Bill Belichick Won’t Attend UNC vs. UConn in Fenway Bowl; Will Be HC in 2025 Season

UNC football head coach Bill Belichick is not expected to attend the Tar Heels’ Fenway Bowl game against UConn, per ESPN’s Pete Thamel.

Belichick signed a five-year, $50 million contract with the Tar Heels to coach the team for the 2025-2029 seasons. In the meantime, interim coach Freddie Kitchens is leading the team on the field after UNC parted ways with ex-head coach Mack Brown. Kickoff in Boston’s Fenway Park is slated for Saturday morning at 11 a.m. ET.

Belichick wasn’t present at the Fenway Bowl media day on Friday, nor has he been at the team’s bowl game practices. However, there’s a reason for his absences, as UNC AD Bubba Cunningham noted, per Thamel.

“He’s totally dialed into building the roster,” Cunningham said. “He didn’t want to go to practice or be a distraction to the kids or the coaches for the bowl game.”

He also said: “It’s been great. He and [UNC general manager Mike Lombardi] have locked themselves in a room and really spent all the time since he’s been announced, building the roster for this spring and next year.”

In the meantime, Kitchens, who will be on Belichick’s staff, leads the show on the field. Belichick has been hard at work, though. Of note, linebacker Amare Campbell recalled how Belichick recruited him to return to Chapel Hill after he entered the transfer portal.

“I knew how he would develop me and we would compete at a high level,” Campbell said.

He also noted: “You know how he is, he’s monotone. He kind of got that robot kind of voice. He was just like, ‘We’re going to compete, we’re going to get better. We’re going to work every day.’ And that’s been my mindset since I’ve been growing up. So that’s something I can really get behind and I trust him as a coach.”

Belichick’s son, Steve Belichick, is also aboard as UNC’s defensive coordinator.

The new staff in town has a lot of work to do to turn around a program that is about to go four straight seasons without finishing in the Top 25 of the Associated Press poll. This year’s squad notably is 6-6 (3-5 ACC) and particularly struggled on defense. But UNC is putting its hopes in an eight-time Super Bowl winner in Belichick as he coaches in college for the first time in his career.