Bill Belichick taking the North Carolina job meant that it wasn't just Bill Belichick taking the North Carolina job. His sons, Steve and Brian, came along as assistant coaches, best friend Michael Lombardi was installed as college football's highest-paid general manager despite no qualifications for the role, and girlfriend Jordon Hudson hovered around the program despite not being on the payroll.
So what does it say about Belichick that, 15 games into his tenure, three of those four close confidants have either been phased out or pushed out?
Lombardi resigned three weeks ago today, and Steve resigned as defensive coordinator one week ago. Both were accused of misconduct before exiting the program. What does it say of Belichick's judgment that he brought them aboard? About his level of involvement to either not know or not care that terms like "drug use" and "sexual harassment" were going on under his nose?
“Coach Belichick continues to have our support, the support of the administration and of the board [of trustees],” UNC Board of Trustees chairman Lee Roberts said Tuesday, via Brian Murphy of WRAL. “He understands that that support comes with expectations around conduct and behavior.”
Steve Belichick and Lombardi's behavior prompted North Carolina to commission its own outside investigation. On Tuesday, UNC officials took credit for commissioning the investigation while at the same time ordering there be no written summary of the investigation, and thus nothing that could leak to the public. "We believe there were serious allegations and serious conduct that we needed to address, but we didn't find that it was program wide," AD Lee Newmark said, forcing us to take his word for it.
The irony of all this is that North Carolina has played marginally better without Lombardi, Steve Belichick, and Jordon Hudson in the building. The Tar Heels are 2-1, with an upset win over TCU in Ireland and a close-but-no-cigar loss to Clemson. However, UNC's schedule is exceedingly difficult. The Heels are off before hosting No. 3 Notre Dame on Oct. 3, with No. 6 Miami and No. 16 Louisville up ahead and trips to Pittsburgh, Duke, UConn and Virginia waiting. North Carolina is 1-5 in true road games at Power 4 venues thus far under Belichick, and 6-9 overall (2-7 ACC).
It's always worth remembering that North Carolina hired Belichick at the insistence of UNC board of trustees chairman John Preyer, who resigned in January. AD Bubba Cunningham preferred Jon Sumrall, but Cunningham himself moved into an advisory role this summer. All that to say, the same political forces that brought Belichick to Chapel Hill could just as soon sweep him out if he doesn't deliver on the field.