You never know what you’ll get watching North Carolina Tar Heels football, particularly with the 2024 regular season, in which North Carolina slumped to a 6-6 finish.
UNC continues to make bowl games – it’s playing UConn in the 2024 Fenway Bowl – but not championships. Despite making the 2015 and 2022 ACC Championships, North Carolina’s last conference title came in 1980.
With Bill Belichick now leading the Tar Heels, football in Chapel Hill is about to get a complete makeover.
UNC’s new general manager, Michael Lombardi, recently spoke about what he expects to see change on the football field.
“We’re not here to finish fourth in the ACC – we’re here to complete for championships,” Lombardi said.
North Carolina is Lombardi’s second stop as a general manager (Cleveland Browns in 2013), but he’s no stranger to Belichick. Lombardi was a New England Patriots “Assistant to the Coaching Staff” from 2014-2016, a stretch in which New England won two Super Bowls
If you don’t know it already, Belichick is the greatest football coach of all time. Belichick led the Patriots to six Super Bowls in 24 seasons (2000-2023), won AP NFL Coach of the Year Honors three times, plus he turned Tom Brady and Rob Gronkowski into future Hall of Famers.
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Lombardi’s executive career spans long before his time up east, as he started with UNLV as a recruiting coordinator from 1981-1984.
Lombardi’s NFL journey began in 1984, when he worked as the San Francisco 49ers‘ scout, then he held that same role with the Cleveland Browns from 1987-1989. Lombardi worked in Cleveland until 1995, split time with the Philadelphia Eagles, Oakland Raiders and Denver Broncos, before coming back to Cleveland.
Can the Lombardi-Belichick duo, which previously won two Super Bowls in New England, lead the Tar Heels to the National Championship?
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