Bill belichik rumors to UNC

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Merlin's to UNLV

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Yuracuck is a complete failure as AD and we as a fan base are paying for it.

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Bill Belichick tabbed three-time Super Bowl-winning NFL executive Michael Lombardi as the new general manager at North Carolina as his first hire after finalizing a deal to become Tar Heels head coach on Wednesday. Lombardi joined VSiN on Thursday and gave insight into his new role, Belichick's messaging to recruits, and the first steps the legendary NFL coach is taking to "rebuild" the UNC program from the ground up, among other things.

"We've got to get a quarterback," Lombardi said. "We've got to get offensive and defensive linemen. At the end of the day, we're going to build a football team the same way we've always built a football team -- inside out. Those are the pillars that we're going to start, stress and build on. That's the first action that we have to take. It's not about adding players. It's about building the team."

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Here's what Lombardi had to say about Belichick and his staff's first steps at UNC:

LOMBARDI ON HOW HIS ROLE WILL DIFFER FROM AN NFL DIRECTOR OF PRO PERSONNEL
"It won't be much different. We're going to build a pro personnel department. That pro personnel department will center around the transfer portal. We are going to build a team to monitor all the college teams, whether it's in the ACC, the Big 10, the SEC or any conference. You have to monitor all the players, just like you would in pro football. We will have a director of high school scouting, and we will monitor all the high schools. North Carolina has a great fan base.

"UNC has a tremendous recruiting area in the Tidewater area in Virginia. They haven't been into Florida as much in recent years, but there has been a time when they were very good in that state. We're going to expand it to a national program, which it should be. The North Carolina brand is significant. It may be associated with basketball, but we're going to bring that brand out on a national level. We've had two quarterbacks drafted in the first round in recent years, Drake Maye and Mitchell Trubisky. It has an appeal to quarterbacks. We're going to continue that, along with having a pro-style offense. It's going to be 24/7."

ON HE AND BELICHICK'S FIRST STEPS AFTER LANDING IN CHAPEL HILL
"We've got to get a quarterback. We've got to get offensive and defensive linemen. At the end of the day, we're going to build a football team the same way we've always built a football team — inside-out. It starts with the offensive line, the defensive line and the quarterback. That's going to be the manifesto for when we go down there. That's going to be the first thing first. Do we have quarterback? Can we protect? Do we have an offensive line? Do we have a defensive line? Those are the pillars that we're going to start, stress and build on. That's the first action that we have to take. It's not about adding players. It's about building the team."

ON UNC'S OUTLOOK FOR THE 2025 FOOTBALL SEASON
"We are going to build this team the right way. That's the most important thing. Then I know this: We're going to have the greatest coach of all time coach the team, and he's going to coach the coaches. We're going to we're going to be really good at situational football. We're going to be really detailed, and we're going to be a mentally tough football team. I don't know how that translates into wins, but that's what the program is going to stand for."

ON HOW HE AND BELICHICK WILL FIT CULTURALLY IN THE SOUTH
"Well, I'm sure I'll probably have a harder time getting great Italian food, but that's what I have my wife Millie for. This is all about, 'Do you want to be a great player? Do you want to be a pro?' The territory doesn't really matter. The language that we're going to speak won't have a drawl, but it's going to have an appeal to these players if they want to go on and play pro football. That's what we have to resonate to look. I'm sure it'll be a cultural shift. I'm sure some things will be different. We will be able to connect on a football level, which is the most important thing."

ON WHAT SPARKED BILL BELICHICK'S INTEREST IN COLLEGE BALL
"A lot of it has to do with North Carolina. It goes back to 1992. In 1992, we're on the campus of North Carolina. It was cold in Cleveland. We were getting ready for the NFL Draft. We went down there because it's the Research Triangle, where you have about five different schools that you can scout. We went down there, and we stayed at the Carolina Inn, which is right on campus. We brought Jim Schwartz, who was one of our scouting assistants. He's now the defensive coordinator of the Browns.

"We set up a little office down there. We watched tape all day. We went for a jog, went to a baseball game and looked at each other and said, 'How the hell can't they win here?' That's a true story, and that is really what sparked this. You're on that campus, and you look around, and you say, 'How can't they win here?' I'm not saying Mack Brown didn't win, but I'm talking about winning at a level to get us into the 12-team College Football Playoff."

ON WHY BELICHICK FITS IN THE CURRENT LANDSCAPE OF COLLEGE FOOTBALL
"The field is somewhat balanced. We see it with this 12-team College Football Playoff. Who could have ever thought that Indiana was going to go undefeated until the Ohio State game? A lot of this is because of NIL. Do I think this would have happened without the players getting paid and NIL? Probably not. It all comes down to resources and how much commitment people want to make. The landscape is completely different now. That's why Nick Saban left. Twenty guys wanted to get into his office for a raise. That's why Bill Belichick will enter. He's used to having 20 guys in his office who want to raise."

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