By R.L. Bynum

CHAPEL HILL — North Carolina quarterback Gio Lopez doesn’t hide from the reality of his uneven start to the season.

Saturday’s 41–17 home win over Richmond was supposed to be a chance to reset, but Lopez’s struggles with accuracy remained a subplot in an otherwise comfortable Tar Heel victory.

Lopez completed 10 of 18 passes for 119 yards and two touchdowns, a stat line that looked clean enough on paper. But that came with a frustrating number of overthrows and high passes, some that were caught, and missed open receivers.

Two of his lowest four career completion percentages have come in the first three games, with a career-worst 40% in the opening-game loss to TCU and 55.6% against Richmond.

His Pro Football Focus grade for the Richmond game of 45.8 was the second-lowest on the team, although his passer rating was a season-high 147.8, the ninth-best in his career after a career-low 78.0 against TCU.

The overall numbers have to get better against a tougher competition than the previous two weeks as the Tar Heels visit 2–0 Central Florida at 3:30 Saturday (Fox).

Lopez’s focus after Saturday was on continuing to correct the mechanical and mental errors that had plagued him.

“For me, there’s a lot I’ve got to clean up,” he said. “There’s reads I’m missing, there’s stuff I just got to clean up. Everyone can be a lot better. I’ve got to be better myself. And I think, I’d say a positive, is just committing to the offense and being able to talk to everybody and help people when they don’t know what they’re doing.”

North Carolina’s offense has been a work in progress through three weeks, as Lopez and a relatively new group of skill players work to build timing and trust. The quarterback didn’t arrive on campus until the summer and admitted that chemistry is still a work in progress.

“I think it’s just chemistry and executing the offense,” Lopez said. “At the end of the day, we’re a bunch of new guys still jelling together. And I think every day counts. Practice counts. Meetings count. Just everything we do together counts.”

That process has been most visible in Lopez’s passing. Some drives stalled in the first half because of misfires on otherwise well-designed plays in the first half.

“Everybody was kind of disappointed,” Lopez said of the halftime locker room. “Felt like we left a lot of plays on the field. And I think just for us, the second half, coming in and scoring, defense doing a great job again, I think it was a good confidence-booster. But we still have a lot of stuff we need to clean up. We can do a lot better.”

Coach Bill Belichick echoed that sentiment after the game, but he defended his quarterback’s decision-making and poise.

“I think we’re getting more comfortable with him. He’s getting more comfortable with us,” Belichick said. “There are things that he obviously does really well, and we want to try to feature those.

“There are some other things that we need more work on, some timing and things like that,” Belichick said. “But he’s done a good job protecting the ball, done a good job making decisions in critical situations for us, and that’s allowed us a chance to win.”

Even with the inconsistency, Lopez led two second-half touchdown drives that helped UNC create separation from Richmond. For Belichick, that resilience mattered as much as the missed opportunities.

“Really, prior to that [late turnover],” Belichick said, “another turnover-free game from the offense. And that goes a long way to winning.”

The Tar Heels head to Orlando still searching for an offensive identity that matches their talent level — and hoping their quarterback’s accuracy will follow.

“I think the identity of the offense is we just want to be smart, tough and dependable,” Lopez said. “When we do that, we score and we move the ball. I think when we have mess-ups or little things that we don’t do right, that’s when we don’t play well.”

Saturday is another chance for Lopez and the offense to get better.

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Lopez game by game

Opponent	C	A	Cmp%	Yds	TD	INT	QB Rating	Rushes	Yds	Y/A
TCU	4	10	40.0	69	0	1	78.0	7	-10	-1.4
Cha.	17	25	68.0	155	1	0	133.3	9	44	4.9
Rich.	10	18	55.6	119	2	0	147.8	11	40	3.6
	31	53	58.5	343	3	1	127.8	27	74	2.7

Month/ date	Score/ time	Opponent	Record/ TV
September
1	L, 48–14	vs. TCU	0–1
6	W, 20–3	at Charlotte	1–1
13	W, 41–6	vs. Richmond	2–1
20	L, 34–9	at UCF	2–2
October
4	L, 38–10	vs. Clemson	2–3, 0–1 ACC
17 (Fri.)	L, 21–18	at California	2–4, 0–2
25	L, 17–16, OT	vs. No. 16 Virginia	2–5, 0–3
31 (Fri.)	W, 27–10	at Syracuse	3–5, 1–3
November
8	W, 20–15	vs. Stanford	4–5, 2–3
15	L, 28–12	at Wake Forest	4–6, 2–4
22	L, 32–25	vs. Duke	4–7, 2–5
29	L, 42–19	at N.C. State	4–8, 2–6