Jim Phillips cites Bill Belichick, Frank Reich in passionate case for ACC: 'We have the best coaches in the league'

Several ACC programs made key additions to their coaching staffs this offseason, including three which found new head coaches. North Carolina hired Bill Belichick, Wake Forest signed Jake Dickert and Stanford will be led by Frank Reich.

Jim Phillips, the ACC’s commissioner, believes these key additions help place the ACC above all other conferences when it comes to head coaches. Phillips revealed what makes this group of 17 coaches so special ahead of the 2025 season.

“I think we have the best coaches in the league,” Phillips said during an appearance on the ACC Network on Wednesday. “When you add Bill Belichick and Frank Reich and Jake Dickert this year to the remaining 14 coaches that were here last year, you can see how we’ve elevated ACC football. 13 teams in bowl games last year. We had four 10-win teams last year for the first time in history. So ACC football continues to rise, but it has to do with the coaching that we have in the league.

“You just see it in them. You hear it in them how committed they are to student athletes. You hear it in them how committed they are to student athletes. That’s the x-factor. We have this new rev share and opportunities for kids to make money with NIL. All that stuff is good, the x-factor remains excellent coaching. We have that in this league.”

Belichick’s influence in the sport is well-documented. A six-time Super Bowl-winning head coach with the New England Patriots alongside Tom Brady, he enters the college football coaching space for the first time at 73 years old.

When Jake Dickert began his coaching career in 2007, Belichick was about to lead the Patriots to a perfect 16-0 regular season record. The 41-year-old Demon Deacons head coach arrived in Winston-Salem this offseason after spending the last three full seasons as Washington State‘s headman.

Like Belichick, Frank Reich has never coached college football. Starting his career around the same time as Dickert, Reich spend nearly two decades of his coaching career at the NFL level. Now, he’ll lead a Stanford team that hasn’t won more than three games in the last four seasons.

Elsewhere in the conference, Clemson‘s Dabo Swinney is one of three active coaches with a national championship and is a two-time ACC Coach of the Year. Other coaches around the league such as Mario Cristobal (Miami), Mike Norvell (Florida State), Joff Brohm (Louisville) and Bill O’Brien (Boston College), among others, all have strong reputations as respected head coaches in the industry as well.