Bill Belichick was always expected to return to coaching after his brief stint in sports media. But very few expected him to end up in the college ranks at the University of North Carolina, where he would have another sports media personality accompanying him to Chapel Hill.

Former NFL general manager Michael Lombardi worked under Belichick until 1987, when he served as director of player personnel for the Cleveland Browns under Belichick.

Years later, the two reunited when Lombardi joined the New England Patriots as an assistant on the coaching staff.

Lombardi now holds a number of roles, including as a moderator The GM Shuffle Podcast acting as host The Lombardi Line at VSiN and as a consultant for the Washington Huskies football program.

However, it appears that the chance to reunite with Belichick, this time in the college ranks, was too tempting to pass up. In a statement, VSiN explained that Lombardi will be leaving the network to become general manager of the UNC football program.

“I am excited to join Coach Belichick at North Carolina,” Lombardi said in the statement obtained by VSiN. “Although it will be difficult to leave my VSiN family, I look forward to helping build a successful program again. I am forever grateful to all the great people at VSiN, especially Bill Adee and the Musburger family.”

Most largely assumed that UNC would hire a general manager to handle some of the intricacies of head coaching in college football today, including the behind-the-scenes NIL negotiations for the program. After all, Belichick has no experience with this.

However, on paper, Lombardi certainly doesn’t seem like the ideal candidate for this role.

Similar to Belichick, Lombardi has a long history of success at the NFL level, but lacks much experience at the college level aside from his brief consulting role in Washington. Notably, he has three years of experience as a recruiting coordinator at UNLV in the early 1980s. But obviously a lot has changed in the landscape of college football since then.

More than two decades of experience in NFL front offices certainly helps with both talent evaluation and the logistics of his new role. But it’s at least fair to wonder whether Lombardi, like Belichick, might struggle to take on a prominent role in the college game due to their collective lack of experience.

(VSiN)