The UNC Tar Heels' struggles continue in Bill Belichick's first season as head coach. Entering Week 9 of the college football season, the Tar Heels are 2-4 and riding a three-game losing streak to UCF, Clemson, and Cal.
North Carolina has also struggled to find consistency at quarterback, alternating between Gio Lopez and Max Johnson. This week, UNC's defense will face Virginia quarterback Chandler Morris.
Morris, who previously played at TCU and North Texas, reportedly considered transferring to UNC but ultimately landed at Virginia.
Here's a look at Morris and Lopez’s performance so far this season highlights which team secured the stronger quarterback.
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Chandler Morris stats 2025
Through seven games this season, Morris has thrown for 1,607 yards with 11 touchdowns and four interceptions. He has also added 191 rushing yards and four touchdowns on the ground.
The senior from Highland, Texas, had his standout performance against Stanford earlier this season. In Virginia’s 48-20 win over the Cardinal, Morris threw for 380 yards and four touchdowns, adding another on the ground while completing 74.2 percent of his passes.
Against Florida State, he threw three interceptions but still accounted for five total touchdowns—including three rushing scores—in Virginia’s 46-38 double-overtime upset.
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Gio Lopez stats 2025
Lopez has appeared in only five games this season due to various injury setbacks, so his numbers lag behind Morris’. Through those games, he has thrown for 597 yards with three touchdowns and three interceptions. He has completed 59.3 percent of his passes and added 80 rushing yards with one touchdown.
During UNC's home opener against TCU in Week 1, he left the game with a back injury in the third quarter shortly after a fumble. It was revealed earlier this month that Lopez suffered a back injury from a car crash he was in before the season opener. The Tar Heels lost 48-14. He played in UNC's next three games against Charlotte, Richmond and UCF, but missed four weeks while recovering from those injuries.
Although the Tar Heels lost 21-18 on the road to Cal last Friday, Lopez played his best game of the season, throwing for 167 yards on the night.
“This is actually the best I’ve felt this season,” Lopez said after the game via the Raleigh News & Observer. “And it just felt good to be out there not worried about any part of my body, my body being hurt or lingering[pain] or feel like I gotta take some medicine before a game, or do this or do that. It was really nice to just get back out there and play out 100%.”
He is expected to be UNC's starter against Virginia.
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Why didn't Chandler Morris transfer to UNC?
The report of Morris being interested in playing for Belichick stemmed from an Oct. 10 from The Athletic. Although Morris reportedly expressed interest, he reportedly was shooed away from Belichick's general manager, Michael Lombardi.
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What did Mike Lombardi say about Chandler Morris?
According to The Athletic's reporting, Lombardi didn't think Morris' height and weight translated to the NFL. Lombardi and Belichick have been adamant about creating a pipeline to the league, calling themselves the NFL's 33rd team.
Via The Athletic:
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.
Belichick refuted The Athletic's reporting in a press conference earlier this week.
“I don’t really know what the source on that was,” Belichick said on Oct. 21.
“We didn’t have any contact with Chandler Morris. We spoke to his agent. I don’t really know where that, what the source of that was. His agent didn’t know anything about it. We didn’t know anything about it. Just making up stories. I don’t know where it came from.”
Browne ended up ultimately remaining at Purdue instead of UNC.
Chandler Morris height and weight
Morris is listed as 6-foot-2 and 192 pounds. While each team's quarterback varies, the average starting NFL quarterback checks in at 6-foot-3 and weighs 219.03 pounds.
Coming out of high school, Morris was listed at 5-foot-11 and 178 pounds, but he has grown taller and added size during his college career. He began at Oklahoma in 2020, spent 2021–23 at TCU, and played for North Texas in 2024.