Michael Lombardi was brought to North Carolina to be proof that a college football program could run like an NFL front office. These days, he\u2019s proof of something else.<\/p>\n
The University of North Carolina placed its embattled general manager on paid administrative<\/a> leave Monday, effective immediately, with the school offering almost no explanation for the move. UNC vice chancellor Dean Stoyer\u2019s statement only noted that \u201cas is standard procedure with personnel matters, leadership, staff and student-athletes are prohibited from addressing this topic further, and has no reflection on the merits.\u201d<\/p>\n ESPN\u2019s Pete Thamel reported soon after that<\/a> the leave stemmed from a complaint filed by a former UNC front office employee, with an investigation now pending.<\/p>\n Bruce Feldman didn\u2019t need to wait for more details to render a verdict. Speaking about the situation, The Athletic\u2019s college football insider went after Lombardi in about as unsparing a way as a national reporter can put it, and didn\u2019t spare Bill Belichick either for making him one of the highest-paid general managers in college sports, all built around the idea that the two of them would turn North Carolina into what they liked to call the \u201c33rd NFL team.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHe is without question the worst general manager in college sports,\u201d Feldman said on The Audible with colleague Ralph Russo. \u201cHe should be getting his paycheck with a ski mask on. I\u2019m sorry. This is such a staggering amount of ineptitude in the job he\u2019s had for Bill Belichick. I go back to the big story we did last year, and he was a focal point of it. It\u2019s the arrogance, it\u2019s the abrasiveness. I mean there\u2019s a lot of qualities that have rubbed people the wrong way for a long time. But Bill Belichick has been one of the people who has been in his corner and always, and the fact that Bill Belichick trusted him to have the most important job of anybody he could hire and it has blown up in his face and North Carolina\u2019s face spectacularly.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n That lines up with what Awful Announcing wrote about Lombardi<\/a> back in October, when it became clear he might actually be doing more damage to UNC\u2019s reputation than Belichick was. WRAL\u2019s reporting at the time<\/a> pointed plenty of blame at Belichick, who clearly seemed overmatched as a first-time college head coach, but it also didn\u2019t spare Lombardi, who sources described as \u201crude\u201d and \u201cnasty.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNobody likes him,\u201d a source told WRAL.<\/p>\n The report also details how Lombardi sent a letter to donors ahead of the Clemson game, positioning North Carolina as a rebuilding program, despite his previous public bravado. It also states that he attempted to rescind NIL money from former Purdue quarterback Ryan Browne after he transferred to the program, only to be asked to leave during spring practice, with the two sides eventually reaching a settlement.<\/p>\n