We already that Bill Belichick keeps everything close to the vest. He doesn't like a lot of information to leave his inner circle.
So when Steve Belichick says he didn't expect his father to join the college ranks, it shows that sometimes that inner circle might be just one person.
“I was just as surprised as everybody else to hear about him going to North Carolina.”
— InsideCarolina (@InsideCarolina) August 6, 2025
The latest chapter in Steve Belichick’s lifelong football journey has delivered him to UNC to work alongside his famous father.
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"No, I didn't see it coming," the Tar Heels defensive coordinator said. "I just think that, for my Dad, he loves coaching football. That's his passion. This opportunity presented itself. I don't know how it all went down, but I was just as surprised as everyone else."
When the elder Belichick took that UNC football job, it was generally met with surprise and maybe a little confusion. But Steve Belichick says his Dad is a football coach and UNC gave him the chance to do what he loves.
"It was interesting when that happened, but he just loves to coach football," Steve Belichick added, "loves to develop players, loves to be around the game. it's been that way my whole life and it hasn't changed yet."
Steve Belichick embraces his own coaching style
Steve Belichick has been attached to his father for most of his coaching career, working his way up from being defensive assistant for the Patriots to coaching the secondary and outside linebackers. The 38-year-old branched out on his own last year and took the defensive coordinator job with the Washington Huskies.
While father and son are reunited again, Steve Belichick is his own person and his own coach. He will take a lot from his Dad, but he also does things his own way.
"I try and take a lot from my Dad. He's definitely my mentor, my idol," he said. "I look up to him in more ways than just football. I'm always trying to be a sponge and absorb as much as I can."
But he wants to make it clear to the players that he'll take a lot of what he learned from the coaches he's worked with and add his own personal touch to it.
"I'm just my own person. I'm not him," he said. "My brother's not him. My brother and I aren't the same. It is what it is."