UNC football general manager Michael Lombardi joined 97.9 The Hill’s Aaron Keck this morning for “The Monday Morning Huddle,” presented by Chapel Hill Tire.
The Tar Heels’ struggles continued in their fifth game of the season against Clemson, as the Tigers led 35-3 at halftime on their way to a 38-10 win in Kenan Stadium. UNC enjoyed an off week after that, but it was far from restful: rumors swirled about head coach Bill Belichick being on his way out of Chapel Hill, though the university has insisted Belichick is staying put. Now, UNC turns its attention to a long road trip to Cal this Friday.
Here are a few of Lombardi’s answers on various topics:
On how the team is feeling after a challenging bye week: I think the team is focused on Cal. Last week, there was a lot of noise outside our building, but our building has maintained a semblance of consistency in terms of progress and wanting to improve. And our players have been dedicated. Last week for example, after our practice on Thursday, we had six players for the first time in this program squat over 600 pounds. We had over 30 players have their best personal times in terms of their speed training. So the players are fully invested. One of the things we preach to the team constantly is mental toughness, being able to block out distractions. And what Coach and I have to do with all the noise that’s around the program is block out the distractions and show the players that we have mental toughness.
On an investigative report from WRAL detailing a toxic environment within the program: I don’t know about a WRAL report. I’m not sure there’s been a lot of accuracy coming from that area, but our players are committed to getting better. I think everybody understands it’s a work in progress. Look, we just played one ACC game, we have seven games ahead of us. I don’t think anybody on our team has written off the season or written off anything that we can accomplish. We understand we have to get better and we understand we have to play more competitively in the ACC games, and I think our team wants to do that. I’m not sure there’s the disconnect that that has been reported. No one’s been around our program with any accuracy to really understand that other than the coaches on our staff.
On his message to the fans: The program is about building something that’s sustainable for over a long time. And I think ultimately we’re going to improve and the players are fully engaged. Anything that is successful has taken time. Nick Saban said it the other day: in his first year at Alabama, he struggled and overcame the obstacles. That’s what we want to do. Look, I’m not asking anybody to embrace losing. I wrote that email about not wanting to lose. We want to win here, but we also want to build a program that’s sustainable, doing the right things, fundamentally being the in the right techniques and doing all those things. And we will. Bill has been successful in his career and I think he’ll prove to be successful here in North Carolina.
Why should fans be patient? We haven’t had a recruiting class. We got here late in December and the portal was winding down when we arrived and then we had a spring portal and we really didn’t have a high school recruiting class. Because of that, we took a lot of players in the second recruiting window. So we’re really excited about our recruiting class. We’re gonna have a large class. We’re excited about the players. And what I was really excited about was our players in the building and outside the building that we’ve recruited are all in. You could see it by their example: what they’ve said, what they’ve tweeted, how they feel about our program because they have been inside the walls. They have talked to the coaches and talked to the head coach. Anything worth its weight in gold takes time. You have to be prepared to build something sustainable and I think ultimately that’s what we’re going to do. I don’t know how long it will take, but we’re gonna work diligently to make sure that it happens.
Listen below for the full conversation with Michael Lombardi, and tune in to hear the segment live on Monday mornings each game week!
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Featured image via Associated Press/Chris Seward
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