Despite plenty of rumors and reports to the contrary, North Carolina football head coach Bill Belichick and general manager Michael Lombardi are not in the process of buying one-way tickets out of Chapel Hill.
The Tar Heels, in their first season under Belichick, have proven to be uncompetitive when facing Power-4 opponents, and it has led some to say that UNC is among the worst teams in the country. And while a report earlier in the week claimed that Belichick and North Carolina may be working on a way for the 73-year-old coach to land somewhere else — either coaching or doing media — Belichick and UNC athletic director Bubba Cunningham issued statements saying they're committed to each other.
Now, The Athletic's Dianna Russini is seemingly reaffirming that sentiment, which could indicate that Belichick and his hand-picked GM in Lombardi are in it for the long haul with North Carolina.
“Amid a tidal wave of recent reports on the dysfunction at UNC involving head coach Bill Belichick and GM Michael Lombardi — including a report in The Athletic on the chaos and lack of familiarity with college football that critics say is hurting the program — sources in both the college game and the league say the duo has no plans to leave Chapel Hill. People inside the football operation believe the criticism is intended to hurt the program,” Russini said.
“Belichick, who was on the road Friday recruiting in Olney, Md., has told those close to him that he loves coaching at the college level. More than that, he believes they’re building something meaningful at UNC, a program with staying power. Lombardi is fully on the same page.”
Belichick, who won six Super Bowls and the second-most games in NFL history, is 2-3 as North Carolina's head football coach, having lost to each of the three Power-4 conference opponents — TCU, Clemson, and UCF — and beating 1-4 Charlotte and FCS Richmond.
Still, it is possible that the expectations of a team introducing 70 new players, regardless of the coach, were much too high and, as a result, set Belichick's first year up for failure.
But with at least seven games to go in the season, the Heels will likely need to show at least a bit of life and potential to stave off an even larger wave of criticism and doubt that the Belichick era will be a successful one.
