UNC Football Catch-all | Bill Belichick Era underway

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I’m still trying to figure out why ANYONE would hire Mike Lombardi to help evaluate the talent/skill levels of football players or manage the payroll budget?

He has had no job with an NFL team since 2016 (and has not worked in college football since 1984); from 2014 to 2016 he was an “assistant to the coaching staff” with the Patriots. From 2007-14, he had a 10-11 month tenure with the Browns in 2013 as GM (the ‘13 Browns went 4-12). That’s it.

Then, we also get stuck with his son, Matt, who DOES NOT have the resume to be a QB Coach at the D1 level.
 


Such an embarrassing response.

"We didn't really have a recruiting class last year. Lotta new players."

Yeah, and who brought in all 70 of those "lotta new players", Bill?

"This year, we're gonna be in much better shape."

Oh? By bringing in ~60 "lotta new players", the majority of whom are 17-year-old high school seniors right now?

This whole experiment is such a scam.

130 is the most new players over two years than every college football team not named West Virginia...and its not really close to the #3 team.

If the baseball team is the Diamond Heels I guess the football team can be the Diamond In The Rough Heels
 

IMO it is more of a lesson for ADs about timing of hires and importance of college-ties instead of nfl-ties than a lesson specifically about Bill Belichick.

We had to rely on spring enrollees much more heavily than Dickert and probably every other school in the nation... spring enrollees obviously missed spring practice, conditioning, gelling, etc. Coaches obviously were blind til late summer regarding their final talent-level. Offenses need time to gel, script, rep, etc, and we were missing our QB, starting TE, starting RT, starting LT, and starting LG til fall camp.

Our winter haul was basically just 6 good players (ALL DEFENDERS) and two of those were injured most of the yr:
DL Melkart Abou-Jaoude Starter
LB Khmori House Starter
DB Gavin Gibson Starter
DL CJ Mims Starting snaps
DB Coleman Bryson 2nd string
TE Connor Cox 3rd string TE
OL Miles McVay 2nd string
OL Chad Lindberg 3rd string center.
DB Peyton Waters 3rd or 4th string.
DB Thaddeus Dixon - injured
DL Pryce Yates - injured
OL Christo Kelly - injured
WR Jason Robinson - left mid-season
OL William Boone - left mid-season
WR Aziah Johnson - left mid-season
QB Ryan Browne - left after spring camp

As for Dickert, he brought in his starting WR, C, OT (nfl 3rd rounder) and few starting defenders from Wash St. And he brought in guys so good that Texas and Texas Tech stole them early in this portal season. And importantly, most of his talent was in place pre-spring.

I still say Wake had more talent than UNC. I think we've talked about them having more guys on the All-ACC team and it isn't like they were a great team, 4-4 in conference, tied for 7th in the ACC with teams like Cal. They are about to put two guys into the 2 or 3rd round of the NFL draft (their OT and Desmond Claiborne). They lost two trench guys who will be starters at Texas Tech and Texas. Nick Anderson was one of the best S in the ACC.
 
To Bill's point about this yr vs last yr, bringing in 19 xfers instead of 41 xfers is a pretty big difference. I think the usual intention is that you aren't relying on your true frosh to be starters, so his point about having fewer "new" "impact" players has some merit.

The quality of the 19 is a different argument, i feel we needed grown-azz men on the OL and didn't get that.
 
IMO it is more of a lesson for ADs about timing of hires and importance of college-ties instead of nfl-ties than a lesson specifically about Bill Belichick.

We had to rely on spring enrollees much more heavily than Dickert and probably every other school in the nation... spring enrollees obviously missed spring practice, conditioning, gelling, etc. Coaches obviously were blind til late summer regarding their final talent-level. Offenses need time to gel, script, rep, etc, and we were missing our QB, starting TE, starting RT, starting LT, and starting LG til fall camp.

Our winter haul was basically just 6 good players (ALL DEFENDERS) and two of those were injured most of the yr:
DL Melkart Abou-Jaoude Starter
LB Khmori House Starter
DB Gavin Gibson Starter
DL CJ Mims Starting snaps
DB Coleman Bryson 2nd string
TE Connor Cox 3rd string TE
OL Miles McVay 2nd string
OL Chad Lindberg 3rd string center.
DB Peyton Waters 3rd or 4th string.
DB Thaddeus Dixon - injured
DL Pryce Yates - injured
OL Christo Kelly - injured
WR Jason Robinson - left mid-season
OL William Boone - left mid-season
WR Aziah Johnson - left mid-season
QB Ryan Browne - left after spring camp

As for Dickert, he brought in his starting WR, C, OT (nfl 3rd rounder) and few starting defenders from Wash St. And he brought in guys so good that Texas and Texas Tech stole them early in this portal season. And importantly, most of his talent was in place pre-spring.

I still say Wake had more talent than UNC. I think we've talked about them having more guys on the All-ACC team and it isn't like they were a great team, 4-4 in conference, tied for 7th in the ACC with teams like Cal. They are about to put two guys into the 2 or 3rd round of the NFL draft (their OT and Desmond Claiborne). They lost two trench guys who will be starters at Texas Tech and Texas. Nick Anderson was one of the best S in the ACC.
I agree with your post.

The reality is that is not what we were sold.

The Administration (chancellor and head of the BoT) said they were hiring the best - Bill Belichick.

Bill Belichick hired the guy no one wanted or wants, Mike Lombardi, and a nepotism-filled staff. The Belichick-Lombardi regime said they were creating the “33rd NFL Team.”

They then got shelled by P4/G5 teams in a WEAK schedule.

How far are we from being a 2024-25 Indiana? Not a 2025-26 Indiana. Not the national champs. The year before team?

Or the 2025-26 Duke Blue Devils?

Or, a recent NCSULOL team?
 
To Bill's point about this yr vs last yr, bringing in 19 xfers instead of 41 xfers is a pretty big difference. I think the usual intention is that you aren't relying on your true frosh to be starters, so his point about having fewer "new" "impact" players has some merit.

The quality of the 19 is a different argument, i feel we needed grown-azz men on the OL and didn't get that.
I think it is just an excuse -- and not even a particularly good one.
 
What's crazy is Cignetti pretty much did what we hoped Bill would be able to do....find coaches le players that fit the system and don't beat themselves.
 
I get that BB is not popular here, and that's unquestionably for good reason even if you think that he isn't that bad.

But comparing him to Cignetti is ridiculous. Cignetti did something that has basically never been done before. Even if we only want to think about the last 50 years, that's 50 * DI schools that didn't manage it. It's really unfair to be comparing anyone to him. Even future Cignetti, I predict.
 
I get that BB is not popular here, and that's unquestionably for good reason even if you think that he isn't that bad.

But comparing him to Cignetti is ridiculous. Cignetti did something that has basically never been done before. Even if we only want to think about the last 50 years, that's 50 * DI schools that didn't manage it. It's really unfair to be comparing anyone to him. Even future Cignetti, I predict.
I'm not comparing him to Cignetti...just stating the approach is very similar to what most of us thought we were getting with BB. I'd be a lot more optimistic if we played discipline football and didn't beat ourselves. Unfortunately we didn't see much of that.

With that said Petrino was a grand slam so despite not having a talented offensive roster I'm somewhat hopefully on offense
 
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