Steve Belichick is headed to college.
The longtime New England Patriots defensive assistant and son of former Patriots head coach Bill Belichick will become the next defensive coordinator for the Washington Huskies, the team confirmed on February 6. Belichick, 36, coached with the recently hired Washington head coach Jeff Fisch on the Patriots staff in 2020, when Fisch was the quarterbacks coach.
Belichick spent the past 12 seasons in various roles on his father’s staff. He was a defensive assistant from 2012 to 2015, the safeties coach from 2016 to 2019 and the outside linebackers coach from 2020 to 2023.
Washington’s staff added another son of an NFL head coach this offseason, too. The Huskies hired Brennan Carroll, the son of former Seattle Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll, to be Washington’s offensive coordinator. Carroll spent the past three seasons as Arizona’s offensive coordinator with Fisch after five years coaching for his father in Seattle.
Belichick Could Have Stayed in New England
The Patriots moved on from Bill Belichick earlier this offseason and promoted inside linebackers coach Jerod Mayo to head coach. But that didn’t mean either of his sons – Brian Belichick has been the safeties coach since 2020 – was out of a job.
Mayo offered both coaches jobs on his staff, according to the Boston Herald’s Andrew Callahan, but he eventually promoted defensive line coach DeMarcus Covington to the top coordinator role on the team. Before that promotion was announced, Mayo told WEEI that he and the Belichick boys “have a great relationship” but he would give them to the option to leave the staff if they wanted a change of scenary.
“They’re great coaches,” Mayo said. “We’ll see what happens.”
Belichick won’t head to Washington alone either. Patriots running backs coach Vinnie Sunseri is expected to join Belichick in Washington as a defensive coach, according to The Athletic’s Bruce Feldman.
The younger Belichick son’s situation remains unclear. Brian was a scouting assistant in New England from 2017 to 2019 before becoming the safeties coach in 2020.
Washington Gets Influx of NFL Coaching
The Huskies fell short of the College Football Playoff national championship in 2023 after a 34-23 loss to Michigan. Washington then lost head coach Kalen DeBoer and offensive coordinator to Alabama after the retirement of Nick Saban.
In comes Fisch as the new head coach, who has both NFL and collegiate experience after stints with Arizona, UCLA and Michigan, as well as the Patriots, Los Angeles Rams, Seahawks and Jacksonville Jaguars. He plucked the sons of two of the best NFL head coaches of the past 15 years with Belichick and Carroll, the latter of whom had already spent time as a college coordinator.
For Washington to return to the championship, the trio of Fisch, Belichick and Carroll will need to develop an almost entirely new roster than the one that steamrolled its way to the national championship game. They’ll also be doing it for the first time in the Big Ten after the Huskies left the Pac-12 in 2023.
Belichick, to his credit, has worked on one of the best defensive staffs during his tenure in New England. The Patriots ranked top-10 in points from 2012 to 2021 and top-10 in yards allowed from 2021 to 2023. A lot of that is thanks to Bill Belichick and Mayo, but Belichick played a huge role in executing how the defensive secondary play would trickle down to the front seven.
This will be Belichick’s first coaching job away from his father, who was not hired by another NFL club this offseason.
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Patriots Assistant Becomes Washington Huskies Defensive Coordinator