CHAPEL HILL – As the landscape in college athletics continues a seismic shift accompanied by many new prongs, one that has become quite prominent is the role of general manager.
Perhaps ahead on the football front over basketball, the position is the second most important in any program going full bore into the new era. North Carolina recently joined the fray.
Enter Michael Lombardi, an NFL lifer until now. He has served in a variety of capacities in player personnel. A scout under legendary former San Francisco 49ers Coach Bill Walsh, a personnel executive working for the late Al Davis and the Oakland Raiders, and a key assistant to the coaching staff for two of Bill Belichick’s two Super Bowl titles with the New England Patriots, Lombardi has the chops for his new undertaking.
He was even the general manager of the Cleveland Browns.
Confident, calculated, and once called, “one of the smartest people I've worked with,” by Belichick, he has assumed a pseudo face-of-the-program role. And last week, two months after arriving at UNC, Lombardi met with the media to offer more about himself and the mission he, Belichick, and the Carolina staff are on.
“Football is challenging for one person,” Lombardi started to reply when asked why a GM role is important in college. “I think Coach Belichick would be better to speak about this. There's a lot of things that go into building a team, and there's a lot of areas, and sometimes when money's involved, because let's be honest, money's involved now, you have to have a subjective way of determining how to handle the money and how to place a value on it and you have to remove bias.
“I think that's the biggest challenge in pro football, is there's bias built in internally in terms of I want this player, I want that player, and somebody has to be the voice of saying, 'well, we can find an alternative here, and maybe we can't.' So I think team building requires more than just one person. When I first started in the league, it didn't because we didn't have much player movement, much volatility. Now there is in all levels."
What has brought on the role of a GM more than anything is the size and scope of player acquisitions in college. It’s no longer just selling a coach’s vision, rebuilding, and the heritage of a program. Look at college basketball as a perfect example. Alabama and Auburn are absolute football schools but met this past weekend in basketball as the top two teams in the nation.
Player acquisition, financial discernment, and thoroughly vetted scouting are huge parts of both programs’ success. Football is on a more gigantic level.
The NCAA recently allowed programs to use 105 scholarships for football. It appears UNC will use all or most this coming year. Belichick needs help, but so does Lombardi.
He has a staff of 30 working under him at a set budget of $5 million for that staff. UNC fans have found it fascinating the program is recruiting every nook and cranny of the nation. In fact, UNC offered 33 high school prospects in California in January alone. That’s more than the four previous staffs put together.
They flipped two high school commits from the Naval Academy, a 2026 prospect changed his commitment from West Point to UNC, and so on.
Lombardi’s staff is kicking over every stone and also trust what they see. Their eyes supercede any recruiting service. The group also has a unique sales pitch to which few other college programs can compare.
"I think this program is built on the vision and the identity of the greatest coach of all time,” Lombardi said about Belichick, who has won six Super Bowls as a head coach and two others as a defensive coordinator.
“I'm fortunate enough to have worked for him for a long time, but philosophically, we come from the same school, and that school is about building a team inside out. That school is about physical and mental toughness, that school is about dependable and hard-working players.
Another role of the GM is fortifying the messaging that goes out to fans. Lombardi and Belichick don’t have to answer to Patriots owner Robert Kraft anymore, but they do somewhat have to communicate with fans through various mediums, including the media.
The fans are asked for more than ever before by programs. If they want to win, they need to fork out some cash. They are, in a broad sense, the owners now. Lombardi appears to grasp this.
"That's what the fans want to know, and they want to know what their program is, because they want to stand next to somebody and say they're building this at North Carolina,” he said. “They want to say it with authority. And so that's my job, that's coach Belichick's job is to keep echoing those comments.
“And I think once you get people to buy into your plan and you explain it, the second area of leadership is called management of meaning, when you get people to follow you."
The football operating has gone from big to massive with the hiring of Belichick. And while the wins and losses will go on his resume, they may on Lombardi’s as well. The importance of the GM’s role and that of his department will become a regular focus of fans and media.
They will be paid more than coordinators, and at some schools, more than head coaches at other programs in the same conference. That’s the lay of the land now, and Michael Lombardi is the face of the new wave at North Carolina.
