Michael Lombardi Calls Out 'Fake' Rumors and Stories About Bill Belichick, UNC After 1st Season

North Carolina football general manager Michael Lombardi responded to what he described as "fake stories and rumors" about Bill Belichick during the legendary coach's first year with the Tar Heels.

Appearing on Friday's episode of The Pat McAfee Show (starts at 1:16:56 mark), Lombardi claimed all of the headlines around Belichick were designed to undermine the program in ways that didn't work based on the strength of their incoming recruiting class.

"All during those stormy times, all during when the boat was getting capsized, when people were attacking us with fake rumors and fake stories all over—nobody's corrected them yet, but that's OK, we understand—our players hung together. We did not lose one single recruit to another team. Now, they tried. A lot of that, to me, was the dedication of our recruiting class, and that's what I think gives all of everybody in this program the lift that we need."

Many of the stories about Belichick revolved around his relationship with Jordon Hudson and her level of involvement in his career. There were conflicting stories about whether or not the University of North Carolina banned her from the football facilities.

Pablo Torre reported on his podcast in May that Hudson was "not allowed on the football field" in a decision made by people in the UNC athletic department.

The university disputed the notion that she was banned, prompting Torre to issue a clarification on his reporting:

"So, there are gradations. Given the terror-alert scale of banning, I was probably a bit flippant in my conversational presentation about what it means when the university says to Jordon Hudson: 'You're not welcome here, you're not wanted here, you cannot be here.' … And so the PR statement that you just cited, it's fascinating as a PR-statement-ologist. They could've said, 'This reporting is incorrect. She is welcomed here anytime.' They did not."

There was also reporting during the college football season specifically related to the Tar Heels' performance that suggested things weren't great in the locker room.

Per Pat Welter of WRAL in Raleigh, one person with firsthand knowledge of the UNC program described it as an "unstructured mess" with "no culture, no organization."

The parent of one North Carolina player told Welter that the program's leadership "created this toxic environment."

Belichick's ability to run a college program despite having never worked at that level in his career was questioned by one person: "Bill shuts people out. He's limited in what he says."

All of the stories weren't helped by the fact that North Carolina played so poorly on the field. The Tar Heels finished 4-8 in 2025, worse than their 6-7 record the previous year that led to Mack Brown getting fired.

Despite those issues, Belichick and his staff have been able to get talent to commit to Chapel Hill.

North Carolina's incoming recruiting class is ranked 19th in the nation, per 247Sports' composite rankings. The only ACC teams ahead of the Tar Heels are Miami and Florida State.