UNC football general manager Michael Lombardi joined 97.9 The Hill’s Andrew Stuckey this morning for “The Monday Morning Huddle,” presented by Chapel Hill Tire.
Lombardi and the Tar Heels dropped their home finale against Duke Saturday, losing 32-25 on a late Blue Devil touchdown. UNC is now 4-7 on the season and will travel to NC State in the last game of the regular season this Saturday night.
Here are a few of Lombardi’s answers on various topics:
On the loss to Duke: We were disappointed in our inability to finish the fourth quarter. We rallied back, but we fell short. And I think ultimately our team understands that winning the state is really crucial to what our program’s about. So we’re gonna have to continue to get better and work harder.
On the numerous penalties called against UNC: It’s really about all about mental toughness, doing what’s right for the team when it may not be right for you. And I think making mistakes and hurting the team in certain situations, you can’t allow your frustrations to cost your team and I think that that is something that Coach [Belichick] preaches. We knew going into the game that that crew was going to call a lot of fouls after the whistle was blown and Coach talked about it to the team and ultimately we just didn’t get that achieved. So we’ve gotta go back and work harder on it and try to fix the problems. We’re a team that needs to not have 12 penalties and have 120 yards of penalties. For us to win games, we’ve gotta really cut down on our mistakes and we’ve gotta play mistake free. We had two substitution penalties. We had a holding call late in the game that hurt us. Those are the kind of things that affect your game. And it’s not just one play, it’s all the plays. And I think we did a great job of rallying back to take a one-point lead, but ultimately we didn’t finish the job.
On the matchup with NC State: Going into Raleigh and playing State, there is an ultimate challenge, and I think it’s gonna really be important for us to match their level of intensity, to match the mental toughness that’s needed to win these kinds of games. These games are ultimately about being able to endure the ups and downs of football. Nothing ever goes perfectly and so you’re gonna have some mistakes, you’re gonna have to get up off the ground and you’re gonna have to battle through and make critical plays. And ultimately that’s what this test will be for our team. It’s a game that will really challenge us. Thanksgiving being on Thursday, we have to alter the schedules, as all teams do this week. So I think we have to prove that we can focus and concentrate on the task at hand.
On the team’s growth: Since the Clemson game, our team has been really competitive. We just haven’t been able to find ways to win a few of these games that we need to win. In the last six weeks we’re 2-4 and ultimately it’s come down to the fourth quarter, us making a play or not making a play. We did against Syracuse. We did against Stanford, but the other four games we weren’t able to. It’s a learning experience and every time you go out there, you’ve gotta get better. And our players have embraced it. We had a good week of practice last week. That doesn’t mean we were flawless, but our effort and our focus and our concentration was there and we’re gonna need another one this week.
Listen below for the full conversation with Michael Lombardi, and tune in to hear the segment live on Monday mornings each game week!
Featured image via Associated Press/Chris Seward
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