Countdown to Kickoff: First Road Game Part of UNC’s Self-Discovery Process

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — North Carolina coach Bill Belichick was delving into an expansive mood with his comments this week, when he used his vast depth of experience from the NFL to suggest where his Tar Heels likely are in the self-discovery process of fully determining their assets and liabilities.

>>> Welcome to the new home of Inside Carolina! Reactivate your account for $1 <<<

Across his 29 years and more than 500 games in charge on the NFL level, he said about one-third of a new season’s schedule was required in order to reveal a genuine understanding of the characteristics possessed by a particular team. So if that guide also applies here in college, UNC perhaps will need the entire month of September for the distinguishing of its own collective personality.

“And then you can kind of play to the strengths or weaknesses of that team,” Belichick said, continuing his point. “I’m not sure exactly how it’s going to go here. I really don’t know. But in that context my experience was about a third of the season. So a third of the season here is three or four games.

“At some point things will settle in where this is who we are, this is what we can do, this is what we’re going to have trouble doing. Things like that. I don’t think we’re quite there yet. There’s not enough evidence.”

The Tar Heels only will be five days removed from their widely seen — and panned — season-opening debacle, when they meet Charlotte on Saturday night in their first road assignment of the 2025 campaign. Carolina’s disastrous 48-14 loss to TCU on Monday night amid the unmoored hype surrounding Belichick’s coaching debut averaged 6.6 million viewers on ESPN, making it the most-watched college football game on Labor Day since 2016.

Now, the enormous buzz and accompanying ridicule follow the Tar Heels to Charlotte’s Richardson Stadium, where the largest on-campus crowd in the school’s brief football history is expected. Charlotte officials are adding extra seating on the stadium concourse above the 49ers’ student section, in preparation for the turnout. Richardson Stadium’s primary listed capacity of 15,314 makes the place among the smallest venues in the FBS.

“I think when we were doing good, we were looking very good,” UNC linebacker Khmori House said this week, looking back Monday night’s face-planting course of events against TCU. “And when we had our lows, we were low. There’s obviously things to work on — obviously. But if we pick up from the good things and correct the things we’ve got to work on, we can be a really good team.

“We’ve got to just keep stacking our days. We’re going to get better, for sure. That’s no question. It’s a no-brainer. We’re going to get better. And we’ve just got to be better, for sure.”

UNC has been installed as a 13½-point favorite on Saturday night by the oddsmakers. Last week, in new coach Tim Albin’s first game, Charlotte lost 34-11 to Appalachian State in its season opener at Bank of America Stadium. The 49ers led 3-0 into the second quarter, before tumbling behind 27-3 as the Mountaineers began to roll on offense. App State dwarfed Charlotte 586-218 in total yards on the night, while accumulating 6.7 yards per play.

Meanwhile, the Tar Heels, after rocketing out of the gate to lead TCU 7-0, cracked and splintered and plunged into a similar free-fall. Carolina trailed 10-7 in the later stages of the first half, when TCU’s Bud Clark jumped a Gio Lopez throw for an interception and touchdown return. Later, when Lopez fumbled on a sack and the Horned Frogs scooped and scored for another touchdown return, the unraveling had dumped the Tar Heels into a 41-7 mineshaft of a deficit midway through the third quarter.

“I think some of our deficiencies were certainly exposed by TCU,” Belichick said. “There were other things that were pretty competitive. We need to shore up the things that we need to shore up. And overall just some fundamental execution of just basic football. Snaps and catching the ball and tackling and finishing blocks and getting the proper depth on pass routes. All those things that we’ve done before. We know how to do them. We didn’t do them consistently enough in the game. We need to be better at that.”

And not long thereafter, he added: “I’d say schematically we need to, as a coaching staff, do a better job of finding the things that each of our individual players do well and try to play more into their strengths as they become more apparent. Or conversely, not put them in situations that aren’t particularly favorable to them. Try to avoid those. We can do a better job of that, too. So that part about it’s on us.”

UNC hasn’t started a football season 0-2 since 2018, the end of former coach Larry Fedora’s tenure. Furthermore, the NFL’s New England Patriots opened 0-2 under Belichick only once over his final 22 seasons on the job. The Tar Heels will arrive Saturday night with six straight non-conference victories against in-state opponents, including a 38-20 defeat of Charlotte last September in the first-ever football game between the programs.

This time around, the 49ers are starting UNC transfer Conner Harrell at quarterback. He’s backed up by Duke transfer Grayson Loftus. Charlotte has added four other former UNC players through the transfer portal in defensive back Ja’Qurious Conley, receiver Justin Olson, kicker Liam Boyd and defensive end Curtis Simpson.

The Tar Heels are becoming the fourth FBS team in the state to play a road game at Charlotte, joining App State, Duke and East Carolina. Duke’s only visit to Richardson Stadium opened the 2021 season, and produced Charlotte’s only defeat of an opponent from a power conference in program history. That upset ultimately marked the beginning of the end for David Cutcliffe, the former Duke coach.

Belichick said his UNC staff has studied material from Albin’s 20-season run at Ohio University, where he served as offensive coordinator (2005-20) and head coach (2021-24), before taking the Charlotte job. Albin earned MAC Coach of the Year honors in 2022 and 2024 as Ohio posted three consecutive 10-win seasons, the most successful three-year stretch in program history.

“It’s a little bit to take in in a shorter time span,” Belichick said, referring to the Tar Heels’ condensed preparation period for Charlotte. “But we knew what the schedule was, so we did some work on these guys in the offseason as well. … Overall a good, well-balanced team that’s picking up a new system and kind of finding their way. Maybe a little bit like we are.”