Michael Lombardi explains North Carolina's scouting approach under Bill Belichick

With former personnel from the NFL, North Carolina is thinking outside the box when it comes to how it is now scouting and recruiting.

UNC GM Michael Lombardi joined ‘The Pat McAfee Show’ on Thursday and, during that conversation, spoke about how the Tar Heels are going about identifying players and building their rosters. He said that the Tar Heels are going about it similarly to how their coaches did while they were all in the National Football League.

“It’s the same as the pro,” said Lombardi. “I mean, we want the same thing.”

However, to do that, North Carolina has to adjust to the age of the players it will now have on the team. The staff was dealing with 20-plus and 30-year-olds while in the pros but are now working with high school and college-aged players.

That, though, gives them the chance to shape them themselves at that younger age.

“Obviously, we’re dealing with younger players. We’ve got to do a better job of projecting,” said Lombardi. “There’s a tight end that we’re recruiting in western North Carolina who plays tight end and looks like he could be a dynamic center. So, you know, we have to project players into different positions because these are still young men. They’re not grown up. They’re not – it’s not as easy as throw the tape on and watch the right tackle and see if he’s going to play right tackle in the NFL. You’ve got to do some projections of this and look at the player and say where is he going to be in two years?”

From there, the Tar Heels can decide where they think those players would fit best on the field for Bill Belichick.

“We’re going to find players that fit the systems that are generated from Coach Belichick that we want to run here at North Carolina. That’s why we’re going to continue this program in a sustainable fashion,” said Lombardi. “We know what we’re looking for at each position, whether it’s the center, whether it’s the right tackle, left tackle. They all have a job description that we want and traits that we’re looking for in those positions.”

Belichick was always going to do things differently with this being his first job in college football. That’s now applying in their recruiting in what they’re looking to bring to and build with in Chapel Hill.

“Everything we’re doing? We scout inside out, not outside in,” Lombardi said.