UNC’s Bill Belichick and staff still getting feel for the college game, college ways
The new Bill Belichick football regime at North Carolina has spent a lot of time putting together a roster, assembling a staff, recruiting, getting its strength and conditioning program up and running and deciding on how much to pay the players — in essence, how much they’re worth.
Michael Lombardi, Belichick’s general manager, spent a half-hour Tuesday in a press conference outlining how things have gone and how things will be under Belichick. He again emphasized the Tar Heels will have an NFL-styled program, at one point referring to UNC as the “33rd team.”
“This has been an incredible 60 days,” Lombardi said. “We still have a lot of work to do but we’re looking forward to it.
“The main focus for what we want to deal with in our program is really based on player development. Coach Belichick often said, ‘Talent sets the floor, character determines the ceiling.’ So every player we bring in, it’s really about us developing.”
Lombardi said the hiring of staff still was “ongoing.”
Belichick has brought in son Steve Belichick to be the defensive coordinator and could be in the process of hiring his youngest son, Brian, to coach the safeties, according to 247Sports. Both are former Pats assistant coaches and Steve Belichick was defensive coordinator for the Washington Huskies this past season.
In talking about program expectations, Lombardi said, “Get better every day. That’s what we have to do and what we’re prepared to do and that’s all we can control.”
The Tar Heels fired Mack Brown, the program’s winningest coach, and hired Belichick, winner of six Super Bowls with the New England Patriots, with the expectation of Belichick taking the program to a much higher level. The goal is for UNC to contend for ACC championships and position itself to be a part of the College Football Playoff — with a shot at a national title.
Lombardi talked about North Carolina’s brand being a strong one and that the Tar Heels would be a “national program” in terms of its recruiting scope. The recruiting pitch in any school, he said, would be, “We’re North Carolina, we have the greatest coach in the history of football, we have a great university. Come play for us.’ It’s a great message.”
Putting together a team has different wrinkles not seen in the NFL. Colleges now are reliant on NIL collectives to raise the money to help bring in and retain players. While revenue-sharing may be coming to the college game, the “salary cap” for each school will be a floating number given the amount of fund-raising.
“There’s a lot of things that go into building a team,” Lombardi said. “Sometimes, when money’s involved, and let’s be honest money is involved now, you have to have a subjective way of determining how to handle the money and how to place a value on it.”
How much to pay the starting quarterback? The star defensive end? The backup running back? Colleges now face those questions.
Lombardi said the Heels will build its program from “inside out” — that is, with emphasis on offensive and defensive linemen. He said UNC would “put our money where out mouth is.”
“In any monetary value you have to have a system.” Lombardi said, “So if you’re a starter on the team there’s going to be a certain value placed on what level a starter you are. That’s why you have to have a grading system. … The grade reflects what you pay.
“You have to have a grading system. You have to grade your players every day.”
What will continue to be hard to grade or gauge, Lombardi said, will be the makeup of the student-athletes you bring into your program.
Lombardi talked about the Navy’s SEALs program, and how a class might start with 175 candidates, then end up with 25 or 30 who complete the program.
“They can’t figure out who can do it every day,” he said. “Who can do the volume every day? They’ll tell you in the Navy SEALs program that whoever is first in line the first day never makes it. Whoever runs the fastest never makes it. It’s the one who can do it every day.
“It’s the same way in recruiting. We can never get a true, accurate portrayal of the heart and the character, of how important it is to the player. And that’s the variable we’re always trying to find out. We’re always looking at the player and asking, ‘What obstacles have they overcome to get to where they have to go?’ because we can’t determine who can handle the volume.”
Lombardi noted a staff can watch clips of a player and believe he’s a great recruit, with the right size and speed.
“But we have to make him better than he is and does he have the will to be better?” Lombardi said. “That’s the hard thing to judge, whether it’s pro football or college.”
The Tar Heels will get a first feel for their players in spring practice. Lombardi said no dates had been set but would be announced soon.
Asked if there have been any surprises since coming to UNC, Lombardi said the people in Chapel Hill were gracious and “incredibly friendly,” joking that he’s a “New Jersey guy” and used to being treated rudely.
“Nobody has honked a horn at me, which is rare,” he quipped.
