Drake Maye shares thoughts on Bill Belichick potentially coaching his alma mater
"Any time having a legendary coach like Coach Belichick, I’m sure he’d help out a college program."
Bill Belichick was let go by the Patriots months before Drake Maye stepped into Gillette Stadium as the team’s 2024 first-round pick.
The legendary head coach might be back on the sidelines again in 2025. But instead of coaching an NFL squad, Belichick might end up leading Maye’s alma mater: the University of North Carolina Tar Heels.
Belichick confirmed his interest in UNC’s head-coaching vacancy on Monday, with ESPN’s Pete Thamel, adding earlier Monday morning that a decision made by the university will be “expected this week.”
Maye’s head coach at Chapel Hill — Mack Brown — was fired on Nov. 26 amid a 6-6 record during the 2024 season.
Even though Brown helped lead UNC to the ACC title game in 2022 with Maye under center, the Patriots QB noted on Monday that he’d be excited to see Belichick given the reins of the program moving forward.
“I’m not really sure how much it’s in the works. … But I think North Carolina and Coach Belichick — any time having a legendary coach like Coach Belichick, I’m sure he’d help out a college program,” Maye said during his weekly appearance on WEEI’s “Afternoon Show”. “And obviously with Coach Brown, I love Coach Brown, I hate what happened. But nothing is set in stone, so I’m not gonna make any too far comments about it, because you never know what can happen.”
Even though Belichick’s resume in the NFL speaks for itself, he has no experience coaching in the collegiate ranks.
But speaking on “The Pat McAfee Show” on Monday, Belichick mapped out his vision for a collegiate program if he was even given a head-coaching position.
“If, and let me put it in capital letters: I-F. If I was in a college program, the college program would be a pipeline to the NFL for the players that had the ability to play in the NFL,” Belichick said. “It would be a professional program — training, nutrition, scheme, coaching techniques — that would transfer to the NFL.
“It would be an NFL program at a college level and an education that would get the players ready for their career after football, whether that was the end of their college career or at the end of their pro career. But it would be geared toward developing the player, time management, discipline, structure and all that.”
As part of Monday’s radio interview, Maye was asked if he’d make a call to the Tar Heels in hopes of securing Belichick’s spot at Chapel Hill.
Maye stressed that he has “bigger fish to fry”, as New England returns from the bye week and prepares for a road game against the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday afternoon.
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