Notre Dame football and head coach Marcus Freeman will travel to Chapel Hill on Saturday at noon ET to take on Bill Belichick and the North Carolina Tar Heels.

The No. 3 Fighting Irish are looking to move to 5-0 on the season, and this matchup carries plenty of storylines worth watching throughout the week. There will be key players to stop, a quest for another dominant win, and Notre Dame’s continued push toward a deep playoff run. But one of the most fascinating elements of this game has nothing to do with the players on the field.

It has everything to do with the two head coaches standing on opposite sidelines.

Marcus Freeman and Bill Belichick could not be more different. From their coaching careers to their overall backgrounds, this is one of the most bizarre and entertaining coaching matchups in college football this season.

For a little bit of fun, here is a timeline of Belichick’s career matched up with Freeman’s personal life, playing career, and coaching career as it currently stands.

A 34-year age gap

There is a 34-year age gap between the two head coaches, which is still smaller than the one between Belichick and his girlfriend, Jordon Hudson. Belichick is 74 years old, having begun his NFL coaching career back in 1975 as a special assistant with the Baltimore Colts. Freeman, who is 40 years old, was born on Jan. 10, 1986, 11 years after Belichick had started his Hall of Fame NFL coaching career.

In total, Belichick spent 29 seasons in the NFL as a head coach and 49 overall as a head coach and assistant. The bulk of that came with the New England Patriots, where he served as head coach from 2000 to 2023.

He was also the head coach of the Cleveland Browns in the early 1990s. During the total of his career in the regular season, Belichick went 302-165, which included 266-121 with New England and a 36-44 regular season record with Cleveland. He won eight Super Bowls, six as a head coach and two as an NFL assistant coach.

Belichick was already a decade into his career when Freeman was born

Belichick had already spent 11 years in the NFL when Freeman was born. In 1986, he was in his second year as an assistant under head coach Bill Parcells with the New York Giants. The Giants, led by a staunch defense under Belichick, won the Super Bowl that season.

In 2004, Freeman began his Ohio State playing career, where he became a multi-year starting Mike linebacker and captain for the Buckeyes. That same season, Belichick led the Patriots to their third Super Bowl title under his tenure.

When Freeman was drafted by the Chicago Bears in the fifth round of the 2009 NFL Draft, that was Belichick’s ninth overall season with New England.

On a personal level, Freeman would be the second oldest child for Belichick, who has four children. His oldest, Amanda, is 41 years of age, while sons Steve and Brian are still in their 30s.

From the NFL to Notre Dame and North Carolina

When Freeman was named the head coach at Notre Dame at the end of the 2021 season, after former head coach Brian Kelly took the job with the LSU Tigers, Belichick was just finishing up his 22nd season with the Patriots. Things were beginning to trend downward as he navigated the post-Tom Brady era.

From a background and overall career perspective, Freeman is currently 47-12 as the head coach of Notre Dame, while Belichick is still trying to prove that he can get it done in the college game, sitting with a 6-9 overall record in just over a season in Chapel Hill.

What to watch on Saturday

This game will carry many storylines, and there will be a huge crowd, just like there is anytime Notre Dame comes to town. Belichick will be hunting for a massive top-five victory for a program that desperately needs it, while Notre Dame’s eyes will be on a week-to-week results perspective before the Fighting Irish try to make a deep playoff run once again.

As you stare over at the two sidelines, you are going to see one of the best to ever do it on the NFL level in Belichick, who has now spent more than five decades on the sideline as a coach at the NFL and college level.

Freeman has found his groove with Notre Dame, but he is still early in his coaching tenure. It will be fun to see the matchup between one of the biggest up-and-coming coaches in all of college football, a coach the NFL has had a lot of interest in over the last two offseasons, versus a coach who is trying to prove his worth in a new arena but whose resume speaks for itself and has been coaching longer than Freeman has even been alive.