For all the talk around the head coaching debut of legendary football coach Bill Belichick with the North Carolina Tar Heels, it simply didn't live up to the hype on Monday night. North Carolina football crashed and burned in front of over 50,000 people in attendance at Kenan Stadium in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, as the Tar Heels suffered an embarrassing 48-14 loss at the hands of the visiting TCU Horned Frogs.
Despite the forgettable performance of his team in his first game as the head coach of the ACC school's football program, Belichick was not one to sulk over the loss.
“We're better than what we were tonight, but we have to go out there and show that and prove it,” Belichick said following the TCU game (h/t David Hale of ESPN). “Nobody's going to do it for us. We're going to have to do it ourselves, and that's what we're going to do.”
North Carolina football looked as though it was going to have a fun night when senior running back Caleb Hood waltzed his way into the end zone for an eight-yard touchdown in the opening quarter for the game's first score. However, that turned out to be the high point of the contest for the Tar Heels, who followed that scoring drive with five three-and-outs in the succeeding six North Carolina drives.
“Too many three-and-outs, too many long plays on defense, two turnovers for touchdowns,” added Belichick, who won eight Super Bowls during his time in the NFL.
“You can't overcome that. We just can't perform well doing some of the things we did. We've got to be better than that. We had too many self-inflicted wounds we have to eliminate before we can even worry about addressing our opponent.”
Max Johnson passed for 103 yards and a touchdown on 9-of-11 pass completions after replacing Gio Lopez, who left the game due to a back issue. Meanwhile, Hood led North Carolina football on the ground with just 31 rushing yards on 10 carries.
North Carolina will look to gain some confidence back when it plays its first road game of the 2025 college football season this coming Saturday against the Charlotte 49ers at Jerry Richardson Stadium in Charlotte.
