Bill Belichick, Gio Lopez Seek To Shore Up Timing In Passing Game

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — Gio Lopez’s first three games at North Carolina have produced mixed results at best thus far as the offense continues to put itself together.

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Through three games, Lopez has completed 58.5% of his passes for 343 yards, three touchdowns and one interception. He’s also gained 74 rushing yards with one touchdown. Lopez’s season-high in passing yards is the 155 he recorded against Charlotte. Last season at South Alabama, he completed 68% of his passes and averaged 232 passing yards per game.

After Saturday’s game, Belichick cited timing as an area in the passing game that needed to improve, and he expounded on that concept in his press conference on Tuesday.

“The timing really comes from two people: the person throwing and the person catching, but then also the distribution of the players around them,” Belichick said on Tuesday. “Sometimes, you need it to complement the other route. Sometimes, you need it to complement it by creating space so that the players can work into open areas. But if a receiver is half a second quicker or half a second slower, then that throws off the quarterback timing. Sometimes the quarterback has to move around a player to throw a ball into an open lane or avoid a rush.

“And so those things, those little things, can be the difference between a big play and an interception, honestly. So there’s no magic wand to it. It’s just doing it over and over again and having that confidence where you can, as a quarterback, let the ball go just a split second early, because you can anticipate that (the receiver is) going to be in that spot, and that split second is huge, especially in tight coverage situations like third down, red area and tight man-to-man coverage.”

Lopez joined the team during the spring transfer portal window, so his practices with the team before the TCU opener only came in the team’s training camp sessions. Belichick officially named him the starter five days before the TCU opener. He struggled in his Tar Heel debut, completing four of his 10 pass attempts with one interception before an injury took him out of the game.

The Charlotte game was Lopez’s most efficient so far, as he completed 68% of his throws. Outside of a 51-yard bomb he threw to Chris Culliver, only four of his other 16 completions went for more than 10 yards. He ran for 44 rushing yards and made some throws on the move as well. Against Richmond, Lopez’s accuracy took a step back. He had some missed throws and moments where he couldn’t connect with his open receivers. He completed 10 of his 18 throws for 119 yards and two touchdown passes to Jordan Shipp.

Belichick discussed the importance of Lopez maintaining confidence while in the pocket and getting throws out efficiently and effectively.

“When the ball comes out on time, there’s confidence,” Belichick said. “I think a couple of Gio’s throws to Jake (Johnson) came out real quick. They got there just in time and Jake was able to squirt forward for a first down a couple of times. Things like that, where if you just hesitate another split second, maybe he makes a catch, maybe he doesn’t get that extra two yards for the first down. There’s a difference between anticipating the receiver being open and then seeing him open and then throwing the ball, a lot of times it’s too late. And if you can anticipate that, the receiver creating separation and getting open, then you hit him. If you wait until he gets open a lot of times, that window closes by the time you get him the ball.”

Lopez self-assessed his play a bit on Saturday when asked about what he could improve on. He said that with being in a new place and creating an offense with many new players, chemistry still needs to be solidified. He acknowledged that elements of his game can be picked up as well.

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

Going into UCF, Lopez will look to deliver a stronger showing as the team re-enters Power Conference competition. The Knights enter the weekend with a 2-0 record after defeating Jacksonville State and North Carolina A&T.

Cohesion with Lopez and the rest of the offense continues to come together, though the team hasn’t yet delivered a signature performance through the air. As the Tar Heels seek to take the passing game to the next level, progress in that part of the game starts with Lopez’s ability to nail down a rhythm with the offensive group.

“We just build that through repetition,” Belichick said. “We’re not there yet, but I feel like we’re getting closer each week, and things come up in the game or things come up in practice that we correct or talk about and say, ‘Okay, here’s how we’re going to do this,’ and then we do it, and then we gain confidence in it, and then hopefully we’ll be able to do again in game situations.”