CaneSport Message Board Mania: Miami Hurricanes Fans Debate UNC’s NFL-Style College Football Model

Today marks the beginning of CaneSport’s new Message Board Mania feature. We all know what that means, right?

Okay, perhaps not.

But here it is in a nutshell: We are taking top CaneSport message board topics and expounding upon them … with our evaluation and own take.

Feel free to go ahead and weigh back in with your thoughts on the boards. Or start your own threads that might make it here on the front page tomorrow.

Today’s Message Board Mania Thread Topic?

“Hate these mofos more than any other acc team” posted by the insightfully named UdaMan.

The initial thought upon reading the headline of the thread, aside from how much thought was put into finding a great way to use the term “mofos,” probably went something like this: `He’s talking about Notre Dame.’ `Maybe FSU?’ `Or perhaps Florida.’ `But probably Notre Dame.’

Well, the mofos Mr. Man is talking about were none of the above.

Uda is pointing to something a little more nuanced, and in the bigger picture much more important.

“here is hoping its all blather and they never become the “33rd team” in the league,” Mr. Man wrote, adding a link to Michael Lombardi’s article on Bill Belichick building the North Carolina football like an NFL team.

UNC, by the way, isn’t on this year’s Miami schedule. But will be in the future.

And Uda has a very interesting point. Because just as Jimmy Johnson brought a new facet to college football with that speed/swagger emphasis, and just how Butch Davis turned recruiting into an art to build a juggernaut, this is a new twist in college football. It’s taking a pro approach to what not too long ago was fully amateur athletics.

Can that work when you are dealing with 17-21 year olds and the current NIL system vs. the seasoned pros in the NFL who have already been through the college system? Will it be like trying to pluck top high school basketball players and putting them right into the NBA, for instance? That tended to not work too often back when it was allowed prior to 2006. There’s a reason it was stopped.

As for Lombardi’s hiring as GM for Belichick after he was an NFL GM, well that’s what pro teams utilize for success. The Canes sort of toyed with that idea on a lesser scale with the hirings of Ed Reed under Manny Diaz and Alonzo Highsmith when Cristobal first came on board.

“Everything here is predicated on building a pro team,” Lombardi said in his introductory press conference. “We consider ourselves the 33rd team (of the NFL) because everybody involved with our program has had some form or aspect in pro football.”

The big picture

Lombardi will create player boards in the search for talent and is using former NFL personnel in that endeavor as well, including NFL scouts. Ultimately it’s about roster building, talent acquisition, NIL appropriation and development.

One particular takeaway from Lombardi was especially telling.

“When we got in here, we were reacting to the portal,” Lombardi said, “and now we can anticipate the portal, which certainly will help us.”

As we reflect on Uda’s point hoping that it’s “all blather,” and that UNC’s new formula for trying to craft a championship team will fail … well, on the surface it sure seems like a great approach. Because in this new era of college football players have their eyes on immediate NIL money and want to be coached like they are professional athletes. The goal remains becoming the best potential player for the NFL, and right now North Carolina is selling their place as being THE spot to do that.

An NFL blueprint

Aside from Lombardi’s role, the UNC staff has college experience and also includes plenty of NFL level guys including offensive coordinator Freddie Kitchens (coached TEs, QBs, RBs and was coordinator in NFL plus was head coach of the Browns in 2019), defensive coordinator Steve Belichick (11-year NFL assistant coach who was Washington Huskies’ coordinator last year), safeties coach Brian Belichick (coached safeties with Patriots), RB coach Natrone Means (former NFL RB who was a UNC offensive analyst the last four years), special teams coach Mike Priefer (almost 20 years as special teams coordinator with different NFL teams), Jamie Collins (former NFL linebacker who is a defensive analyst), Joe Anile (NFL scout who is director of player personnel), Frantzy Jourdain (20+ years as NFL scout, helps with player personnel), Matt Lombardi (son of Michael, has been an NFL scout and assistant coach), Chris Mattes (seven years with Patriots in football development role, helping with player personnel at UNC), assistant Billy Miller (IMG connections coaching there and was assistant with Patriots) and defensive assistant Chris Jones (worked as defensive assistant in NFL). Even the strength and conditioning coach, Moses Cabrera, has NFL connections – he was the assistant strength and conditioning coach for the Patriots for five years.

The program is being marketed to recruits and transfers as an NFL factory.

It’s not a gimmick. It’s real. And it’s costing UNC a lot of money to do so.

Now, will it work?

If in the next couple of years you don’t see on-field results and not many draft picks, this could indeed start to get labeled as “blather.”

But, more likely than not based on the way college football is going, this is going to be a model more programs start to follow. Still, there are no guarantees that NFL assistants, NFL scouts or former NFL players will be able to really relate and coach today’s college football student-athlete. It’s a much different time, and they aren’t playing for those year-to-year perform-or-get-cut contracts you see in the pros. Is the NFL way of motivation, essentially a fear factor of losing the job/getting cut, going to work for less mature young men?

Miami toyed with an NFL GM using Highsmith, but he was more in an evaluation role and it wasn’t as encompassing as what UNC’s doing with its NFL hires. Miami has also hired plenty of talented, experienced analysts, although not near the NFL level overall that UNC’s compiling. There could be more emphasis for UM put on landing NFL talent as coaches and assistants in the future, perhaps spurred by what we see happen at North Carolina.

We will give the last word to Matahungwa‘s comment in Mr. Man’s thread.

“TBD if it works,” Mr. Hungwa said. “He is the most overrated coach in NFL history. He has completely ridden the coattails of Brady. He was mediocre before Brady and once he left, while Brady led another team to a championship without BB.”