Bill Belichick's pivot from Super Bowl winner to college coach is rare; here's how others fared

Bill Belichick is doing something only one other Super Bowl-winning coach has ever done.

The six-time Super Bowl winner is set to take over as the head coach at North Carolina. Belichick has spent this season out of coaching after parting ways with the Patriots following the 2023 season.

When North Carolina kicks off its 2025 season on Aug. 30 against TCU, Belichick will become the ninth Super Bowl-winning coach to also be a head coach at the top level of college football. And he'll join Bill Walsh as the only man to be the head coach of a college football team after winning a Super Bowl.

Here's a look at the other eight who have led both college and NFL programs. Three of them can also claim college football national championships. Will Belichick be able to become the fourth?

Bruce Arians

The former Arizona Cardinals and Tampa Bay Buccaneers coach was a college coach for 16 years before he moved to the NFL in 1989 as an assistant with the Kansas City Chiefs. Before joining the Chiefs, the New Jersey native was Temple’s head coach for six seasons after he was an assistant coach at Alabama for two years. Temple was 27-39 in Arians’ tenure and had winning seasons in 1984 and 1986. The Owls went 6-5 in both of those years.

After taking the Cardinals to the NFC title game and two playoff appearances during his five-year tenure following a stint in 2012 as the Indianapolis Colts’ head coach, Arians was hired by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers ahead of the 2019 season. The Bucs were 7-9 in 2019 before Tom Brady came to Tampa in 2020. The Bucs went 11-5 and beat the Kansas City Chiefs in the Super Bowl that season. Tampa Bay improved by two wins in 2021, but lost to the Rams in the divisional round and Arians retired at the end of the season.

Pete Carroll

Carroll’s time at USC was sandwiched by stints in the NFL. Carroll was the New York Jets’ head coach in 1994 and became the Patriots’ coach ahead of the 1997 season after a two-year stint as the 49ers’ defensive coordinator. After a year out of football in 2000, Carroll was hired by USC to replace Paul Hackett. It was an eye-opening hire at the time; Carroll last coached college football in 1983.

It was indisputably successful. After a 6-6 season in 2001, the Trojans went 11-2 in 2002 and finished No. 4 in the AP poll. The next season, USC won the Rose Bowl and was ranked at No. 1 in the AP Top 25 despite missing out on the BCS title game in favor of LSU and Oklahoma. The following season, USC went 13-0 and capped it off with an official national title.

In 2005, USC entered the Rose Bowl on a 34-game win streak. As you probably know, that streak was famously ended by Texas QB Vince Young’s fourth-down run late in the fourth quarter to give the Longhorns the national title.

Carroll left USC after the 2009 season to become the coach of the Seattle Seahawks. He coached the Seahawks from 2010 through the 2023 season and had a career record of 137-89-1 with the franchise. The Seahawks made the playoffs 10 times and blew out the Denver Broncos in February of 2014 to win Super Bowl XLVIII.

And much like at USC, Carroll’s attempt at back-to-back titles ended in late-game heartbreak. The Seahawks lost to Belichick’s Patriots a year later after Russell Wilson’s fourth-quarter pass at the goal-line was intercepted by Malcolm Butler.

Tom Coughlin

The ex-Jaguars and Giants coach returned to the college ranks in 1991 to coach Boston College. Coughlin had been the Eagles’ quarterbacks coach for three seasons in the 1980s before moving to college. Boston College went 21-13-1 in Coughlin’s three seasons and posted 17 wins over the 1992 and 1993 seasons. A win in the Carquest Bowl at the end of the 1993 season put BC at No. 13 in the AP poll.

Coughlin was hired from Boston College after that season to be the coach of the expansion Jacksonville Jaguars as they started play in 1995. Jacksonville posted four winning seasons in Coughlin’s time, but went 6-10 in each of his final two seasons with the franchise.

After a year away from football in 2003, Coughlin was hired by the New York Giants. The Giants made the playoffs in each of Coughlin’s four seasons and famously defeated Belichick and the Patriots in Super Bowl XLII. The Giants went 10-6 that season and made the playoffs as a wild card while the Patriots went 16-0 in the regular season and were attempting to match the 1972 Miami Dolphins as the only undefeated team in NFL history.

Four seasons later, Coughlin’s Giants were again a wild card and again advanced to the Super Bowl where they met the Patriots. New York beat New England, 21-17, as Eli Manning won his second Super Bowl MVP.

Jimmy Johnson

The Fox analyst got his head coaching start at Oklahoma State in 1979. After five seasons with the Cowboys, Johnson succeeded Howard Schnellenberger at Miami after the Hurricanes had gone 11-1 and were the No. 1 team in the AP Top 25.

Miami went 8-4 in Johnson’s first season before going 21-3 over the next two seasons. However, each of those seasons ended in a bowl loss. In 1987, Miami went 12-0 and took down Oklahoma 20-14 in the Orange Bowl to be declared national champions.

After an 11-1 season in 1988, Johnson left Miami to become the head coach of the Dallas Cowboys. The Cowboys were 1-15 in his first season, but won 11 games in 1991 before winning back-to-back Super Bowls after the 1992 and 1993 seasons. Johnson left the Cowboys after that second Super Bowl amid differences with Cowboys owner and general manager Jerry Jones in a feud that seemingly ended for good in 2023 when Johnson was inducted into the Cowboys’ Ring of Honor.

Bill Parcells

Did you know that Parcells was a college head coach? The longtime NFL coach was the head coach at Air Force in 1978. The Falcons went 3-8 that season and lost eight of their last nine games. He was set to be the New York Giants’ defensive coordinator the next season but resigned six weeks after taking the job because his family wanted to stay in Colorado.

Parcells got back into coaching in 1980 with the New England Patriots and joined the Giants in 1981. He became the Giants’ coach in 1983 and the Giants won Super Bowl XXI after the 1986 season to cap off a 14-2 campaign. Four seasons later, the Giants returned to the Super Bowl and beat the Bills 20-19 after Scott Norwood’s kick sailed to the right of the uprights.

That turned out to be Parcells’ final game with the Giants when he retired (for the first time) after the game. He came back multiple times to coach the Jets, Patriots and Cowboys, but never won another Super Bowl again. The closest he came was in 1996, when the Patriots lost to the Packers in Super Bowl XXXI.

Barry Switzer

The longtime Oklahoma coach is one of the most successful in college football history. The Sooners were 157-29-4 in Switzer’s 16 seasons in charge from 1973 through 1988. Oklahoma finished the season atop the AP poll three times, including back-to-back national titles in 1974 and 1975 as RB Joe Washington powered Oklahoma’s triple-option offense.

Switzer’s third national title came after the 1985 season when the Sooners were 11-1 and finished the season with an Orange Bowl win over Penn State. The Oklahoma defense led by Brian Bosworth allowed just eight points per game that season.

Overall, Oklahoma lost two or fewer games in 12 of Switzer’s 16 seasons.

After five seasons out of coaching, Switzer was tapped by Jones to succeed Johnson with the Cowboys. Dallas lost to the San Francisco 49ers in the NFC title game in Switzer’s first season, but beat the Pittsburgh Steelers in Super Bowl XXX for their third title in four seasons.

That was the end of the Cowboys’ dynasty, however. The Cowboys lost in the divisional round at the end of the 1996 season and are just 5-13 in the playoffs since that Super Bowl win.

Dick Vermeil

Vermeil’s first major head coaching job came at UCLA. Vermeil coached the Bruins for two seasons in 1974 and 1975. UCLA was 9-2-1 in Vermeil’s second season and beat No. 1 Ohio State in the Rose Bowl.

Vermeil left UCLA for the Philadelphia Eagles after that game and was the Eagles’ head coach for seven seasons. Philadelphia made the playoffs in four straight seasons under Vermeil and advanced to Super Bowl XV after a 12-4 season in 1980. However, the Eagles lost to the Raiders.

After 15 years out of coaching — and a potential reunion with the Eagles that fizzled out — Vermeil was hired by the Rams in 1997. After nine total wins in his first two seasons, the Rams were 13-3 in 1999 as Kurt Warner emerged from obscurity to become the NFL MVP. After the Rams beat the Titans in the Super Bowl when Kevin Dyson was stopped just short of the goal line, Vermeil retired again.

He returned after the 2000 season to become the coach of the Kansas City Chiefs for five seasons. The Chiefs went 13-3 in 2003, but lost to the Colts in the divisional round at home despite not punting a single time.

Bill Walsh

The godfather of the West Coast offense is the only other coach to do what Belichick is attempting. Before he became the 49ers’ coach in 1979, Walsh was the head coach at Stanford for two seasons. The Cardinal were 17-7 in his time at the school.

After just six wins over his first two seasons, the 49ers went 13-3 in 1981 and won their first Super Bowl with a 26-21 win over the Cincinnati Bengals. The 49ers then emerged as a force in the 1980s with six more playoff appearances and two more Super Bowl titles. The 49ers won Super Bowl XIX after a 15-1 season in 1984 and beat the Bengals again in Super Bowl XXIII at the end of the 1989 season.

Walsh stepped down as the 49ers’ head coach after that game and became an analyst for NBC. After two years in broadcasting, Walsh returned to Stanford. The Cardinal went 10-3 in his first season and finished the season at No. 9 in the AP poll following a win in the Blockbuster Bowl.

That ended up being the best season of Walsh’s Stanford sequel. The Cardinal went 4-7 in 1993 and 3-7-1 in 1994. Walsh retired for good from coaching after that season before returning to the 49ers’ front office.