By Doc Kennedy

I have to be honest. I have probably written and re-written the opening paragraph for this piece three or four times. Words are hard to find for the egg that was laid in Kenan Stadium on Monday night for the debut of the most successful coach in NFL history. The 48–14 drubbing at the hands of Texas Christian was very bad, worse than the five-touchdown margin indicated.

The long, momentous, sometimes surreal nine-month journey to Bill Belichick’s first game as the head football coach of the University of North Carolina finally came to a crescendo with an hour-long love fest on the pregame show, along with dozens of sports and cultural icons and prominent UNC alumni at the game.

And after the textbook opening drive on the heels of a Chamber of Commerce day and the vibes turned up to 11, all seemed right in the world. And then it all fell apart. Badly. 

In many ways, TCU was the worst possible opening opponent for Belichick’s Tar Heels. The Horned Frogs won nine games last year, returned a veteran quarterback, and bolstered their offense with some key portal additions.

Perhaps most importantly, they had been the opponent for the last college football coaching debut circus, Deion Sanders at Colorado. TCU was not going to be fazed by the hype and, in fact, was in a great position to channel the disrespect into performance on the field.

Meanwhile, for Carolina, after the first offensive and defensive possessions, things went south quickly. The Tar Heels couldn’t move the ball on offense and couldn’t stop the powerful TCU offense in return. Each subsequent possession, UNC seemed to look more and more inept, surrendering 41 consecutive points before a late Carolina touchdown stopped the run.

With 70 new players between freshmen and portal additions, there were many questions about exactly how good the Tar Heels would be. The answer, at least after the first game, is not very.

There was also much hope invested in the fact that Carolina would be a more disciplined, well-coached team as opposed to UNC under Mack Brown, whose teams often made back-breaking, bone-headed mistakes to go along with poor fundamentals.

That wasn’t very evident except for penalties, where UNC only had three on the night. Carolina also turned the ball over three times, leading to 21 TCU points. If UNC under Bill Belichick was a Broadway play, it would have been shut down after opening night.

With that in mind, here is the TCU version of the Good, Bad, and Ugly Report:

Good

The opening drive

Carolina took the opening kickoff and drove it right down the Frogs’ throats. UNC went 83 yards primarily on the back of Caleb Hood, mixed in with a pair of nifty tosses from Gio Lopez to Jordan Shipp for big gains. Hood punched the ball in for a score and the Heels looked crisp and sharp. And after giving up a lone first down, Carolina forced TCU to punt. And it was pretty much all downhill from there.

Max Johnson

The fact that this kid is playing football is nothing short of a miracle. And for him to come in after Lopez’s injury in the third quarter and give the offense a spark and make plays while leading the team to a score is exciting. Johnson went 9-11 for 103 yards and a touchdown to his brother, Jake. Johnson will likely be the starter heading into the Charlotte game, especially if Lopez isn’t 100%.

Bad

Offensive line

This group was an area of concern all through preseason camp, and it was easy to see why after the first drive. The O-line has been riddled with injuries and played their third-string center, who had never snapped the ball in a college game. They were bullied by a bigger, stronger Frogs defensive front all night long. The only bright spot was only surrendering two sacks. Hopefully, this will be an area of improvement as guys return to health and get snaps.

Gio Lopez

Poor Gio looked incredible on the first possession and struggled afterwards. It’s never a great sign when the broadcast is keeping a clock of actual time (not game time) on how long it’s been since you completed a pass. He was never able to get his run game going, and his receivers didn’t do him any favors with some key drops. He also gave up a pick-six and a fumble returned for a touchdown, wrapping up his no-good, awful, very-bad night with an injury. An unfortunate debut for a great kid.

Offensive play-calling

Freddie Kitchens, the lone holdover from Mack Brown’s staff, had an inauspicious debut as offensive coordinator. Lopez won the starting quarterback job because of his dual-threat ability, but Kitchens only called four runs for him, no real run-pass options, and had him spend a good portion of the night under center. He also had his throwing the ball downfield almost exclusively, whereas when Johnson came in, the pass calls were more swings and slants, which opened up shots down the field. UNC was expected to be a ball-control team, and when they’re down big, that goes out the window, but the anemic offense only generated 222 yards against a TCU team whose biggest liability last year was its defense.

Ugly

UNC’s defense

Yikes. Defense is Bill Belichick’s specialty. His son Steve, the defensive coordinator, put together a solid defensive unit at Washington last year.

But after the first TCU possession, the defense was a train wreck. Like the offense, the defensive interior front was an area of concern, and for the most part, Frogs quarterback Josh Hoover was able to operate with little pressure. The defense gave up 48 points (the most ever scored against a Belichick team) and 522 yards, and only a couple of fortunate plays kept it from being a 60-spot. The missed tackles and poor positioning that were staples under Brown started rearing their heads in the second quarter and only worsened as the game progressed.

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Given the hype, the manner by which Belichick was hired, the attention paid to the program and having the Monday night window all to themselves, it is hard to imagine any worse of an opening performance. Carolina didn’t just lose, they didn’t just get blown out, they looked awful doing it. If the energy from the hot takes that will follow could be harnessed, it would power Chapel Hill for a year. Rival fans and national talking heads will be out like gold diggers, trying to get a piece of breaking Belichick down. Meanwhile, those inside the UNC landscape who didn’t support the Belichick hire will be taking a victory lap.

Of course, it is entirely too early to overreact to one game, but that won’t stop fans and pundits. Again, TCU was probably the worst-case opponent for UNC to open with, completely discounting the fact that they are simply a better team.

A pair of supposedly cupcake games follows, which is the exact recipe you would hope to follow the opening night debacle. Then, a road game at Central Florida as a measuring stick against a P4 team to see how far you’ve come, followed by an open date before Clemson comes to town. In other words, if UNC is 3-1 heading into the open date and looks better each week, then maybe this loss will be an unfortunate blip on the radar. 

Until then, however, the verdict is in: for the umpteenth time in a row, North Carolina football is not ready for prime time.

Doc Kennedy is an alum, longtime UNC fan, and former high school and college basketball coach who wrote this report for years on Tar Heel Blog.

Photos by Smith Hardy