Coaching won’t be a problem for North Carolina’s Bill Belichick. Recruitment will be.

Recruiting is salesmanship. And new Tar Heels GM Mike Lombardi is already formulating his pitch.

“Well, if you want to play for the best coach of all time and be part of a winning program, Please enter the (transfer) portalLombardi said to Pat McAfee on Thursday. “We’ll take you with us.”

The portal will be a crucial aspect in developing a successful program.

“We’re going to go deep because we’re going to build the team,” Lombardi said. “We will build the team systematically and strategically correctly so that we can be successful in the long term. So you can compete at the highest level of college football.”

Lombardi also made a semi-plausible claim about a particular aspect of the team’s recent history.

“This school could be called Quarterback Usaid Lombardi. “We selected two quarterbacks at the top of the draft. Drake Maye and, you know, Mitchell Trubisky went in the first round – first pick overall.”

First, Trubisky wasn’t the first choice overall. Second, he didn’t do much in the NFL. Third, no one considers UNC to be Quarterback U.

The challenge for Belichick and company will be to introduce people to North Carolina as something more than just a middle-class program held back by NIL. The promise of preparing players for the NFL only goes so far. Only a small percentage of college players are good enough to even get a chance there.

The players will and should grab the money. Will North Carolina muster enough of it to compete with the best programs? We’ll see.