UNC-UCF: Bill Belichick Postgame Q&A

ORLANDO, Fla. — In North Carolina’s second power-conference matchup of the college football season, the Tar Heels struggled again and suffered a 34-9 loss to Central Florida on Saturday at the Acrisure Bounce House.

Gio Lopez threw for 87 yards and no touchdowns on 11-of-14 passing, before leaving the game in the second half with a lower-body injury. He was intercepted twice in the first half. Max Johnson replaced Lopez in the third quarter and threw for 67 yards and a touchdown on 11-of-19 completions.

The UNC defense gave up 366 total yards, including three rushing touchdowns to a trio of UCF backs. Tayven Jackson threw for 223 yards and a touchdown, while hitting on 25-of-32 throws.

Watch and read what Carolina head coach Bill Belichick said after the loss below.

Opening statement

Belichick: “First of all, it’s a good job by UCF today, Scott (Frost) and the team played well, certainly better than we did. So we had just too many problems out there to be consistent. Turn the ball over, penalty just the end of the half, missed tackles, so a lot of things we need to do a better job of. They were just better than us.”

What did you see from Max Johnson and the passing offense after he replaced Gio Lopez in the game?

Belichick: “A lot of film out there, and we’ll take a closer look at it. A lot of guys out there, we can evaluate all of them.”

Before Gio’s injury, was there anything he was doing well in moving the offense?

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

Is there any early update on Gio’s injury?

Belichick: “No. We’ll wait and see how it looks tomorrow. It’s hard to evaluate injuries five minutes after the game.”

Third down has been a struggle this season. What do you think needs to change from that standpoint?

Belichick: “(UCF) is a good pass-rushing team. Third-and-long’s been a problem for these guys, for everybody, so it’s a situation we want to stay out of. And when we were in it, it was hard. When we weren’t, we had a little more success. But they are a good pass-rushing team.”

What went wrong on the defensive side, especially late in the first half?

Belichick: “Three penalties. Three penalties and missed the coverage.”

How will you go about uplifting players during the bye week?

Belichick: “We’ll take a look at not just this game, but the first four weeks, just the areas that we feel like need to be improved the most, and work on those. And do what we feel like we can do to improve the team.”

What do you underline as the most important areas to focus on during the bye week?

Belichick: “Fundamentals and basic execution certainly would be near the top. Situational football, that’d be up there too.”

You said earlier in the season that you would be able to fully evaluate this team three to four games into the season. Now, at this point, what do you feel like you have in terms of this team’s identity and ability?

Belichick: “It’s still a work in progress, and we’ll continue to work through it. It’s a good time now to kind of re-evaluate. Look back at all four games, not just the last one or the first one or some other one. Try to take a look at a composite and see where we are on everything. Some things that we can do better, some things we probably need to move on from, some things we probably need to add, and maybe doing a little bit different direction. So we’ll talk about all that, evaluate it this week, and see what lies in the weeks ahead.”