Tar Heels Fully Set On TCU Prep As Anticipation Mounts For Opener

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — On to Texas Christian. Training camp is over, classes have begun and a starting quarterback has been named in Chapel Hill. With that, North Carolina’s preparations for the Labor Day opener against TCU in Kenan Stadium are underway.

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“Ready for football here?” Bill Belichick asked the assembled media on Wednesday. “We definitely are.”

Perhaps not all, but many questions will be answered in four days when the Tar Heels take the field. What will the offense and defense look like? How will a team with nearly 70 new players mesh together? Can UNC take the next step as a team and answer the call in Belichick’s debut?

Of course, there’s the question everyone will continue to ask throughout the season: Is this going to work?

This iteration of the Tar Heels will have the opportunity to see what they look like when competing against another team. That’s been the focus all week long for North Carolina: scouting TCU and getting ready to go to battle as a unit.

“We competed hard with the defense all camp,” Jordan Shipp said. “A lot of competition. I grew a lot in camp. I felt like we all grew a lot in camp. We have such a good defense, we learned from such a great coach and great coaches. But we’re definitely excited to go against somebody else. During camp, it’s offense vs. defense. Now, it’s the Tar Heels vs. TCU.”

The Horned Frogs went 9-4 in 2024 under head coach Sonny Dykes. They finished 6-3 in the Big 12, ranking fifth in the conference. The Horned Frogs finished 3rd in the Big 12 in scoring offense (33.5 points per game) and ninth in scoring defense (24.6 points per game).

TCU split its two games against ACC opponents last season, opening the year with a 34-27 road win against Stanford and later suffering a 66-42 defeat in Dallas to SMU. Dykes is 27-13 through three seasons as TCU’s head coach.

Belichick spoke to TCU’s recent success as a program on Monday, citing Dykes’ ability to coach the team to the national championship game in 2022 and TCU’s overall productivity this century, as the Horned Frogs have posted 10 seasons with 10 or more wins in the last 20 years. Belichick said this year’s team has a tough defense and an offense, led by quarterback Josh Hoover, that makes teams “cover every blade of grass” on the field.

Shipp identified Jamel Johnson, Devean Deal and Bud Clark as TCU’s best defensive players. 

“At the end of the day, we’re gonna play Carolina football,” Shipp said. “We’re gonna try to make them adjust- We’re gonna make them adjust to what we want to do.”

The players who spoke on Wednesday expressed that they don’t pay much attention to the outside noise surrounding the program — noise mostly inspired by the curiosity of Belichick’s potential success in the college football world.

In a matter of days, speculation will create a spectacle. All the thoughts and wonders about UNC football will bring eyes in from around the country. But at this point, the Tar Heels are focused on the X’s and O’s as they continue to scout a visiting TCU squad.

“Obviously, there’s a lot of hype going on, but I haven’t really felt it too much,” Thad Dixon said. “I’m not really too big on offseason hype. I’m more in-season production. So I’m really just waiting until Monday to really show what we can do.”