The Bill Belichick honeymoon at North Carolina lasted exactly one possession.
TCU scored 41 unanswered points on the way to a 48-14 win over North Carolina in Belichick’s first game as head coach. The Tar Heels opened the game with an impressive touchdown drive and promptly got overrun by the Horned Frogs until the game was out of reach.
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TCU put the game away one play into the second half when Kevorian Barnes broke a 75-yard TD run. The Horned Frogs led 20-7 at halftime and Barnes made the lead insurmountable at that point.
It’s hard to start a comeback when you can’t complete a pass. And North Carolina simply couldn’t complete a pass. Starting QB Gio Lopez went over two hours between completions after his pass to Jordan Shipp on the Tar Heels’ first drive. That completion came two plays before Caleb Hood scored the Tar Heels’ first TD of the Belichick era.
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Lopez, a transfer from South Alabama, didn’t complete his next pass until midway through the third quarter. And that drive didn’t amount to anything either. Three plays after Lopez found Hood for a 16-yard gain, Lopez fumbled when he was sacked by TCU’s Jonathan Bax. The ball was picked up by Devean Deal and returned 31 yards for a touchdown.
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It was the second defensive score of the night for the Horned Frogs. In the first half, safety Bud Clark read a pass to the flat perfectly and intercepted Lopez for a 25-yard pick-6.
Lopez left the game with an apparent injury after the fumble and was replaced by Max Johnson before he limped back to the locker room. Johnson, the former Texas A&M and LSU QB, suffered a season-ending injury in Week 1 of the 2024 season after he opened the year as the Tar Heels’ starter.
After the game, Belichick didn’t provide much information on which QB will start next week.
“It’s a short week. We’ll see. I don’t know what his availability is right now so I’m not going to speculate on that,” Belichick said of Lopez.
North Carolina fans filed out of Kenan Stadium after TCU went up 41-7 on Monday night. (Photo by Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images)
(Jared C. Tilton via Getty Images)
What a disaster of a start for UNC
You can’t blame North Carolina fans for their excitement ahead of Monday night’s game. Belichick is just the second Super Bowl-winning coach to lead a college football team and the first to win a Super Bowl before ever taking a college job.
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But the opener showed just how far North Carolina has to go simply to be relevant this season. The 48 points the Tar Heels allowed were more than any Belichick team ever gave up in his time as an NFL head coach.
Belichick has preached fundamentals since his introductory news conference in December and, well, North Carolina was not fundamentally sound. The Tar Heels had tackling issues, dropped passes and even dropped punt snaps. It was a disastrous performance for nearly every unit.
Yes, there’s still plenty of time for the Tar Heels to improve over the course of the season. However, it’s clear that simply hiring Belichick and having him coach the team through fall practice wouldn’t immediately make North Carolina better than it was under former coach Mack Brown. While UNC surely has more attention on it with Belichick at the helm, that attention can only go so far when you’re struggling on the field. Just ask Colorado about its 2023 season.
TCU is a contender in the Big 12
Even if North Carolina ends up being a bottom-tier team in the ACC in 2025, it’s hard to discount what the Horned Frogs did on Monday night. They were by far the more talented team and took advantage of the opportunities that UNC gave them.
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This TCU team is likely not as good as the one that made the national title game just three seasons ago. But it’s one that can be a player in the wide-open Big 12.
And we’ll know where TCU stands pretty quickly.
After a rivalry game with No. 16 SMU on Sept. 20, the Horned Frogs play at No. 11 Arizona State on Sept. 26. Two weeks after that game, TCU travels to Kansas State. If TCU is 5-1 or even 4-2 after its first six games, the Horned Frogs should still be a factor in the College Football Playoff race.