College Football

Steve Belichick joins Washington Huskies as defensive coordinator

Published Feb. 5, 2024 9:38 a.m. ET

Washington is making another son of a legendary football coach one of its coordinators.

Steve Belichick will join Jedd Fisch's staff and become the Huskies' defensive coordinator, FOX Sports' Bruce Feldman reported.

Belichick is the eldest son of Bill Belichick. He got his start as a coach working under his father with the Patriots, working his way up the ranks since he joined the staff as a low-level assistant in 2012.

The younger Belichick eventually became the Patriots' defensive playcaller in 2019, taking over for Brian Flores after he left for the Dolphins. Belichick has never held the defensive coordinator title, but he served as a safeties coach before moving to outside linebackers coach in 2020, as he called defensive plays.

The Patriots' defense was consistently one of the league's best over the last five years. They allowed the fewest yards and points in 2019. New England allowed the seventh-fewest yards per game in 2023 (301.6) but was 15th in scoring defense (21.5 points per game allowed) while playing without two of their top players for most of the season (Matthew Judon and Christian Gonzalez).

Belichick's future in New England was in question after the franchise opted to part ways with his father after 24 seasons in January. Jerod Mayo, who Belichick worked alongside with the linebackers, became the head coach and reportedly made him an offer to stay on his staff. It's unknown what role Belichick was offered, though, as the team promoted defensive line coach DeMarcus Covington to be the defensive coordinator.

Belichick, who turns 37 in March, will not only coach in college for the first time, but this also marks the first time he'll coach without his father. He joins Fisch's staff at Washington after the two worked together as assistants on the Patriots in 2020, when Fisch was New England's quarterbacks coach.

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Fisch became Washington's head coach in January, replacing Kalen DeBoer after DeBoer took the Alabama job. He spent the last three seasons as Arizona's head coach, helping resurrect the program en route to winning 10 games in 2023.

Fisch has added a handful of his assistants from Arizona to his staff in Washington, including Brennan Carroll, who is the son of former Seahawks coach Pete Carroll. The younger Carroll will be Washington's offensive coordinator after serving as Arizona's offensive coordinator for the past three seasons.