UNC football general manager Michael Lombardi joined 97.9 The Hill’s Aaron Keck this morning for “The Monday Morning Huddle,” presented by Chapel Hill Tire.
Carolina had a happy Halloween in Syracuse Friday night, coming back from an early deficit to crush the Orange, 27-10, and earn the Tar Heels’ first ACC win of the season. Up next, UNC will look to keep the good times rolling when it hosts Stanford at Kenan Stadium Saturday afternoon.
Here are a few of Lombardi’s answers on various topics:
On the team’s progress this season: One of the things we talk quite often about is, “Let the score take care of itself,” as Coach [Bill] Walsh wrote about in his book. To me, last week was last week and this week we have to have another good week as we prepare for Stanford. That’s the key to building a certain culture, of trying to establish what you’re looking for moving forward. Every day is a new day and you have to improve. And I think our team has embraced that message. That comes from Coach Belichick and I think that’s one of the things that we’ve always preached, whether it’s been at New England, Cleveland, or here.
On how the team is preparing for Stanford: I think it’s all about fundamentals and techniques and making sure that we improve. The key for what we focus on is how do we improve, how do we get better? How do we avoid losing? We turned the ball over one time in the [Syracuse] game. We did a good job of protecting the football for the most part for the rest of the game. And I think that the players embraced all the things that we coached last week. And I think this is the same thing we have to do. Stanford’s team, they play extremely hard. They beat Florida State at home this year. They’ve had some setbacks, but they play extremely hard. They’re well coached and they give tremendous effort. So it’ll be a great challenge for us.
On what is on Lombardi’s personal to-do list this week: The big thing is to stay on our 2026 recruiting class. We’re probably 30 days away from the players signing to that class. So we have to stay on top of it, making sure that the players that are committed to us stay committed to us, make sure that we find other players that can help our 2026 team as we move forward. And then it’s also working on the [transfer] portal because before you know it, the portal will be open and you have to prepare for that. You just can’t wait for that to happen. So there’s a lot of balls in the air at this time of the year.
On his message to the fans: Well, I hope everybody comes out [Saturday]. Obviously, it’s a sellout and I hope everybody uses their tickets to come out and support their team. I think it would be great to have a home crowd and to listen to it, because we are building something. And I think our fans are part of what we’re building. I think it’s really important that we all work together and come see the efforts of the team. It’ll be a great atmosphere, great weather. So it’ll be a lot of fun and hopefully the fans come out and support the team.
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/Adrian Kraus
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