Thanks. So the choice is believe unnamed source or the three principals, who apparently say it did not happen. According to Ben.
UNC Football Catch-all | Bill Belichick Era underway
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uncjhodges
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The problem being the arrogant prick chancellor we have who thinks he’s the smartest guy in the room and is dumb enough to hire Bellichick/Lombardi
The NY Times owns the Athletic. The Athletic has done a ton of original reporting regarding UNC and Belichick and sends a reporter to local press conferences quite frequently. It is extremely well sourced on this story. Indeed, the very story that prompted @CFordUNC to ask you whether you thought reporters were just making up lies came from the Athletic.
It was the Athletic that published a piece stating that Lombardi had decided that Chandler Morris -- the QB that is lighting up the scoreboard for UVa this year and is about to light up the Kenan scoreboard this weekend -- was not good enough for UNC. That is what our $1.5 million a year GM decided. That Chandler Morris couldn't play at UNC but that Gio Lopez/Ryan Browne could.
I don't think this story is "wrong" -- it certainly doesn't involve made up lies. I think you have almost no discernment when it comes to accepting post-story denials from principals, and extreme skepticism when it comes to accepting any negative story about the program.
Again, what are they denying? That Morris talked to UNC? That does not in any way refute the story that Lombardi said Morris wasn't good enough for UNC and that Lombardi would not pursue him. And that is the real story. Why is our $1.5 million GM, supposedly a savant of game film and player personnel analysis, unable to discern that Chandler Morris would have been a hell of a QB here, and instead thinks that Gio Lopez is the guy to make it work?
It really is such a tough pill to swallow that a Dook grad is one of the driving forces behind this whole thing lol.
We need a UNC grad to infiltrate Dook’s administration to get some payback. Hire Bill Parcells and give him a 10 year/$100M contract. Get rid of Scheyer and install Greg Popovich as head coach with Isiah Thomas as GM to destroy their 1 and done basketball pipeline.
Isn't that the problem? If our genius GM, the highest paid GM in all of college football, could not figure out that Chandler Morris would be better than Ryan Bowne or Gio Lopez, what the hell are we paying him for? Let you or I make the calls based on portal rankings. The whole point of hiring Lombardi was that he was supposed to find players like Morris and get them on our team, not UVA's team.
So Morris his agent and BB said no contact or discussions. You believe unnamed source. Fine. BTW, gio had better numbers last year. Good thread is on3 IC on this.
Again, you have a complete lack of discernment on these "denials".
First, Belichick admitted that UNC contacted his agent.
Second, here is what the Athletic reported:
Belichick’s right-hand man, general manager Michael Lombardi, was already making the decisions when it came to overhauling UNC’s roster. He didn’t want Morris, who was about 6-feet, 190 pounds, and did not have the strongest arm. Purdue’s Ryan Browne, a 6-4, 210-pounder who had started two games for a 2-10 Boilers team, better fit the mold he and Belichick were seeking. Lombardi didn’t hold back letting UNC’s personnel staffers, a mix of holdovers and new hires, know why.
“You just don’t understand what it takes to play in the National Football League,” he told staffers, according to a person briefed on the conversation, who, like more than 20 people interviewed for this story, spoke on condition of anonymity about their experiences of private conversations and decision-making within the program.
Third, tell me where the Athletic made up lies for this story. Do you think Mike Lombardi did or did not dress down staffers with the following quote: You just don’t understand what it takes to play in the National Football League,” ? Is that a lie? Did the Athletic just make up that quote for the hell of it?
So, again, I go back to the question @CFordUNC asked you originally. Do you think the reporters are just making up these reports?
uncjhodges
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We didn’t take Gio over Morris. We took Brown over Morris. But, if you want to say that our HC, OC, and QB coach woulda ruined him too, then, yea, I agree
Kind of done here. Way I read that with BB was he contacted agent after these reports but it was ambiguous. Gio by the way has been hurt and played better last week. I answered cford with my WRAL Pat story. Go read if you want. If iI had posted in 2010 :to be prepared for outright lies from Raleigh media concerning UNC I guess I would have been right.
GoHeelsweeeehoooo
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It seems like a lot of schools underestimated Morris - not just us - there's a reason he ended up at Virginia
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If I recall, he was one of the more highly rated quarterbacks in the portal behind Mateer and maybe another guy or two, but he threw for a ton of yards and a ton of touchdowns at UNT last year. I remember him being my top choice if we did not get Mateer. I think he ended up at UVA in no small part because of his dad, Chad‘s, close relationship with Tony Elliott from having previously been on the Clemson staff together.
Speaking of Virginia, something I’m really fascinated to watch play out is, if they continue having a big year and play for an ACC championship and perhaps a CFP berth, what kind of additional financial investment they may find. There is absolutely no shortage of extremely wealthy alums and donors there, and the couple of ones who stepped up and essentially bankrolled this entire season are seeing a hell of a good ROI to date.
I’ve always thought that Virginia is very similar to Carolina in terms of having sleeping giant potential in Football. I would say 1B to UNC’s 1. They are an elite flagship university in a populous state that is only growing, one where there is a lot of homegrown Football talent. They had been getting their clocks cleaned in recruiting in the state by Penn State and to a lesser extent Virginia Tech and UNC (under Mack, at least) but now with the coaching changes at two of those and the unstable situation at the other, coupled with their own really good play on the field this year, they may start to keep more of that homegrown talent. They got a commitment from a four star in-state quarterback over the weekend from a place that previously never sent kids to Charlottesville on purpose. Previously they had, bar none, the absolute worst facilities in the ACC for Football, and maybe in all of P4. Now they’ve got one of the nicest. They are definitely reading the writing on the wall about going all in on Football.
stankeylegjones
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No, graded by folks who are paid to make these grades (247, ESPN, etc.).
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Since they are our upcoming opponent, they have been on my mind, but I was looking earlier because I was curious to see what their transfer portal class was ranked compared to ours. It looks like they were 26th and we were 9th. They have definitely done a really good job of identifying good fits for their roster and for their program culture. I really hope that our personnel staffers are taking note because it’s going to be imperative that we hit on far more portal additions then we miss on this off-season.
stankeylegjones
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247 had him as the 29th qb in the portal and Gio as the 31st, both graded out as 87. Although I could be reading that wrong.
If we can make player personnel decisions based on 247, ESPN, etc., let's save some money and fire our overpaid staff.
The whole reason we are throwing a shit ton of money at that department is that we supposedly have a better mousetrap than 247 and ESPN.
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Oh dang I did not remember him being that low but totally believe you. I’ll be honest, I don’t know how to read the rankings at all outside of the overall composite team rankings! So your guess is definitely as good as mine.
stankeylegjones
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Guy, you’re missing the point. It seems that a lot of people who looked at his tape came away not blown away by him. A lot of those folks are paid to do this, either for outlets or because they are part of programs. Sometimes people come out and play well above what their projection/expectations are.
stankeylegjones
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I’m no expert with this either, so definitely confirm before trusting me 100%.
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My biggest thing with Lopez is, maybe he is not a P4 talented quarterback, but we are absolutely not doing him any favors by putting him under center, doing NFL style slow developing play action, etc. I would really like to see them start utilizing him in the running game and I am shocked that we haven’t so far. I distinctly remember in 2014 when the coaching staff finally realized that Marquise Williams looks entirely different when the defense had to account for his ability to move the chains by running the ball, it turned that crappy season around, or at the very least made us more competitive.
I don’t want to imply that Gio is nearly as talented as Marquise was (Quise was a 4 star QB out of high school whom Virginia Tech badly wanted back when Virginia Tech wasn’t garbage). But to me, the similarity exists in that both coaching staffs then and now have been initially fixated on making both of those guys pocket passers when they are not. Fedora figured it out.
I don’t want to imply that Gio is nearly as talented as Marquise was (Quise was a 4 star QB out of high school whom Virginia Tech badly wanted back when Virginia Tech wasn’t garbage). But to me, the similarity exists in that both coaching staffs then and now have been initially fixated on making both of those guys pocket passers when they are not. Fedora figured it out.
Man you paint an accurate but grim picture. I’ve always thought the same thing about UVA, but I also figured that even though we haven’t been SEC-level serious about football, we at least still invested more in it than UVA did. They definitely poured in the money for this team though and if they finish off this season with an ACC title and/or a playoff berth then they might be off and running.
Ironically, the last time UNC had that type of hope was this part of the season in 2023 before a moribund UVA team sent the program into a death spiral that we still haven’t climbed out of lol. It would be poetic justice if we could somehow return the favor this weekend and sent them crashing back to earth, although I’m not holding my breath on that happening.