N.C. — Bill Belichick said Monday he believes North Carolina “totally” had an atmosphere of following rules amid a school investigation into conduct within his football program
“Obviously everybody’s responsible, including me, for doing things properly,” Belichick said. “And we intend to do that.”
Later Monday, a school spokesman issued a statement backing the 74-year-old Belichick, who won six Super Bowl titles with the New England Patriots.
The University continues to support Bill Belichick
“The University continues to support Bill Belichick and the Carolina football program,” said Dean Stoyer, UNC’s vice chancellor for communications.
The Tar Heels were off following their season-opening win against TCU in Ireland on Aug. 29. But during that open week, general manager Michael Lombardi resigned after being put on paid administrative leave in late July in the wake of an internal investigation into a human reording to a report by ESPN’s Pete Thamel
The scope of that investigation has since widened and has included attorneys reaching out to UNC staffers, coaches and even coaches’ wives and girlfriends,sses about Lombardi’s role in hiring and firing decisions regarding female and minority staffers
Those developments have only added to a year’s
Those developments have only added to a year’s worth of unwanted headlines off the field to go with shaky play on it under Belichick.
That included whether his program had an atmosphere of rule compliance and if Belichick had “control” over the program.
“If you’re around here every day, I think you’d see it,” Belichick said.
Belichick was also asked whether he had spoken to chancellor Lee Roberts and athletic director Steve Newmark about his job security. He responded by looking ahead to the ETSU game, though he later elaborated more on his relationship with school officials when asked whether they had asked him to change anything in running the program.
They’ve been very supportive, a great working relationship
“They’ve been very supportive, a great working relationship with those people,” he said. “In the end, look, we want to run the program in the very best way. And if there’s things we need to do to correct it, then we’ll obviously do them.”
The Tar Heels tallied more losses by double-digit margins (five) than wins (four) in Belichick’s debut season, along with distractions such as an assistant coach being briefly suspended for violating NCAA rules. Belichick said in July he had hoped lessons learned would lead to more success in Year 2.
The Tar Heels got that with the 15-10 win against TCU after losing to the Horned Frogs by 34 in Belichick’s UNC debut. But the past week takes some glow off that victory.
“We’re so focused on everything internal and getting better on the field and getting better in the meeting room that we could care less about what we see in the headlines or what’s on the news,” running back Benjamin Hall said. “It’s not going to affect this team.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Source: www.espn.com
