Reported by Bruce Feldman, Brendan Marks and Stewart Mandel

North Texas quarterback Chandler Morris had thrown for 3,774 yards and 31 touchdowns when he put his name in the transfer portal shortly after the 2024 regular season. Two days later, on Dec. 11, North Carolina announced its hire of Bill Belichick. Morris, now a sixth-year senior, who’d previously played at Oklahoma and TCU, made it known he was interested in coming to play for the six-time Super Bowl champion.

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Belichick’s right-hand man, general manager Michael Lombardi, was already making the decisions when it came to overhauling UNC’s roster. He didn’t want Morris, who was about 6-feet, 190 pounds, and did not have the strongest arm. Purdue’s Ryan Browne, a 6-4, 210-pounder who had started two games for a 2-10 Boilers team, better fit the mold he and Belichick were seeking. Lombardi didn’t hold back letting UNC’s personnel staffers, a mix of holdovers and new hires, know why.

“You just don’t understand what it takes to play in the National Football League,” he told staffers, according to a person briefed on the conversation, who, like more than 20 people interviewed for this story, spoke on condition of anonymity about their experiences of private conversations and decision-making within the program.

Of course, knowing what it takes to play in the NFL might not be the same thing as knowing what it takes to win college football games, or more specifically, how the more mobile Morris might be a better fit than Browne to navigate behind an overmatched offensive line. Browne transferred to Chapel Hill, but bailed to go back to Purdue later in the spring. Morris signed with Virginia, a program that hasn’t had a winning season since 2019, where he’s led the Cavaliers into the AP top 20.

The Athletic made several requests to speak with Belichick and Lombardi for this story. Lombardi declined comment, and a football spokesperson, Brandon Faber, said Belichick and the program would not be able to comment Friday because of UNC’s open week and the coach’s travel schedule.

“It’s the arrogance of it all,” a university source told The Athletic. “Because they had success in the NFL — and by they, I mean Belichick only — they (thought) they could come in and replicate that without knowing how college football works.”

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Only five games into Belichick’s first season, UNC football has spiraled from nationally relevant to national punchline. Tabloid fodder surrounding the 73-year-old’s relationship with 24-year-old girlfriend Jordon Hudson has given way to mockery over the 2-3 Tar Heels’ lopsided losses to TCU (48-14), UCF (