Bill Belichick didn’t hold back after his North Carolina debut ended with a 48–14 loss to TCU.
“Oh, well, it was a great, uh, a great atmosphere here for the game tonight,” Belichick said. “Fans…had a tremendous energy and…we played competitively but then just couldn’t sustain it. So obviously we have a lot of work to do. We need to do a better job all the way around. Coaching, playing, all three phases of the game. Just wasn’t up to what it needs to be.”
Picture perfect night from Chapel Hill 🤌 pic.twitter.com/82m6xycQa2
— Carolina Football (@UNCFootball) September 2, 2025
On the collapse after UNC’s early touchdown, he was blunt. “Anytime you give up two turnovers or touchdowns offensively, that’s not good. We gave up several long plays on defense…too many three and outs, too many long plays on defense and then two turnovers for touchdowns. You can’t overcome that.”
Quarterback Gio Lopez finished just 4 of 10 for 69 yards and an interception before leaving the game. “We’ll see how Gio is. Hopefully it’s not too bad but we’ll see,” Belichick said. Backup Max Johnson went 9 of 11 for 103 yards and a touchdown. “Give Max a lot of credit. He came in there after, you know, being off for a long time and hung in there, made some plays in a tough situation.”
Belichick gave full credit to TCU. “They just outplayed us. They outcoached us. I mean, they were just better than we were tonight. They controlled both sides of the line of scrimmage. Their skilled players played well and, you know, they just, they did a lot more things right than we did. So…give them credit for being the better team. They certainly deserve it.”
Tackling breakdowns defined the night. “We got to do a better job of tackling. There’s no secret to it. You just have to tackle better fundamentally and get more guys around the ball so we’re not making so many tackles in space.”
With a short turnaround, Belichick set the message. “We’ll use the time best we can to correct the mistakes from tonight and move on…to Charlotte. Obviously, we have a lot of work to do and we need to get to it.”
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