The North Carolina Tar Heels are expected to hire six-time Super Bowl winner and former New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick as their head coach, according to multiple reports.

ESPN and NFL Network were the first to report the news.

The 72-year-old Belichick was the Patriots’ coach from 2000 to 2023. He won Super Bowls after the 2001, 2003, 2004, 2014, 2016 and 2018 seasons before he and New England parted ways in January 2024.

Belichick ranks second on the NFL’s all-time coaching wins list with 333. He also won two Super Bowls as defensive coordinator of the New York Giants following the 1987 and 1990 seasons.

The Tar Heels fired head coach Mack Brown on November 26th. Brown, who previously coached at North Carolina from 1988 to 1997, led the team for the past six seasons. During his second stint, he had a 43-33 record and won a bowl game.

The Tar Heels have not won a conference championship since 1980. Their last appearance in the ACC Championship Game was in 2022.

Belichick has never coached in college. He began his coaching career in 1975 as an assistant with the Baltimore Colts, then spent two years with the Detroit Lions and one year with the Denver Broncos.

The Giants hired Belichick as a special teams assistant in 1979 and promoted him to defensive coordinator in 1985. He won two championships under head coach Bill Parcells before accepting the head coaching position with the Cleveland Browns in 1991.

In four seasons with the Browns, Belichick had a 36-44 record and only made the playoffs once. After being fired from Cleveland in 1996, Belichick returned to Parcells, first as a defensive assistant with the Patriots in 1996, then as defensive coordinator of the New York Jets from 1997 to 1999.

Belichick originally agreed to become the Jets’ head coach in 2000, but surprised the team by resigning before his actual introductory press conference. Instead, he went to New England, where he was given final say over player personnel in addition to his coaching duties.

Despite overseeing six Super Bowl victories, Belichick’s relationship with Patriots owner Robert Kraft reportedly became strained in 2020. That year, Belichick decided that the Patriots would part ways with quarterback Tom Brady, who started in all of New England’s Super Bowl victories and is on his way to being inducted into the Hall of Fame as one of the greatest signal-callers of all time.

In his final four years as Patriots head coach, all without Brady, Belichick compiled a 29-38 record and made the playoffs just once.

In January, Belichick interviewed for the head coaching position with the Atlanta Falcons, who then hired Raheem Morris.