Six-time Super Bowl wining coach Bill Belichick parted ways with the New England Patriots â the team he’d coached for 24 years â in January of 2024. By December, Belichick shocked the football world by taking a college football job â as head coach for the University of Carolina Tar Heels.
Now, less than a year after taking the job, the 73-year-old coach appears to be on his way out of Chapel Hill.
Belichick has “discussed buyout options with North Carolinaâs hierarchy. Belichick has signalled a willingness to trigger his own $1 million buyout if he can find a soft landing with another team or in media,” according to a report by journalist Ollie Connolly, author of the Read Optional newsletter and senior editor for The Guardian newspaper.
“Members of Belichickâs coaching staff have already spoken to other schools that are expected to be in CFB Playoff about taking on roles during the postseason,” Connolly wrote on Wednesday. “From one coach: ‘the rats are leaving the ship.’”
Belichick Could be Gone in 2 Weeks
Belichick could be out within two weeks, according to Connolly.
The journalist’s findings are backed up by a similar reporting appearing in a Pro Football Talk analysis by Mike Florio, which said Wednesday that there was a “non-zero chance” that Belichick could be done at UNC by the end of this week, and that “exit strategy discussions” for the coach in his college debut season were underway.
“The fast-rolling snowball seems to be related to accounts of potential rules violations. This week, reports emerged that an assistant coach was suspended for providing extra benefits to player families and that players were selling free tickets they had received for games,” Florio wrote.
UNC Program Called ‘Complete Disaster’
The reports of Belichick’s potentially imminent exit come two days after a bombshell investigation was published by the North Carolina outlet WRAL News, in which sources told the outlet that Belichick’s leadership of the Tar Heels program was “a complete disaster,” and the football program under the legendary NFL coach has become “an unstructured mess.”
“It’s all starting at the top, and the boys are being affected,” the parent of one player on Belichick’s team told WRAL. “I don’t fault the players. I fault the leadership that created this toxic environment. There’s an individualistic mindset. The boys are young, and they are feeding into it.”
One defensive assistant coach told Connolly, “What we’ve done to these kids is f****d up.”
In a follow-up report published on Wednesday, WRAL said it was “working to confirm” the report that “exit strategy” talks has begun. But that same, new report also uncovered such new details as the alleged suspension of cornerbacks coach Armond Hawkins, a locker room fight between two players on Tuesday, and an overall “toxic environment” created under Belichick.
‘Not a Lock’ Belichick Coaches Next Game
The Tar Heels have a bye this week, but their next game comes October 17 when they travel to California to face the Golden Bears. According to Andrew Jones of 24/7 Sports â who broke the revelations of Belichick’s “exit” talks â âI donât think itâs a lock that Belichick coaches the Cal game.â
Belichick brought in 70 new players through his first recruiting class and the transfer portal. According to WRAL, “it was there that a divide organically formed” between Belichick’s new players and those left over from the era of coach Mack Brown, who was fired in the middle of the 2024 season.
The Tar Heels have lost three of their first five games under Belichick, including a 48-14 defeat to TCU in the coach’s debut, and a 38-10 drubbing at the hands of the Clemson Tigers last week.
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