Bill Belichick reveals updated timeline on filling out North Carolina staff

Bill Belichick hasn’t finalized his North Carolina coaching staff, but that’s next on the list, following the NCAA transfer portal.

Belichick has pieces in place for the Tar Heels, which includes new GM Mike Lombardi and Freddie Kitchens, who was the interim head coach amid Mack Brown’s dismissal this season. But for now, no new names until next week.

But as the process evolves, it should be a fascinating watch to see who will coach under Belichick.

“I’ve really been focused on the recruiting and transfer portal and all that,” Belichick said on The Pat McAfee Show. “And so with Mike Lombardi and some of the other people here that we’re working with on that, I’m going to retain Freddie Kitchens, who’s here, you know, former NFL coach, and you know he’ll work with the offense, and you know he’s an important hire here. 

“But the rest of the staff I really haven’t filled out yet. I’m going to try to, you know, get as much done on the recruiting here as I can and then we’ll move ahead with filling out the staff and so forth. But we got until Sunday to really, this first phase of the portal and get that done. So big emphasis on that, and then we’ll kind of turn to the coaching aspect of it, you know, as we get into next week.”

While not a portal get, Belichick’s first big recruiting move was to retain North Carolina commit Bryce Baker, a four-star QB. Baker committed and signed with UNC once Belichick was named head coach and the two spoke over Zoom.

Baker said his takeaway was the development path he’ll have playing under Belichick, a six-time Super Bowl champion head coach with the New England Patriots. With a goal of getting to the NFL in his sights, he has full trust in the new North Carolina headman.

So it’s a start right now for Belichick, Baker, the portal, recruiting and the staff. It’ll continue to develop and the first move was to retain Kitchens from Brown’s staff.

When Kitchens was working under Mack Brown at North Carolina, he was the tight ends coach and run game coordinator. He has also coached tight ends, running backs, and quarterbacks in the NFL as well as being an offensive coordinator. For his own part, Kitchens was a quarterback in his playing career for the Alabama Crimson Tide.