Michael Lombardi explains letter to donors, defends state of UNC football

UNC football general manager Michael Lombardi writes a letter to donors every month. The difference with this one, in particular, is that it “got out.”

Roughly two weeks ago, an email Lombardi sent to donors preaching patience during the football program’s “rebuilding” process made the rounds online. It was first published by FootballScoop and its veracity has since been confirmed by a source to the News & Observer.

Hours after coach Bill Belichick pushed back on buyout talk — calling rumors of an imminent departure “categorically false” — and addressed myriad concerns surrounding the program at his Monday press conference, Lombardi echoed Belichick’s talking points during the GM’s weekly radio show at Top of the Hill Restaurant & Brewery in Chapel Hill.

“It’s been business as usual,” Lombardi said, reflecting on the bye week. “It has been wonderful, actually. Everybody that works in the building has been great. I mean, obviously there’s a lot of noise on the outside, but one of the things that we preach to our team... is mental toughness is blocking out distractions.”

Distractions? There have been plenty of those, including: An alleged social media directive from Belichick to not post content related to the New England Patriots. Reports from WRAL about a divided locker room and culture problems, as well as a car crash quarterback Gio Lopez was involved in days before the season opener. The in-season documentary planned with Hulu and EverWonder Studio was scrapped, sources confirmed to the N&O (although Belichick refuted this Monday, saying the project would still happen in some form). The suspension of cornerbacks coach Armond Hawkins for violating NCAA rules related to extra benefits. All of these news items, and more, kept the Tar Heels in the headlines during the bye week.

“Part of Bill’s job, and my job as leaders, is to stand in front of the people that we lead and take all the criticism and let them keep doing their jobs,” Lombardi said on Monday night. “I think that’s what we tried to do this week and everybody was great.”

Lombardi has taken his share of criticism, like Belichick, in the bye week. When asked by “Carolina Football Live” host Jones Angell about his controversial letter, Lombardi said it was important to keep the boosters informed “about what’s going on.”

“I write to the boosters a lot... when I wrote that letter, I knew it was going to get out,” Lombardi said. “I mean, I’m not an idiot.”

“The way it was interpreted, it wasn’t meant to be an excuse,” Lombardi said. “It was just, ‘Hey, here’s where we are.’ And part of the job of a leader is to explain a plan. That’s what I was trying to do is explain the plan.”

Lombardi explained to boosters via his letter that the football program’s recent struggles were, in part, due to “significant yearly gaps” in UNC’s roster “which cannot be filled by the transfer portal.”

The general manager said in the letter that out of the past four recruiting classes (2022-2025), only eight players remained in the starting lineup.

“Because of the new rules other Power Four football schools were operating with significantly more cash dollars,” Lombardi wrote. “This caused our 2023 to 2024 recruiting classes to be severely damaged. In the past two seasons Tar Heel football was hit with the perfect storm — significant money going to high school players and players no longer caring about colors... education or a great campus.

Money became the method of enticement; recruiting became more transactional than personal.”

Lombardi is the highest-paid GM in college football at $1.5 million, while Belichick’s $10 million salary is roughly twice what UNC paid Mack Brown ($5 million annually). The unprecedented amount of money North Carolina has invested into football has yet to produce wins on the field.

North Carolina (2-3, 0-1 ACC) will travel west for a Week 8 matchup against Cal (4-2, 1-1 ACC) in search of its first conference win. The game is set for a 10:30 p.m. kickoff and will be broadcast on ESPN.

This story was originally published October 14, 2025 at 5:30 AM.