North Carolina QB battle: Bill Belichick deflects questions on Max Johnson, Gio Lopez

Throughout his decades as a head coach in the NFL, Bill Belichick earned a reputation for many things. Precision and attention to detail on the field. Varied game plans ahead of games. Then, of course, his short and often seemingly grumpy answers in press conferences.

Belichick has now shown that potentially grumpy side of himself at North Carolina. After the struggles that the Tar Heels had on the offensive side of the ball against UCF, Belichick was asked about the team’s quarterback situation. There, he deflected with a curt answer.

“We’ll take a look at the film and take a closer look at it,” Bill Belichick said. “There’s a lot of guys out there, and I think I could evaluate all of them.”

Coming into this season, Gio Lopez won the North Carolina quarterback competition. It’s been inconsistent since then, though. His 430 passing yards are currently 17th in the ACC. Then, his three passing touchdowns are tied for 12th in the conference. That’s something he’s paired with three interceptions for a 1:1 touchdown-to-interception ratio. However, he would exit the UCF game on Saturday with an injury, forcing veteran Max Johnson into action.

Regardless, Belichick would continue to dodge questions about the North Carolina quarterback play. Instead, he deferred to it being a team game where they have plenty of room to improve as a group.

“We scored points the last two weeks but we had trouble doing it today… Offense is, football is a team sport, there’s 11 guys out there,” Belichick said. “We’re not talking about one guy. It’s 11 guys that have to operate efficiently and at times we’ve done that and at times we haven’t. Today wasn’t one of our better ones.”

Regardless, something does need to change in the passing game for North Carolina. The Tar Heels have the 123rd-ranked passing offense nationally, throwing for 150 yards per game. That’s directly contributed to some other concerning numbers. Like their scoring offense, which is 107th nationally while averaging 21 points per game.

Moving forward, it’s unclear what Gio Lopez’s health status is going to be. If injured, Max Johnson will presumably take over for the Tar Heels. However, that could be a change that Bill Belichick is looking to make regardless.

Urban Meyer shreds North Carolina after film review

Bill Belichick is going to go back to watch film of North Carolina moving forward. Former head coach Urban Meyer already did so. What he found was shockingly bad to him.

“I wanted to do a little homework. I watched their videotape or some tape on it. They’re worse on tape than I thought they would be. I’m not saying just — because you can say, ‘We have really bad players.’ Okay, you brought in 70 new people,” Meyer said.

“But I’m seeing things. Just misfits on defense, which means as a linebacker takes on a block, he’s supposed to send that to the unblocked safety. So, if the safety’s inside, I’m taking on the blocker with my inside shoulder to force it to him. It’s not happening. Then, on the offensive side, it’s a trainwreck. So, I don’t know. I don’t think it ends well. Hate to say that.”

North Carolina has a bye week to get healthy and get things sorted. After that, they’re set to play host to the Clemson Tigers.