By R.L. Bynum
UNC football general manager Mike Lombardi made his weekly appearance on ESPN’s “The Pat McAfee Show” on Thursday, addressing many topics, including Coach Bill Belichick’s signing of his contract with UNC.
“We can put away all that nonsense about we’re going to go back into the NFL,” Lombardi said, “because we can kill that for once and for all. I actually got a big shovel out this morning and I buried that.”
You can read Belichick’s contract here.
Here are the highlights of Lombardi’s UNC-related comments during the nearly 30-minute appearance, during which he also talked extensively about the NFL.
— On how depth matters in college football:
“In the NFL, you only dress 46 players. In college, you can dress 95 or whatever the number is, and I think there are a lot of teams that are even to start a game, but the depth and the overall talent on the second- and third-level teams as you’re rotating becomes an issue, and then teams take over.
“And I think you’ve got to have sound depth. The concept of paying one player or two players or three players, like we think in the NFL, and then going with younger guys — that’s not going to work in college. You’re going to have to have really good depth to compete with those great teams from the Southeastern Conference, in the Big 10, and from the ACC.
— McAfee asked about a rumor that UNC offered millions of dollars to a quarterback and how UNC will allocate player money.
“We might have heard about it. If somebody offered him. I don’t know. Maybe it was the janitor in this building who offered it. I have no idea because I didn’t offer anybody that kind of money. We’re going to stick with the Patriot model. We’re going to have a good team where everybody’s going to be valued.
“The locker room has to feel a sense of contentment based on what you have earned. If you bring a player in who’s not really playing for your team and paying them more than some of the guys that have, based on just a hypothetical, you run into a little bit of a problem. This thing goes both ways. You’re going to negotiate contracts both ways; sometimes you’re going to give a guy a raise, and sometimes, because you brought other players in.”
Lombardi’s segment starts at 32:15 in the above video.
— On when there is a salary cap established with revenue sharing:
“I think you have to do it just like the draft. The draft is money. When you say the guy is going to be an immediate starter and impact the team, that’s the top-10 pick. And that top-10 pick makes X amount of dollars. And if you say the guy is going to be a potential backup player who could eventually start, that’s probably a fourth- or fifth-round pick. So that comes with a value.
“Whenever you have a salary cap, you have to have a value. If you’re taking a young high school prospect who’s very good, you’re going to have to give them some money to entice them to come to your school. But there has to be a ceiling on what you can give them.
“We’re not like Jerry Jones. We’re not in the oil drilling business. We’re not hoping to hit a well or a gusher. You’ve got to pay for performance as you go. There’s going to be a scale. You come in, you earn this. If you start to play, you’re going to earn more, and then you’re going to earn more based on how you start. There has to be a rhyme and a reason for what you’re doing.
“But if you randomly just give out — I’m paying this guy 750; I’ll pay this guy a million — then, all of a sudden, you don’t have any continuity within your program. And so that’s what we’re going to try to do. We’ll bring young players in that we recruit. We’ll pay them, but it’s on speculation, and there’s going to be a number. And then as they earn more based on their play time, based on their performance here at North Carolina, they will earn more.
“My door is going to always be open for conversations, because that’s the way it is. We saw it this summer in the NFL. How many receivers redid their contracts based on what was going on around the league? Same thing is going to happen in college football.
— On comparisons between the programs at UNC and Notre Dame:
“They’ve got such great tradition, but so do we here at North Carolina. We’ve got incredible tradition. We haven’t won an ACC title since 1980, but, man, we have a lot of great players, starting with the greatest defensive player of all time in Lawrence Taylor and then going to Julius Peppers.
“Not even talking about how many great players have been in basketball. They’ve got 23 titles in women’s soccer. This is an incredible institution for sports, and we’re going to follow that. We believe we have a national footprint. What Michael Jordan has done for the school, what the basketball program has done. You see this emblem on people’s chest, you see our brand, it’s a national brand, and so we need to be a national school.
“We’re going to be foot-to-foot with Notre Dame. We offer a lot now. They’ve got a history in terms of winning championships and getting there. We’re going to have to increase our tradition there and get there. But we have a lot of great players. We have a lot of first-round picks.
“We might not have had great, great teams, but we’re going to fix that, and we’re going to recruit to our traditions. You can’t build a team without creating a sense of belonging, and the only way you create a sense of belonging is to look to your past. So, we need the Jeff Saturdays. We need the Lawrence Taylors. We need all those — Quinton Couples. We need all these great players who played here and dominated to be part of our program — Dre Bly. There’s so many of them that have been here — Greg Ellis — a lot of them first-round picks. We got it. We need them to build so we can walk into a home and remind players about North Carolina’s tradition of great talent here.
— On whether the Tar Heels will be recruiting from the same player pool as the Irish:
“No question. We consider ourselves a professional organization and, like Notre Dame, we want smart guys that can get into school. Notre Dame has the requirement. Everybody thinks getting into school, if it makes it tough on the players, you’re not going to have a good team. I think that’s nonsense. We want smart, tough, dependable players. For us, if you don’t go to class and you don’t work hard, and your other things, you’re not going to be a good football player. You’re not good in one area, and then all of a sudden be good in another area. You’ve got to be a complete person, like North Carolina, like Michigan, those national schools, they recruit that, and we want to be that kind of program.
— On whether UNC will have room on its roster for Ohio State and Notre Dame players entering the transfer portal:
“We’re always going to save room, whether it’s our cap, whether it’s our scholarship, but we’re going to go to 105 this summer. And once we go to 105, I think there’s going to be a lot of teams that have to get rid of players at that point, whereas we at North Carolina, who are building our program, we don’t have that many players at that level.
“The teams that have been doing this and have a great bloodline of recruiting going on, they’re going to have a hard time getting [down] to 105, and we need to be able to be there to take advantage of that situation.
“We have to look for all the areas of finding talent. I think that’s part of what the NFL is about too. Bill Walsh used to say this all the time. During the season was the best time to find players, because everybody was content. In the offseason in March, everybody was looking for players, so you were competing at a harder time. I think that’s the same thing. We’ve got to be able to take advantage of what our situation is. There’s not a claiming order like it is in the NFL, but there’s going to be a lot of schools that have to get rid of guys because they have too many scholarships.”
Transfer portal transactions
Incoming transfers
(Next season’s classes listed)
Senior defensive lineman Melkart Abou-Jaoude • 6–5, 260 pounds • Delaware
2024: 11 games, 10 tackles, 17 assists, 6.5 sacks for 50 yards, 8 QB hits
Senior offensive tackle William Boone (2 years of eligibility) • 6–6, 349 pounds • Prairie View A&M
2024: 12 games, team-high 782 snaps; didn’t allow a sack
Redshirt sophomore quarterback Ryan Browne • 6–4, 210 pounds • Purdue
2024: 8 games, 34 of 76, 532 yards, 4 touchdowns, 2 interceptions, 127.5 quarterback rating
Junior defensive back Coleman Bryson • 6–2, 210 pounds • Minnesota
2024: 13 games, 14 tackles, 6 assists, 3 passes defended (pick-six below from 2022 season)
Junior tight end Connor Cox • 6–6, 251 pounds • South Carolina
2024: 4 games, 1 catch, 9 yards, 1 TD
Fifth-year cornerback Thaddeus Dixon • 6-1, 186 pounds • Washington
2024: 13 games, 26 tackles, 17 assists, 2 tackles for losses, 1 interception, 10 passes defended, 1 forced fumble
Senior defensive back Gavin Gibson • 6-0, 185 pounds • East Carolina
2024: 13 games, 25 tackles, 27 assists, 3 interceptions, 3 pass breakups
Sophomore linebacker Khmori House • 6-0, 213 pounds • Washington
2024: 12 games, 19 tackles, 16 assists, 1 interception, 4 pass breakups, 1 QB hit
Redshirt sophomore wide receiver Aziah Johnson • 6–0, 175 pounds • Michigan State
2024: 12 games, 16 catches, 276 yards, 2 touchdowns; 1 rush, 15 yards
Fifth-year center Christo Kelly • 6–4, 305 pounds • Holy Cross
2024: Started 12 games, part of line that allowed 1.08 sacks per game, 11th-best in country
Fifth-year offensive lineman Daniel King • 6–5, 340 pounds • Troy
2024: 12 games, 429 snaps at right tackle, 360 at right guard, allowed 2 sacks, named All-Sun Belt second team
Senior offensive lineman Chad Lindberg • 6–6, 315 pounds • Rice (Georgia before that)
2024: Played 11 games after playing 20 games and 139 snaps for Georgia
Sophomore offensive tackle Miles McVay • 6–6, 340 pounds • Alabama
2024: 5 games, 94 snaps
Sophomore defensive tackle C.J. Mims • 6–2, 302 pounds • East Carolina
2024: 12 games, 4 tackles, 19 assists, 1.5 sacks, 1 forced fumble
Redshirt freshman wide receiver Jason Robinson Jr. • 5–10, 151 pounds • Washington
2024: Redshirted after catching 68 passes for 900 yards as a senior at Long Beach Poly
Junior place-kicker Adam Samaha • 5–11, 195 pounds • Michigan
2024: didn’t play (Wolverines had Big Ten Kicker of Year Dominic Zvada)
2023: 1 game, 1 extra-point attempt made • Hit 60-yard FG in training (in below video)
Sophomore safety Peyton Waters • 6–1, 182 pounds • Washington
2024: 13 games, 3 tackles, 2 assists
Redshirt senior defensive lineman Pryce Yates • 6–4, 265 pounds • UConn
2024: 7 games, 12 tackles, 9 assists, 3.5 sacks for 23 yards, 5 QB hurries; Fenway Bowl defensive MVP
Tar Heels entering, exiting portal
(Next season’s classes listed)
Redshirt sophomore 5–11, 180-pound defensive back Ty Adams
2024: 4 tackles
Sophomore 6–3, 300-pound offensive lineman Aidan Banfield
2024: 62.8 Pro Football Focus grade best in country among true freshmen
Fifth-year 6–5, 310 fifth-year center Austin Blaske
2024: Started 11 games with Pro Football Focus grade of 85.6
Junior 6–0, 230-pound linebacker Amare Campbell
2024: 12 games, 42 tackles, 30 assists, 11 tackles for losses, 6.5 sacks, 1 forced fumble
Fifth-year 5–11, 220-pound running back Caleb Hood
2024: 4 games, 7 carries, 3 yards, 1 catch, 29 yards
Senior 6–1, 190-pound wide receiver Kobe Paysour
2024: 12 games, 19 catches, 330 yards
In the transfer portal
— Offensive linemen Zach Greenberg (committed to James Madison), Jakiah Leftwich (Central Florida), Malik McGowan (UNLV), Andrew Rosinski (Georgia Tech), Howard Sampson (Texas Tech) and Eli Sutton (Austin Peay)
— Running back Jordan Louie
— Quarterbacks Conner Harrell (Charlotte), Michael Merdinger (Liberty) and Jacolby Criswell (East Tennessee State)
— Linebackers Ashton Woods (West Virginia) and Caleb LaVallee (Florida State)
— Defensive lineman Travis Shaw (Texas)
— Defensive backs DeAndre Boykins and Tyrane Stewart
— Place-kicker Noah Burnette (Notre Dame)
Reported Belichick’s staff members
General manager Michael Lombardi — Worked in NFL 1984–2016, including Cleveland Browns general manager in 2013 and assistant to the coaching staff for the New England Patriots 2014–16
Director of Player Personnel Joe Anile — NFL scout for the New England Patriots and Jacksonville Jaguars
Assistant Director of Player Personnel Andrew Blaylock — Assistant athletics director for player personnel at Central Florida the last three seasons; had similar positions at Appalachian State 2016–22 and Texas State 2015–16
Defensive coordinator Steve Belichick — Defensive coordinator last season at Washington; New England Patriots defensive coach 2012–23
Strength and conditioning coach Moses Cabrera — New England Patriots assistant strength coach 2011–15; head Patriots strength and conditioning coach 2016–23
Offensive assistant coach Bob Diaco — Was defensive coach at LSU the last two seasons; has coached in college since 1999.
Offensive-line coach Will Friend — Offensive coordinator last season at Western Kentucky; was offensive line coach at Tennessee (2018–20), Auburn (2021–22), Mississippi State (2023) and Tennessee; offensive coordinator/offensive line coach at Colorado State (2015–17) and offensive line coach at Georgia (2011–14)
Cory Giddings — Will be part of player personnel staff; Director of Player Personnel at Central Florida the past two seasons, working with Blaylock there, and before that at Appalachian State
Armond Hawkins — Was secondary analyst and assistant director of recruiting last season at Washington. Before that, he spent one season at Arizona, one season at Colorado and two seasons at Southern Cal.
Defensive assistant coach Chris Jones — CFL coach 2002–18, 2021–2024; 2018 CFL Coach of Year at Saskatchewan; head coach in 2015 of Grey Cup champion Edmonton Eskimos; Cleveland Browns defensive assistant coach 2019
Offensive coordinator Freddie Kitchens — UNC run-game coordinator and tight ends coach 2023–24; interim UNC coach for 2024 Fenway Bowl; head coach Cleveland Browns 2019; Assistant coach with New York Giants (2020–21), Browns (2018), Arizona Cardinals (2007–2017), Dallas Cowboys (2006), Mississippi State (2004), North Texas (2001–03), LSU (2000) and Glenville State (1999)
Offensive assistant coach Matt Lombardi — Was an offensive analyst last season at Oregon; NFL assistant with Las Vegas Raiders and Carolina Panthers
Offensive assistant coach Garrick McGee — Was wide receivers coach at Louisville the last two seasons. Has coached in college since 1996.
Chris Mattes — The former professional lacrosse player had been the New England Patriots’ Director of Football Development, and had been with the team the last eight seasons.
Assistant coach Billy Miller — IMG Academy assistant head coach 2014–21, head coach 2022–24
Special teams coach Mike Priefer — NFL assistant coach since 2002; head special teams coach at Kansas City (2006–08), Denver (2009–10), Minnesota (2011–18) and Cleveland (2019–22).
UNC schedule
| Month/ date | Opponent |
|---|---|
| September | |
| 1 (Mon.), 7:30 | vs. TCU |
| 6 | at Charlotte |
| 20 | at Central Florida |
| October | |
| 4 | vs. Clemson |
| Other ACC home games | |
| Duke, Stanford and Virginia | |
| ACC road games | |
| N.C. State, Syracuse, Cal and Wake Forest |
Photo via ESPN screenshot
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