Six-time Super Bowl champion Bill Belichick interviewed for the head coaching vacancy at North Carolina this week, Inside Carolina first reported Thursday. He’s among a group of candidates the Tar Heels have spoken with since firing Mack Brown on Nov. 26, a list that Inside Carolina reports includes Tulane head coach Jon Sumrall and Georgia defensive coordinator Glenn Schumann, among others. Inside Carolina first reported Sunday the initial contact between Belichick and UNC officials.

ESPN senior NFL insider Adam Schefter reported in September that Belichick was eyeing a return to coaching in 2025 but “is expected to be choosy if and when he returns to the sideline.” Schefter reported that Belichick turned down offers from the San Francisco 49ers and Los Angeles Rams to fill the franchises’ defensive coordinator vacancies this offseason in a “decorated assistant role.” The report from Inside Carolina is the first official known interest between Belichick and a college football program.

Belichick and the Patriots mutually agreed to part ways on Jan. 11 2024 after New England stumbled to a 4-13 record, the team’s worst in his 24 seasons as head coach. Days later, he interviewed with the Atlanta Falcons for their head coaching position, but ultimately, the job went to Los Angeles Rams defensive coordinator Raheem Morris. He spent the past year working several jobs in sports media. He joined “The Pat McAfee Show” for its NFL draft coverage in April and has appeared on the show weekly during the NFL season. He has also appeared on the “ManningCast” during ESPN’s Monday Night Football games and is an analyst on The CW Network’s “Inside the NFL.”

UNC is one of four job openings at the Power Four level, along with UCF, West Virginia and Purdue. CBS Sports ranked UNC as the top opening in college football. The program transitioned from Brown to its interim phase on Sunday, while athletics director Bubba Cunningham ramped up the search for the next Tar Heels football coach. The school released an in-house studio interview with Cunningham on Monday, during which Cunningham discussed where he’s at with the search process and how he’ll go about finding a new coach.

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“We have an advisory group that’s helping us sift through candidates,” Cunningham said. “We’ve had a tremendous response of people across the country, of agents calling us, coaches, people calling on behalf of other people that are in the industry. … We are very optimistic of where we are, the interest in our program is just extraordinary, and we’ll get a great coach to lead us. Who can lead us in the next three, five, 10 years? We need somebody that can come in and take us from good to great.”