new item<\/a> from TheAthletic.com adds more funk to the sour milk in Chapel Hill. And the key words are arrogance and ignorance.<\/p>\nIt\u2019s the worst combination of traits. Believing to know everything when in reality knowing nothing. And that\u2019s the clear takeaway from the new article, which was the product of conversations with more than 20 individuals who spoke to the publication on the condition of anonymity.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s the arrogance of it all,\u201d an unnamed UNC source told TheAthletic.com. \u201cBecause they had success in the NFL \u2014 and by they, I mean Belichick only \u2014 they [thought] they could come in and replicate that without knowing how college football works.\u201d<\/p>\n
While Lombardi routinely tries to bootstrap himself to Belichick\u2019s NFL excellence, Lombardi\u2019s long career includes only one season as a pro football General Manager, 2013 with the Browns. He was replaced by Ray Farmer in 2014.<\/p>\n
At North Carolina, Lombardi sets the table for Belichick. And the current offerings are more like ketchup and egg noodles than a gourmet meal.<\/p>\n
An anecdote at the outset of the new article published by TheAthletic.com points to the potential transfer to UNC of North Texas quarterback Chandler Morris for 2025. But Morris lacks NFL measurables. The player Lombardi chose, Purdue quarterback Ryan Browne, had the more prototypical pro size.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou just don\u2019t understand what it takes to play in the National Football League,\u201d Lombardi reportedly told staffers regarding his preference for Browne, who transferred to North Carolina but returned to Purdue in the spring. (Morris went to Virginia, and the Cavaliers are now a top-20 team.)<\/p>\n
North Carolina, meanwhile, ranks 133rd out of 136 FBS teams in total offense.<\/p>\n
And the problem traces to the simple fact that the players Lombardi selected aren\u2019t good enough.<\/p>\n
\u201cInitially, they thought people would flock to play for [Belichick] and take less money,\u201d an unnamed university source told TheAthletic.com, \u201cbut they realized fast that that wasn\u2019t the case.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another source within the program characterized Lombardi\u2019s roster like this: \u201cWe don\u2019t have one pro player on the whole roster.\u201d<\/p>\n
In all, Belichick and Lombardi brought in more than 70 players. Last week, Lombardi explained in a lengthy message to donors and boosters that the plan for 2026 will be to recruit \u201cupwards of 40 freshmen.\u201d An unnamed senior official at UNC told TheAthletic.com that Lombardi\u2019s letter \u201cwasn\u2019t received by our fans as we had hoped.\u201d<\/p>\n
The better (and perhaps only) plan to salvage Belichick\u2019s tenure could be to move on from Lombardi. Multiple sources shared that sentiment with TheAthletic.com. And one former member of the coaching staff under coach Mack Brown said this: \u201cThat actually would give [Belichick] a fucking fighting chance.\u201d<\/p>\n
For now, it seems like a fat chance that the Tar Heels will turn things around.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Saturday\u2019s blowout loss to Clemson sparked a tidal wave of reporting regarding the current state of the North…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":203647,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,85],"class_list":["post-203646","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-football","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203646","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=203646"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203646\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/203647"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=203646"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=203646"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=203646"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}