Why Husky defensive coordinator Steve Belichick is perhaps UW’s biggest enigma
DerekJohnson
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By Mike VorelSeattle Times columnist
In the spring of 2016, Steve Belichick was promoted from defensive assistant to safeties coach for the New England Patriots, his first foray as a position coach. The 28-year-old son of iconic and curmudgeonly coach Bill Belichick, Steve was assigned to oversee a collection of established safeties — including Devin McCourty and Patrick Chung.
Roughly seven years later, McCourty appeared on the “Green Light” podcast — hosted by former teammate Chris Long — and recounted Steve Belichick’s unforgettable first words to his inherited Patriot safeties.
“Yo, I’m going to be honest with y’all. I don’t know what the F I’m doing right now,” Belichick conceded, according to McCourty. “My dad told me two weeks ago that I was even going to have this job.”
Belichick — a Rutgers lacrosse player and long snapper, turned NFL coach — proceeded to prove his worth. He spent three seasons as the Patriots’ safeties coach, before leading the defensive backs (2019), outside linebackers (2020-21) and linebackers (2022-23). He also called the Patriots’ plays each of the last four years, a de facto defensive coordinator.
McCourty didn’t tell that story to insult Steve.
Actually, the opposite.
“Now when I look at him, I think his growth has come because of the honesty — not coming in saying, ‘My dad is Bill Belichick. I was born to coach. I’m going to do this,’” McCourty said in March 2023. “No, he came in and was like, ‘I’m going to learn from some veterans that I’ve got in this room, take advantage of that opportunity that I get, and I’m going to grow as a coach.’”
Steve Belichick — who has never coached or recruited on the collegiate level, or carried a coordinator title of any kind — was named Washington’s defensive coordinator this winter.
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It’s entirely possible he doesn’t know what the F he’s doing right now.
Which may not be a negative.
On March 27, Belichick sat beside head coach Jedd Fisch and offensive coordinator Brennan Carroll in the Touchdown Terrace suites beyond Husky Stadium’s east end zone, obviously uncomfortable. His left foot compulsively tapped the floor as Fisch addressed a crowded collection of media. Belichick’s blond locks were pulled back in a ponytail, his foot tap-tap-tapping away, as he drained a plastic water bottle and started on another.
After 12 seasons spent on the Patriots’ staff, and two months on Montlake, Belichick was asked to identify the immediate differences.
“FaceTiming high-school kids has been new. I’d never done that before,” Belichick said, with the familiar delivery of his dad. “Didn’t have that when I was in high school and had no reason to do it since. That was different. But in terms of the roster, we just want players who want to be here, who want to compete. Those are guys I want to coach.
“So … we’ll figure out ways to find them. I’m going to lean a lot on Jedd, the rest of the defensive staff and everybody else in the program to bring me along. It’s been new. But I’ve got a job to do, and I’ll figure out a way to do it.”
Eight years after an unassuming assistant addressed the Patriots’ safeties, the same approach persisted. Not an iota of ego or entitlement. An acknowledgment when he doesn’t know. A hunger to collaborate. A vow to learn and grow.
So, how much of the Patriots’ defensive scheme will he install at UW?
“We’ll find out,” he simply said. “I’m excited to find out, excited to work with these players. The scheme will fit them. Whatever they’re good at, that’s what we’ll do.”
And given that he no longer oversees a specific position, what will Belichick do during spring practices, which officially started Wednesday?
“Yeah, I don’t know what I’m going to be doing during practice,” he admitted last week. “I’ll be out there, but I’ll bounce around or stay with a group or work with guys on the side, whatever I feel like is best to get the job done. That’s what I told the players. We’re here to get them better. So however I need to get them better, that’s what I plan to do.”
Belichick’s sincere uncertainty may be alarming or refreshing, depending on your perspective. In his four seasons as the Patriots’ play caller, New England produced reliably respectable results.
But how responsible is Belichick — who essentially split coordinator duties with current Patriots head coach Jerod Mayo — for those results? Is he a defensive genius, or the son of one?
Fisch is betting on the former.
“Every player that’s at University of Washington now has the opportunity to learn from two of the best coaches on their side of the ball,” Fisch said, with Belichick and Carroll by his side. “And every recruit that wants to come here is going to have a chance to learn from coach Carroll and coach Belichick and be surrounded by what I would say is two of the best football minds that are out there in college football right now.”
That’s an educated opinion from a former and current colleague, an enthusiastic endorsement. But we don’t know — truly know — if Belichick can coach or recruit on the Big Ten level.
We’ll all find out this fall.
After all, Belichick isn’t inheriting UW’s 1991 Death Row defense, a multitude of ready-made maulers. The Huskies return just two starters — linebacker Alphonzo Tuputala and cornerback Elijah Jackson — from the unit that fell to Michigan in the national title game.
Which isn’t to say UW’s defense is doomed to “Groundhog’s Day,” a weekly Husky humiliation. Linebacker Carson Bruener and safety Kamren Fabiculanan also return, among others, while Washington added (and will add) a parade from the transfer portal to fill prospective holes. It’s a unit with tantalizing potential, and plenty to prove.
Kind of like the coordinator.
And though he talks like his dad, and dresses like his dad, and endures uncomfortable press conferences like his dad, Steve Belichick doesn’t want to be Bill. After a dozen years spent seizing opportunities under Bill’s umbrella …
In Seattle, he’ll sink or swim.
“We definitely have similarities. [But] I have a job, and he doesn’t,” Steve Belichick joked last week. “I look up to my dad. He’s a mentor to me, but I’m myself. I’m excited to get out onto the field and work with the kids and recruit kids. I’m just going to be myself. I’m not going to try to be him.”
He played football as a long snapper for one season… did a good job riding dad's coattails
Thanks Taft!
You wouldn't be saying this if he were coaching at CWU
1991 wasn't the Death Row defense. That was 2016.
My brain is broken that this is not a patriots logo but a UW logo
Doesn't it strike you at least a little unusual that of the head coach, OC, and DC, only one actually ever played football in earnest? Winning, of course, cures everything. We'll see.
As far as CWU, the OC, DC, and HC played football https://wildcatsports.com/sports/football/coaches
I have about as much a chance as clicking that link as you have of clicking an IU link
If Fisch isn't successful at UW, it won't be due to his lack of football playing experience.
I clicked on it. I was somewhat disappointed as it was exactly what he said it was.
well he keeps mentioning Central. I didn't.
”we’ll do what we are good at” is about all I ever want to hear from a coach. better than some veteran guy trying to shoehorn players into a shitty scheme
Let's just hope there is something they are good at, besides missing easy sacks and making tackles seven yards downfield.
What if Beli Jr. is basically just an avatar for Beli Sr. Like some sort of Ratitoullie situation?
I'm thinking more like a "Being Bill Belichek" portal situation.
I'm all about UW athletic department maximizing it's allotted money so is just Bill Belichick just working for free?
Not complaining