Lombardi Put on Administrative Leave at UNC | Others Receiving Votes

We, we have a little more breaking news, so let's discuss this.

I, I had the Senate bill travails on the rundown, but forget that.

Uh, this is a little more pressing, perhaps.

Uh, news out of North Carolina, there's always news, it seems out of North Carolina.

None of it's very good.

Uh, they announced first thing this morning, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has placed Michael Lombardi, general manager of the Carolina Football Program, on paid administrative leave effective immediately.

That's the sum total of the release, basically, other than saying, we're not commenting beyond that.

This does not seem to be good news for Michael Lombardi or for the Tar Heels.

Uh, Bill Belichick's tenure has not gone very well so far.

They were a disaster last year going 4 and 8.

There was enough off the field stuff lingering around, hovering around.

Uh, that you just got a feeling that things were not running very well there.

Uh, it's good that we have a Carolina controversy that doesn't involve Jordan Hudson.

Bill Belichick's girlfriend, so that's at least a positive, but it does involve his handpicked GM.

And quite frankly, one of the things that I have heard from people is that the biggest single problem with the Belichick era to date has been Michael Lombardi.

That he was a bad hire, who doesn't get the college game, who's run roughshod to a degree.

What exactly is going on here, don't know, can't tell you.

But this seems like another problem sign clearly for them.

Brian, uh, your thoughts on what's happening at Carolina?

Well, my, judging by my phone, like, uh, you know, vibrating as As we're recording this, like, it's definitely, um, you know, there, there's a bit of a glee around the industry, I would say from, from this, uh, this news, and, um, you know, I, I think we'll, we'll definitely have to see, you know, in terms of the actual like what, what is it that, uh, got him to, to be placed on an administrative leave.

Not ruling anything out in terms of, uh, Jordan Hudson, uh, given, given the adversarial nature, it seems like, uh, with, with, uh, um, Michael Lombardi and, and look, like if, if you're talking about pretext for if this season goes wrong, all right, well, here's, here's the pretext to kind of usher.

Uh, Bill Belichick out the door, which I think there is a faction there in, in Chapel Hill that would love to see that be the case, and, um, you know, it's gonna be interesting too to see, um, you know, just kind of how Bill reacts to this, like he is the right-hand man there, um, you know, he has been, uh, you know, for, for, for better and for worse, um, you know, the reason when the Tar Heels, you know, did not have a great season last season.

Um, and, uh, you know, why they're probably, you know, borderline in terms of having another, uh, mediocre to, to, to good season in terms of, uh, 2026.

So we'll, we'll see, uh, it definitely, uh, kind of in the moment, it seems like, uh, you know, everybody is, is raising a little bit of eyebrow there in terms of like what could actually get him.

Uh, to be placed on administrative leave and we'll see what, uh, you know, any, any results of the investigation.

I will say great timing in terms of like in between SEC media days and Big 10 media days.

Like if you're talking about releasing this and, and, you know, from a public relations standpoint, if you had to drop this, this news in, in college football, uh, I think that would probably be the optimal window to, uh, to, to kind of get it, uh, pushed off the front page, but, uh, we, we, it is definitely, uh, the talk of the town, if you will, in terms of college football.

Yeah, I mean, I think this is really bad news for Bill Belichick, because, look, I think everybody sees the schedule that they have, and will understand that, yeah, like, North Carolina is not gonna take a massive leap forward in year two, right?

Like the, the, the aspirations that we're the 33rd NFL team, and we're this and that, like, that has not come to fruition, at least this year, but like, You can't embarrass us, right?

Like, if we're gonna ride this wave with you, and we're gonna believe in the vision, and last year, like, again, it was embarrassing because they were bad, but it was embarrassing because of Jordan Hudson and everything else that came with it, and the sideshow that it became for for a lot of the early part of the season.

I thought by the end of the year, like, they had become a competent football outfit, but The narrative had already been cooked, and I, I worry that we're headed down the same road with a different, a different, you know, Belichick, uh, side piece here, if you will, um, in, in terms of what Mike Lombardi, like, if this is bad, and we don't know how bad it will be or what he will say, like, it's going to enter the year with a level of negativity that is not fun, and then, oh, by the way, just like last year where we had the, the, the, the TCU opener with nothing else going on, we got a TCU opener with nothing going on, and TCU could Run it down their throats, and then, you know, all right, FCS game, great, but then at Clemson and Notre Dame, and at Pitt, and at Duke, like, uh, uh, Miami later, like, I don't really know where the winds are coming from, and if you're losing ugly and uh and you've got the off-field distractions, yeah, that, that is usually a bad sign for a football coach.

Yeah, this, uh, the , the negative momentum is significant, and this is a very bad way to start, uh, basically get heading into preseason camp, uh, with another storm cloud, basically over the program.

Uh, yeah, they can absolutely start like 1 and 5.

There's no, no doubt about that, and be in the same situation they were last year.

Uh, you mentioned the thirty-third NFL team.

That was a Michael Lombardi coined phrase.

That was him.

And I think there was no shortage of arrogance that accompanied the arrival of the Belichick program, and, and Lombardi personified a lot of that.

And the more of that, that seemed like a fundamental disconnect with how things work in college football, including maybe, again, we don't know what exactly is going on here.

But within the construct of the rules, within the construct of, you know, how programs are funded, all that sort of thing, uh, there just didn't seem to be a lot of understanding or care to understand.

And Lombardi, I think, Kind of became the face of, of all of that.

And Belichick, this, this may be.

Um, so, I, I don't wanna say scapegoat, if things go really badly, but, I mean, cause, cause Lombardi may well be earning what's happening to him.

Again, we don't know, we'll find out more, but If you want somebody to stand there as the, the face of this was a bad idea.

So far, Michael Lombardi's that guy.

Again, we'll find out more, maybe they have a good season, maybe they're coached up a lot better, maybe they play well, who knows.

But uh it it is a bad way for them to start.

Uh, heading into August, that's for sure.