Newly hired University of North Carolina football coach Bill Belichick insisted Thursday that he is confident in the college game and is not looking for a stepping stone back to pro ball.

The University of North Carolina stunned much of the football world this week by hiring Belichick, whose all-time great NFL resume stands in stark contrast to an empty curriculum of college experience.

“I didn’t come here to leave,” the six-time Super Bowl champion coach told reporters in Chapel Hill. “I am here to do my best for the University of North Carolina and the program.”

Belichick’s contract is for five years, subject to approval by the university’s Board of Trustees and Board of Governors.

“We have been playing football in Carolina since 1888 and I suspect that in those 136 years there have been few days as auspicious as this one,” said UNC Chancellor Lee Roberts.

Roberts sat at a table with Belichick and athletic director Bubba Cunningham, wearing a suit jacket with cut-off sleeves that mimicked the former New England coach’s off-season fashion.

“I have often said that we want to be the best public university in the United States, and that means excellence in everything we do,” Roberts said. “We’re going to have an outstanding college football program. We want to compete with the best and have hired the best coach.”

Belichick coached the Patriots from 2000 to 2023 and New England won Super Bowls after the 2001, 2003, 2004, 2014, 2016 and 2018 seasons. He and New England parted ways in January.

Now Belichick hopes to join a select club of coaches who have won it all in both college and the NFL.

• Pete Carroll re-established USC as a collegiate powerhouse by going 97-19 in nine seasons in Los Angeles and winning two Associated Press national championships. He then enjoyed 14 seasons with the Seattle Seahawks, winning two NFC titles and a Super Bowl.
• Jimmy Johnson led the Dallas Cowboys to Super Bowl victories after the 1992 and 1993 regular seasons. Before landing in Dallas, Johnson had spent 10 successful years on the sidelines at Oklahoma State and Miami, winning the 1987 AP title for the Hurricanes.
• Former Oklahoma coach Barry Switzer took over Johnson’s Cowboys and led Dallas to the Super Bowl title after the 1995 regular season. His Sooners won three AP titles in 1974, 1975 and 1985.

Belichick’s strange career choice comes just 11 months after he and the Patriots agreed to part ways following a remarkable 24-year run that included six Super Bowl victories with quarterback Tom Brady at the helm.

His 302 regular-season wins, which led the Patriots and Cleveland Browns, rank him third on the all-time list, behind only George Halas (318) and Don Shula (328).

It has long been believed that Belichick was desperate to achieve the Shula record and wanted another appearance in the NFL to achieve it.

But by moving to Chapel Hill at his age (72), Belichick could be running out of time to return to the NFL and get the 26 wins he needed to catch Shula.

Belichick was asked why he even coached without having anything to prove.

“Well, it’s better than working,” he joked. “If you love what you do, it doesn’t work.” It’s true, I love what I do. I love coaching. I love the interaction with the players.

Belichick also said that the transition from pro to college is no longer the divide it once was, as the NCAA game now has technology, rules and even a salary structure that can be compared to that of the pros.

In his brief absence from professional football, Belichick said that numerous college coaches have asked him for advice on how to implement these features of professional football in college.

“I would say this: College kind of came to me this year. I wasn’t necessarily looking for it,” Belichick said.

“I would say that (those conversations) made me much more aware of it because the first thing I had to do was learn about it,” he said.

Belichick takes over a UNC program that sits firmly in the upper middle tier of college football but is still far from the elite.

The Heels last won an Atlantic Coast Conference title in 1980, when they were led by future Hall of Fame linebacker Lawrence Taylor.

Belichick’s father, longtime Navy assistant coach Steve Belichick, was at UNC from 1953 to 1955.