaching opportunity at North Carolina, ESPN reported Monday, with a resolution expected by the end of this week.
Multiple outlets previously reported that Belichick interviewed with the Tar Heels last week in New York, and according to the Raleigh News & Observer, Belichick “blew them away in the interview.”
However, there are concerns about his age — Belichick is 73 — and the fact that he’s never coached at the college level, per reports.
After he and the New England Patriots agreed to part ways following a 24-year stint, Belichick interviewed for the head job with the Atlanta Falcons, who instead hired Raheem Morris. The North Carolina interview is the first known instance of Belichick showing interest in a college position.
Belichick is expected to draw interest for NFL openings in the upcoming hiring cycle.
The Tar Heels retained an outside advisory firm to identify coaching candidates to replace Mack Brown, whom they fired at the end of the regular season. North Carolina went 6-6, including 3-5 in the Atlantic Coast Conference.
Two other prominent names that were initially in the mix for the North Carolina head coaching job have dropped off. Jon Sumrall has reportedly told Tulane that he plans to stay as head coach of the Green Wave. Pittsburgh Steelers offensive coordinator Arthur Smith, a 2005 graduate of North Carolina, has informed the school he intends to stay with the Steelers.
North Carolina has reportedly also spoken to Army head coach Jeff Monken, whose team was a perfect 8-0 in their first season in the American Athletic Conference and finished 11-1 overall. Monken is also a possibility for the West Virginia head coaching vacancy left by Neal Brown’s dismissal, according to multiple reports.
North Carolina athletic director Bubba Cunningham expressed optimism regarding the school’s search for their next head coach.
“We are very optimistic of where we are, the interest in our program is just extraordinary, and we’ll get a great coach to lead us. Who can lead us in the next three, five, 10 years? We need somebody that can come in and take us from good to great,” Cunningham said in an in-house interview the school posted online last week.
–Field Level Media