North Carolina Football Coach Bill Belichick is adding longtime and highly respected defensive coach Bob Diaco to serve as the Tar Heels’ linebacker coach, a source has confirmed to Tar Heel Illustrated.

Diaco has ties to the Belichick coaching tree, as he coached under Al Groh at Virginia for a couple of years. Groh coached alongside Belichick with the New York Giants and then under him with the Cleveland Browns.

Most recently, Diaco spent two seasons at LSU as special teams coordinator and linebackers coach in 2023 and senior defensive analyst this past season. He was originally hired as an analyst but was moved into the on-field roles during August camp in 2023 and resumed the analysts role after the season.

That was his fourth stint working for Brian Kelly. He also coached under Kelly at Central Michigan, Cincinnati, Notre Dame, and of course LSU.

Diaco was defensive coordinator for a Cincinnati team that went 12-0 in the regular season in 2009, at Notre Dame when the Irish played for the national championship in 2012. Diaco won the Frank Broyles Award that season, which goes to the nation’s top assistant coach.

He was head coach at Connecticut for from 2014-16 going 11-26. Ge Huskies played in a bowl game in his second season there.

The only experience Diaco has coaching professional football are two seasons with the New Jersey Generals of the USFL in 2022-23.

Diaco is well traveled, especially since being fired by UConn in 2016. He has coached at Nebraska (2017), Oklahoma (2018), Louisiana Tech (2019), and Purdue in 2020. Then the Generals and LSU.