Curran: ‘Better than 50/50’ chance of Belichick taking UNC job originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston

Bill Belichick’s coaching future has been the subject of debate and discussion since he and the New England Patriots parted ways in January.

No one would be surprised if Belichick was coaching somewhere in 2025. However, when he left the Patriots, few could have predicted that his next job would be in college football and not the NFL.

Belichick, 72, was reported to have interviewed for the vacant head football position at the University of North Carolina last week. He confirmed this on Monday on ESPN The Pat McAfee Show that he spoke to the UNC chancellor about the position. Belichick also said that if he got the job, he would run it like an NFL program.

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What should we make of this situation? What are the chances that he actually takes the UNC job? Our Patriots insider Tom E. Curran made the comments during Monday’s edition of the NBC Sports Boston show Early Arbella edition.

“He went through a job cycle last year where he got no offer and only one interview. And whether he turned down the other job offers or not, the fact that Mike Lombardi, his close confidant, said that Bill understood that the layers at the professional level are so big at the executive level that you can never really run your own show, and I wonder if Atlanta was an indicator of that,” Curran said.

“He had free reign to get this job and then got (cancelled out) when it got thrown up and people started saying, ‘I don’t know if we want to do this.’

“I think that if he’s pragmatic, which I think he always is, the odds are probably – I’d say better than 50/50. If he’s realistic, he won’t get a job offer in two years.” The NFL will give him Shula’s record, which I always thought was a bit overrated. “No, no, he wants it.” I can’t imagine that he wants and needs it. People already recognize him as the greatest coach of all time.

Belichick appears to have genuine interest in taking the North Carolina job, but whether he ultimately takes it — assuming it is offered to him — remains to be seen.

“Are we at the point now where it’s almost a little embarrassing for him if he doesn’t take the job?” Phil Perry, NBC Sports Boston Patriots insider, said Monday Early Arbella edition.

“I mean, Adam Schefter is out there tweeting pictures from the ’50s of Bill Belichick as a little boy in North Carolina while his father was working there as an assistant in North Carolina, and Bill Belichick himself is talking about what that would be for him, a to run the college football program openly. I know he phrased it beforehand saying if I do this, but then it’s chapter and verse about what his philosophy would be as a coach.

“It’s clear he’s interested. I don’t think this is a trick. I don’t think this is a leverage for other teams in the NFL or a way to get them to call him and say, ‘Hey Bill, don’t take this job. We want you at the end of January. I don’t think that’s the case because he seems to have spent so much time going back and forth with school. I feel like it would be quite a waste of time if he really felt that way.

The Tar Heels posted a 6-6 record last season and finished 12th out of 16 teams in the ACC. They fired Mack Brown — the winningest coach in program history — last month. The last time North Carolina won a postseason game was the 2019 Military Bowl.

The program could definitely use a boost, and Belichick would generate plenty of headlines and interest. After all, he is the greatest head coach in the history of the sport. But Belichick likes to do things his way. Would he have full control of the entire program? It will be fascinating to see how this whole situation plays out.