How North Carolina football landed a coaching legend in Bill Belichick - ESPN

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — By the time Bill Belichick arrived for the news conference announcing his hire as the next North Carolina football coach, more than 200 people had crammed into a room inside Kenan Memorial Stadium. There was a palpable mix of jubilation and astonishment among longtime Tar Heels fans and boosters still amazed that their school had done something that, days earlier, might have seemed unfathomable.

Athletic director Bubba Cunningham wore a suit with the sleeves cut off, a tribute to Belichick's signature look from his 24 years patrolling sidelines for the New England Patriots in a disheveled sweatshirt, winning six Super Bowls along the way. Media members prodded the notoriously tight-lipped coach for answers on how this unlikely match came to be. The requests UNC's communications team fielded included «60 Minutes,» «Good Morning America» and Charles Barkley's podcast «The Steam Room» — all hoping to land an interview with Belichick.

The school saw an influx in season-ticket purchases. Donors poured money into the program's coffers, injecting new life into a name, image and likeness operation that the Tar Heels' last coach, Mack Brown, routinely lamented as woefully underfunded. Recruits and transfers took note, aiming to get some face time with the NFL coaching legend before making any final decisions on a college destination.

Just as the college football world plunged into portal season, signing day and the first 12-team playoff in early December, it was North Carolina — a team that hasn't won an ACC title since 1980 — that had become the biggest story in the sports world.

«We expected the response to be positive, but it has been even more overwhelmingly positive than we imagined,» UNC chancellor Lee