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Head coach Sonny Dykes (L) of the TCU Horned Frogs and head coach Bill Belichick of the North Carolina Tar Heels following their game Monday.
After nearly nine solid months of hype and raised expectations, legendary New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick made his college coaching debut on Monday when his North Carolina Tar Heels hosted the Texas Christian University Horned Frogs. Unfortunately, with his 24-year-old girlfriend Jordon Hudson and a who’s who of sports celebrities — including Michael Jordan and Lawrence Taylor, both UNC alums — looking on, Belichick’s first game as Tar Heels head coach went completely off the rails in humiliating fashion.
In a game that was supposed to open a “transformative” era of North Carolina football, Belichick’s Tar Heels were blown out by TCU to the tune of 34 points in a one-sided beat down the likes of which he rarely experienced as an NFL coach.
Only Once Has Belichick Ever Lost by More
The 48-14 drubbing was the second-worst loss of Belichick’s 30 years as a head coach. Only the Patriots 38-3 loss to the Dallas Cowboys on October 1, 2023 — the year that ended with Belichick’s firing by Patriots owner Robert Kraft — ended in a greater margin of defeat for the coach widely considered the greatest of all time.
The 48 points given up by North Carolina were the most ever allowed by a Belichick-coached team, exceeding the 47 given up by the Patriots to the Buffalo Bills in a 2021 AFC Wild Card playoff game. In fact, in 511 games as ahead coach, his team has trailed by 34 points at any stage of the game only four times.
Belichick Remade Tar Heels With 70-Player Overhaul
Belichick had no one to blame for the loss but himself. He made sure that the 2025 North Carolina roster was remade in his image, brining in no fewer than 70 new players through high school recruits and the NCAA transfer portal.
His strategic mistakes began early, in the days leading up to the game when he named South Alabama transfer acquisition Gio Lopez the Tar Heels’ starting quarterback over veteran Max Johnson who, despite coming off a horrific broken leg in 2024, had 31 games of experience between LSU, Texas A&M and his single start at UNC in 2024.
But Belichick passed over the son of former NFL quarterback Brad Johnson in favor of the redshirt sophomore from the Sun Belt Conference — with predictable results. Lopez completed just four of 10 passes for 69 yards and an interception. He also fumbled for a TCU scoop-and-score midway through the third quarter, taking a massive hit in the process.
Belichick: “We Need to Do a Better Job’
The back injury Lopez suffered on the play gave Belichick the chance to put Johnson in the game after all, and the veteran of two SEC teams immediately paid dividends, completing nine of 11 for 103 yards and a touchdown. But it was much too little, much too late to spare Belichick and North Carolina the embarrassment of the historically lopsided loss.
After the game, Belichick offered a strong message about what needed to come next.
“Obviously, we have a lot of work to do,” Belichick — at 73 the oldest head coach in college football — said, as quoted by the New York Post. “We need to do a better job all the way around — coaching, playing, all three phases of the game.”
Belichick praised the energetic atmosphere at Kenan Stadium but added, “We just didn’t do enough to keep it going. We’ve got to play better for the energy to be sustainable.”
The iconic coach and the Tar Heels get a quick five dats before getting a chance to get back on the right track. They face Charlotte on Saturday in a game that, unlike Monday’s nationally televised clash, will be available on on ESPN’s paid subscription streaming service, ESPN+.
Jonathan Vankin JONATHAN VANKIN is an award-winning journalist and writer who now covers baseball and other sports for Heavy.com. He twice won New England Press Association awards for sports feature writing. He was a sports editor and writer at The Daily Yomiuri in Tokyo, Japan, covering Japan Pro Baseball, boxing, sumo and other sports. More about Jonathan Vankin
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