BroBible
Bill Belichick will coach his first college season at the University of North Carolina in 2025. His debut is highly anticipated following a Hall of Fame career in the NFL.
Belichick is considered the greatest professional coach of all time. His trophy case contains eight Super Bowl rings, six of which came as a head coach with the New England Patriots.
Success at one level does not always guarantee success at the next. Many college football coaches have swung and missed in the NFL, and vice versa. Others, however, have bucked the trend.
Belichick will look to continue his winning ways in Chapel Hill. His first test comes against TCU on Labor Day.
Here, we’ll focus on coaches that either started or spent the majority of their careers in the NFL before moving onto the NCAA.
We’ll evaluate their Year 1 performances while also providing an overall college record. Let’s start with one of the best to ever do it at both levels.
Carroll started his head coaching career with the New York Jets, going 6-10 in one season. He then moved onto the Patriots, going 27-21 over three years before heading to USC.
With the Trojans, he went just 6-6 in Year 1, which was a one game improvement from the season prior. That would be the only time in his college career his squad didn’t win at least nine games.
Carroll won 10 games or more in seven of nine seasons to finish with a 97-19 record in Los Angeles. He won a national championship in 2004. He then returned to the NFL where he won a Super Bowl with the Seahawks.
Kiffin spent just over one season at the NFL level, but it was technically the start of his head coaching career. He went 5-15 with the Raiders and was fired in 2008.
He took over at the University of Tennessee in 2009 where he went 7-6 in his first college season. He’s since experienced ups and downs.
He moved onto USC after just one year in Knoxville to replace the man listed above him on this list. He was fired by the Trojans before accepting the head coaching job at Florida Atlantic, and later Ole Miss.
With the Rebels, he’s entering his sixth season and looks to notch his third straight 10-win campaign. Across 13 college seasons, Kiffin’s gone 106-52.
Technically, he began his head coaching career at Penn State, where he spent two seasons, but the majority of his career has been in the NFL.
He coached the Texans for seven years, twice taking them to the postseason before being fired in 2020.
That firing led to a return to college. He landed at Boston College in 2024 where he went 7-6 in his debut season. He’s now looking ahead to Season 2 with the Eagles with hopes to bring them back to ACC relevance.
His overall college record is 22-15....
