The 2-5 North Carolina Tar Heels get another chance at their first ACC win of the season tonight, against the 3-5 Syracuse Orange.
Syracuse is favored by only 2.5 points in the game that kicks off at 7:30 p.m. ET on ESPN. (If you have YouTube TV, don’t bother checking the dial.)
In their last two games, against Cal and Virginia, UNC nearly won. A victory tonight would go a long way toward quieting the noise surrounding the program.
Then again, things have largely died down, mainly because the Tar Heels haven’t been getting blown out. The situation has stabilized, significantly.
That didn’t stop coach Bill Belichick from airing grievances regarding the storm of reports that emerged after the 38-10 home loss to Clemson on October 4.
Asked earlier this week whether the statement he issued clarifying his commitment to the school contributed to the team’s improved performance, Belichick scoffed.
“It’s never been anything but that, and wherever that story came from, obviously, it’s already been taken down and everything else, and it was just total, you know, as Trump would say, ‘Fake news,’” Belichick said. “I mean, it’s just, I don’t know, it’s just a novel. There’s plenty of that out there, too, by the way, but I’m not going to deal with that. Look, our consistency has been here since the day that, you know, [G.M.] Michael Lombardi and I came in and started hiring people and come into the organization in December. We got here the same day, and we’ve been doing it every day, and that’s the way it’s going to be. So, I’m sure there’s a lot of other people out there that want to get, you know, clicks and views and, you know, post on ‘MyFace’ or whatever but, like, it’s just a bunch of garbage.”
It’s easy to cry “fake news” generally and to never address specific reports. And, despite Belichick’s claim, we’re not aware of a single negative UNC report that was ever “taken down.”
If Belichick and his staff have a way to show that any, some, or all of the reports are “a bunch of garbage,” they should do it. Last week, when Pablo Torre took a deep dive into Lombardi’s NFL credentials and accomplishments, the school’s response was to respectfully decline comment as to the report that Lombardi (who claims to have been awarded three Super Bowl rings) wasn’t given a ring by the 49ers in 1984 or by the Patriots in 2016.
There needs to be something more substantive and more specific to make the “fake news” claim credible. Anyone can say “fake news” in response to a report they don’t like. Not everyone can prove that specific reports are incorrect — especially if, you know, they aren’t.
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (AP) — J’Mari Taylor scored on a 1-yard run in overtime, lifting No. 16 Virginia to a 17-16 victory over North Carolina on Saturday.
The Tar Heels answered with Davion Gause’s 9-yard touchdown grab, but Gause was stopped just short of the end zone on the ensuing 2-point try.
Chandler Morris threw for 200 yards with one touchdown and one interception for the Cavaliers (7-1, 4-0 Atlantic Coast Conference), who are off to their best start since 2007.
Gio Lopez finished with 208 yards, one touchdown and two interceptions for the Tar Heels (2-5, 0-3), who lost their fourth straight.
For the second time in two weeks, a goal-line gaffe by North Carolina proved costly when wide receiver Kobe Paysour fumbled at the 1 while stretching for the pylon early in the first quarter. The football trickled out of the end zone, resulting in a touchback.
A week earlier in a loss to California, Nathan Leacock coughed up the ball in similar fashion as the Tar Heels were on the verge of grabbing a fourth-quarter lead and possibly their first ACC win under coach Bill Belichick.
The teams traded field goals before Virginia took a 10-3 lead with 6:36 left in the second quarter on Trell Harris’ 30-yard touchdown grab. North Carolina tied it again on a 1-yard run by Lopez just 1:24 before halftime.
North Carolina turned it over once more in the red zone later in the game when defensive end Mitchell Melton picked off Lopez at the Cavaliers’ 5-yard line. The Tar Heels’ five red-zone turnovers are tied for most in FBS.
The takeaway
Virginia: The Cavaliers continue to show they can win in a variety of ways. Their last three victories have come by a total of six points.
North Carolina: The Tar Heels have been more competitive in recent weeks, but that’s no consolation given the expectations under Belichick.
Poll implications
After starting the season outside the poll, Virginia could crack the top 15 for the first time since 2004.
Up next
Virginia: Visits California next Saturday.
North Carolina: Visits Syracuse on Friday.
As the North Carolina football program has struggled, despite being the self-styled “33rd NFL team,” more attention has been devoted to the person who accumulated the players who, in most games, have simply not been good enough: General Manager Mike Lombardi.
Sufficient attention has been directed to Lombardi to put him on the one radar screen everyone in pro and college sports currently hopes to avoid. The one monitored by Pablo Torre.
The latest episode of Pablo Torre Finds Out focuses on Lombardi’s NFL credentials.
We’ll defer to the full episode for all relevant details of the deep dive performed by Torre and David Fleming. There are three major takeaways to be shared here.
First, Lombardi loves to quote the late Bill Walsh. In his book, Gridiron Genius, Lombardi creates the impression that he was essentially Walsh’s right-hand man. Walsh’s son, Craig, said this to Pablo Torre Finds Out: “He was just there in a very, very limited role. I don’t think he really had any personal contact with Bill outside of seeing him in a hallway, or sitting in the back of a meeting. . . . He might have been like the gofer/chauffeur, pick him up here. In fact, that does kind of ring a bell. You know, that this is your entryway into it, to get to wear a 49ers shirt. But that’s about as far as it goes. . . . I’ll jump on the wagon a little bit, just because I don’t like him using the fact that he was part of the 49ers organization when all he did was go get sandwiches.”
Second, Lombardi has claimed he left his job with the Patriots to write Gridiron Genius. According to Pablo Torre Finds Out, however, Lombardi was fired amid a near mutiny within the Patriots’ staff, with complaints about Lombardi coming from offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels, defensive coordinator Matt Patricia, director of player personnel Nick Caserio, director of football/head coach administration Berj Najarian, and director of football research Ernie Adams, among others. Specifically, when Lombardi’s contract with the Patriots expired after the 2016 draft, owner Robert Kraft told coach Bill Belichick (who had full control over the football operation) that Lombardi had to go.
Third, Lombardi calls himself a three-time Super Bowl winner. Craig Walsh told Pablo Torre Finds Out, however, that Lombardi did not receive a Super Bowl ring from the 49ers for the 1984 season. “Did he get a ring?” Craig Walsh said. “No. . . . He might have got a Balfour pendant.” (Lombardi, through North Carolina P.R., declined to comment.) Also, Pablo Torre Finds Out reports that Lombardi did not receive an official Super Bowl ring from the Patriots for the 2016 season, because he was fired after the 2016 draft. Instead, Belichick personally bought a friends-and-family-level ring for Lombardi after the Patriots won Super Bowl LI. (Lombardi, through North Carolina P.R., declined to comment.)
So the self-described three-time Super Bowl-winning strategist actually has won only one Super Bowl ring that was issued to him by the team that won the Super Bowl. Not three.
Things got messy for North Carolina football a couple of weeks ago. While the team still hasn’t beaten a Power Four opponent, the off-field storms have largely subsided.
Case in point: Assistant coach Armond Hawkins, who was suspended as part of an investigation regarding the potential giving of extra benefits to players, has been reinstated.
“Yeah, he’s back,” coach Bill Belichick told reporters earlier this week, via the Associated Press. “The university cleared him, they went through their process with him and he’s back, yes.”
Belichick also was asked whether his program is dong enough to ensure full compliance with the various NCAA rules and regulations.
“I would say if anything, I feel like maybe we’ve spent too much time on it, to be honest with you,” Belichick said. “I mean, we’ve gone over and over and over it to make sure that we have it right. And every time we check it, ‘Hey, I just want to triple-check and make sure we’re OK on this? Yes, yes.’ . . . Right now we’re still making sure that we’re trying to do every single thing right. I think that’s the right thing to do.”
At the halfway point of Belichick’s first season in Chapel Hill, the Tar Heels are 2-4. Their most recent loss was their closest yet, 21-18 at Cal. North Carolina’s next opportunity to get a victory comes on Saturday, at home against Virginia.
Five games remain after that. A win would go a long way toward changing the narrative around the football operation.
It also would be helpful to avoid more headlines that tend to put the program in a less-than-ideal light. For now, it has.
Bill Belichick’s first season as a collegiate head coach has been a disaster, but Tuesday brought a reminder that his time in the NFL was much more successful.
The Pro Football Hall of Fame announced that Belichick is one of 12 coaches that their blue-ribbon committee has advanced to the next stage of the selections process. That group will be whittled to nine in the near future and a finalist from that group will be selected in mid-November. That finalist will then be voted on by the Hall of Fame selection committee.
Belichick is joined by four other Super Bowl-winning head coaches in Tom Coughlin, Mike Holmgren, George Seifert, and Mike Shanahan. Buddy Parker also coached the Lions to two NFL titles in the pre-Super Bowl era.
The other coaches to advance in the process are Bill Arnsparger, Alex Gibbs, Chuck Knox, Dan Reeves, Marty Schottenheimer, and Clark Shaughnessy.
Among the various recent reports regarding the goings-on within UNC football under Bill Belichick, one stands out.
General Manager Mike Lombardi took a preseason trip to Saudi Arabia for the purposes of raising money for the program.
North Carolina confirmed in a statement that Lombardi made “an exploratory fundraising trip” with the school’s knowledge.
A separate quote from an unnamed source to TheAthletic.com indicated that Lombardi went there “to meet with high-ranking government officials to discuss potential partnership opportunities,” adding that the “Saudis love UNC because of Coach Belichick and Michael Jordan.”
Said a UNC spokesman in yet another comment: “Michael Lombardi did travel to Saudi Arabia at the request of a Saudi national who is a college football fan, interested in supporting Coach Belichick. Earlier reports of meeting with the PIF or investing in UNC are inaccurate.”
The meeting, per TheAthletic.com, reportedly did not result in any agreement or other financial support for the program, as of now.
After Friday night’s loss to Cal, Belichick was asked about the report.
“Yeah, I’ll just talk about the game here,” Belichick said, interrupting the question. “I’m just focused on the game. I’m not gonna deal with any of this — you know, whatever else. The university released a statement on that, so that should take care of it.”
It’s still a strange development, to say the least. But, hey, it sets up another potential source of revenue if/when UNC decides to activate its option to buy out a head coach who is now 0-4 against FBS schools — and who continues to be the epicenter of a variety of reports that are less than ideal for the school.
In late August, North Carolina coach Bill Belichick announced to his team that Hulu will produce a docuseries regarding the football program. Earlier this month, the project imploded.
So what happened? It depends on who you listen to.
Natasha Dye of People.com reports that the series was scrapped over concerns that it would “prioritize the head coach’s ‘home life’ and relationship with Jordon Hudson over the football program.” Per the report, Belichick and Hudson ultimately refused to sign releases for their appearances in the show.
Pablo Torre reported on the latest episode of Pablo Torre Finds Out that the cancellation happened because Hulu wanted to break the project into episodes but UNC wanted a single film.
Torre also reports that G.M. Michael Lombardi traveled to Saudi Arabia in August to raise money for the UNC football program. The episode includes some hot-mic conversations between Belichick and Hudson demonstrating the level of control Hudson exerted over the creation of football-related videos in 2024.
Regardless, there was a deal with Hulu. Now there isn’t. Something happened between late August and early October.
The overriding reality is that the North Carolina season is going poorly. Which would make Belichick and company not want episodes. They’d prefer to produce a single feature that focuses on the positives, ignores the negatives (or blames them on others), and puts the program in the best possible light for recruiting and fundraising purposes.
Earlier this week, Belichick said it remains a “work in progress,” and that “there will be something.”
If the Tar Heels don’t start winning games against non-FCS schools, that “something” could be next to nothing.
The next opportunity to secure a victory against an FBS program happens tonight, when North Carolina plays Cal in Berkeley.
Lost in the avalanche of reports last week regarding Bill Belichick’s less-than-ideal college debut is the report that the planned UNC documentary/infomercial on Hulu is kaput.
Belichick was asked about the reportedly abandoned project earlier this week.
Said Belichick, via Cristin Severance of WRAL.com: “It’s still a work in progress and we’re working through a few logistics on it, so no real update at this time, but there will be something.”
Whatever it is, North Carolina’s goal will be to create a recruiting tool. So it will focus on any and all positivity, while minimizing the negativity. And UNC will surely demand final say over the final cut, even if that means making the thing itself.
It’s still not clear why the Hulu deal was abandoned. North Carolina may have backed out. Hulu may have backed out. Given the reports regarding the collapse of the Offseason Hard Knocks opportunity, Jordon Hudson may have played a role in the final decision. Regardless, expect the project (if it ever arrives) to focus on the narratives that Belichick and G.M. Mike Lombardi have offered in the face of three blowout losses (and perhaps counting) to FBS schools.
Hulu isn’t the only content company that has cooled on UNC. As reported on Tuesday by David Rumsey of FrontOfficeSports.com, ESPN passed on the Virginia-North Carolina game to be played on October 25, relegating it to the ACC Network. And the ACC Network dropped the game at noon ET, not in the more desirable windows of 3:30 p.m. ET (NC State-Pitt) or 7:00 p.m. ET (Boston College-Louisville).
UNC’s next game happens in two days, when the Tar Heels visit Cal at 10:30 p.m. ET on ESPN. Cal is listed as a 10-point favorite.
After an avalanche of reports regarding dysfunction within the North Carolina football program, culminating in a report of buyout negotiations, coach Bill Belichick met with reporters on Monday. He opened his media session by calling the reports “categorically false.”
Asked about the statement that was posted on Wednesday night regarding his commitment to the program, Belichick said that it was “just for clarification,” because some things reported were “factually, totally inaccurate.”
Later in the press conference, Belichick criticized the negative reports based on anonymous sources as “not credible,” adding that some stories were deleted two days after they were posted. (We’re not aware of any of the North Carolina reports from last week being deleted.)
Pat Welter of WRAL.com, whose report from last Monday seemed to spark the firestorm, asked Belichick for his response to the claims being made by people from inside the building and from around the program.
“I’m with all these people every day,” Belichick said. “Coaches, players, on field. Our guys work hard. They have a great attitude, great energy. And we’ve shown a lot of improvement. You know, we’ve made a lot of improvement. I think that’s exciting for all of us to see. Certainly for the individual players to see it, you know, and the units that they work with. So I don’t know what kind of perspective some of those people have that are saying that. But I think anybody that’s around it on a daily basis would see that and I’m sure the players all see the improvement that they’re making, as does the coaching staff.”
Belichick repeatedly mentioned the “process,” saying that it “will eventually produce the results that we want to produce, like they have everywhere else I’ve been.”
For now, the results haven’t been there. To say the least. They’ve beaten a pair of FCS schools, and they’ve been blown out by three FBS programs. Statistically, the UNC offense is among the worst in college football.
Next, the Tar Heels face Cal on Friday night. Whether the process will start producing results then remains to be seen.
As someone who knows North Carolina coach Bill Belichick recently characterized it, Belichick has a habit of couching his circumstances in one of two ways: hero or victim.
In the aftermath of a recent feeding frenzy of reports pointing to the disintegration of Belichick’s first foray into college football, the victim card is being played.
This comment tucked inside a Saturday report from Dianna Russini of TheAthletic.com says it all: "[S]uspicions within UNC’s program that some of the negative headlines have origins in New England.”
Those stubborn things known as facts suggest otherwise.
The story that started it all came from Pat Welter of WRAL-TV. If the Patriots somehow infiltrated a local affiliate in Raleigh and planted the seeds for Welter’s exhaustive account of division in the locker room, disorganization in the coaching staff, and overall dysfunction in the building, that would rank among the most impressive accomplishments from owner Robert Kraft’s 30-plus-year tenure with the team.
None of the articles came from the universe of reporters the Patriots could easily nudge. The story about the commencement of exit-strategy discussions was written by an outlet that covers North Carolina sports.
If the Patriots had fingerprints on any of the items that surfaced this week, that would be worth a story of its own. Especially since one of the stories illustrating the various problems with the UNC program was written by three of Russini’s colleagues — none of whom cover the NFL.
But blaming others seems to be the strategy for a program that currently is solely to blame for its current predicament. Indeed, Russini’s story explains, “People inside the football operation believe the criticism is intended to hurt the program.”
Those “people” are undoubtedly Belichick and embattled G.M. Mike Lombardi, who has a history of pushing back against stories that tend to make the program look less than fully functional. The inescapable truth is that Belichick and Lombardi are doing a very good job on their own of hurting the program, without external help. Particularly Lombardi, who was brought in to set the table with players and who, to date, has failed miserably.
But, hey, keep thinking it’s someone else’s fault. Keep grinding an ax against the Patriots. Keep blaming anyone but yourself for the situation. That’ll definitely make things better.
