WILMINGTON, N.C. (WECT) – North Carolina football made one of the biggest hires in college football history official on Thursday afternoon, announcing six-time Super Bowl champion Bill Belichick as its next head football coach.

“I always wanted to coach college football, and it just never really worked out,” Belichick said. “I had some good years in the NFL, so that was OK, but this is really kind of a dream come true.”

Belichick and UNC agreed on a five-year, $50 million contract. Belichick can terminate that deal on June 1, 2025, if he pays the university a buyout of $1 million.

When asked if he had plans to leave the school for the NFL down the road, Belichick said he “didn’t come here to leave.” He added that he hopes to coach “for a long time.”

The longtime New England Patriots coach called taking the job a “full-circle moment.” Belichick’s father, Steve, worked as a Tar Heels assistant from 1953-1955, and he held up one of his father’s old UNC sweatshirts before the press conference. Belichick told reporters Thursday his first words were, “beat Duke.”

UNC leaders are hoping the hire will lift the program into the upper-echelon of both the Atlantic Coast Conference and all of college football. The Tar Heels haven’t won the ACC since 1980, and have won double-digit games just once in the last 25 years.

But Belichick said the school is still attractive to top in-state players, and he hopes to recruit the nation’s top talent to Chapel Hill.

“There’s so much opportunity here,” he said. “I’m honored to have an opportunity and thrilled to be a part of it.”

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