UNC-Syracuse Bill Belichick Postgame Q&A: ‘These Guys Emptied Out the Tank’

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — North Carolina secured its win in ACC football under coach Bill Belichick with a 27-10 victory against Syracuse on Friday night at the JMA Wireless Dome.

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Gio Lopez had his best outing of the season, throwing for 216 yards and two touchdowns on 15-of-19 passing. True freshman running back Demon June carried 13 times for 101 rushing yards and a touchdown, and added an explosive 72-yard touchdown on a catch and run.

The Tar Heels (3-5 overall, 1-3 ACC) halted their four-game losing slide, while sending Syracuse (3-6, 1-5) to its fifth straight loss. UNC’s defense dominated, putting the squeeze on the Orange while allowing just 147 total yards Melkart Abou Jaoude supplied two more sacks to boost his growing total to seven on the season.

Below, watch and read what Belichick said after the victory.

Opening Statement

Bill Belichick: “Good team win tonight. Really have a lot of respect for the way these guys have fought all year long, but especially, you know, top losses, you know, come up here. And you know, things didn’t go great at the beginning of the game, but then they just kept battling. And you know, had a really good second half defensively. You know, we played well, gave up three points, good team effort all the way around offensively, as I said, got up to the slow start, but second half was good. I thought our conditioning helped us. We ran the ball, and when everybody knew we were gonna run it, that was good. Our offensive line did a nice job. Backs really were outstanding. Made a lot of errors involved in their hands after they caught it or have the first guy in the tackle. So that was really good. Just happy for the team success. These guys have worked hard. They earned it and emptied out the tank tonight and go back to fill it up this week and get ready for Stanford.”

After losing the previous two games by a matter of inches, and then giving up the fumble return for the long touchdown early tonight, where does this team find the resilience its showing?

Belichick: “Well, you know, you put a lot into it. It’s hard to surrender. So these guys have been working hard.”

How much of a spark was Demon June tonight?

Belichick: “It’s great. When we see guys do what he did down the sideline, his stiff arm on another 34 yards and touchdown run did a really good job of him finishing the touchdown on the toss play, getting his pads down through the goal line, all that. It’s just seeing guys make plays with the ball in their hands and are hard to tackle, and it gets everybody fired up. But I thought all our backs did it, and they ran hard, and good pad level, and once again, the backs ran a good ball security.”

How did you navigate Syracuse starting freshman walk-on Joseph Filardi at quarterback instead of Rickie Collins or the other quarterbacks you prepared for during the week?

Belichick: “I’d say we basically stuck to it. But you have to be aware of who that player is or was, and that definitely caught us a little bit by surprise. But I know from experience, it’s a short week, you can’t change your whole offense in a week. And so you do what you can do for the quarterback, but the other 10 guys, to try to stay consistent with them. And I know they were going through some changes on the offensive line, with Washington at guard and Cruz at center, says that some moving parts there, a new center with a new quarterback. So that’s tough for me. I know for Coach Brown, that was something he had to deal with this week, and it was a challenge. But I think once the game got going, we just tried to play our coverages and try not to let the quarterback beat us with his legs. He got out a couple there, a couple times. But you know, overall, we did a decent job.”

Was it a key on defense to not let the walk-on get in an early rhythm and settle into the game?

Belichick: “I think the big thing was really the running game. I mean, when you take away the running game, then it just makes it a lot harder. If you can’t take away the running game, then the passing game is a lot easier. If the coverage isn’t as good, the quarterbacks are more comfortable under pressure, being able to stop the running game and eventually play with the lead. Those things.”

Any special postgame feelings after your first ACC victory?

Belichick: “Feels good. It feels great. Yeah, it’s good. We had a couple of opportunities the last couple of weeks that we weren’t able to capitalize. It feels good to get this one. Look forward to all the rest of the games.”

Your offensive line lost Chad Lindberg at one point. Austin Blake moved inside to center. And you had a couple of inexperienced players, Jordan Hall and Miles McVay, at tackle. How would you assess how that group played tonight?

Belichick: “Yeah, Jordan in particular, has done a really good job for us. He’s continuing to improve in practice, and we gave him some playing time early in the game. And then, unfortunately, when Chad went out, Austin went to center, which he’s been practicing as our backup center, so we were kind of ready for that move. Obviously didn’t want it to happen. But when Chad wasn’t able to go back in then Austin went in for him, and O’Steen stayed at guard, so then Miles has been getting some snaps on the right side. So, we’re fortunate that we had that kind of depth, and guys were able to step in there and play well. But Blaske’s a natural center, so I don’t think that was a big as big an adjustment for him as it might be for somebody else.”

Demon June had a big night, but what else clicked for this offense?

Belichick: “It was really just better execution. It wasn’t like we had a whole bunch of new plays or anything. We just executed a little bit better. And again, our backs made some good runs. We got a few holes open, and then the backs made yards on the run, and they ran hard. Three yards became seven, and those things added pretty quickly. We skipped a lot of third downs. We were able to get some first downs on first and second down. So we weren’t in a lot of third-down situations like the first half, and that was helpful, too.”

Who is responsible for setting the protections? Is it typically the center, or Gio, or a combination of the two?

Belichick: “They pressured us a lot in the first half. We probably got pressure around 75 percent of the plays with either linebacker pressure or perimeter pressure, or a couple times both. And that caused some negative plays. There’s no gains that got us into third down, and we weren’t able to convert on third down. Yeah, the protections are always a combination of the quarterback and the offensive line. Everybody needs to be on the same page. So the quarterback needs to know who’s not blocked, so if that person rushes, we have a way to beat him with the throw. And the offensive line, again, they did a good job of moving Tremble, and their defensive ends, at times, off the ball. They had that third-down package, and so Buxton didn’t play today, so they had a different look with the linebackers on the end of the line and played Tremble off the ball more than they had done that, but there was some different looks there. And yeah, that certainly, especially on the road with the crowd noise, is a challenge for the offensive line. So they did give us some trouble in the first half, absolutely. They ran a couple three three-man games that they got pressure on. I think they sacked some, but they were right on top of the quarterback and made him get rid of balls. So they do a good job. Chris Brown, it’s a good job with that package, and similar to what we use, to be honest, on third down.”

Is there anyone who Demon June reminds you of when he runs?

Belichick: “He’s had some good games, and he’s a good back. But let’s don’t get carried away now. We’re not talking about (Syracuse greats) Jim Brown or Ernie Davis. He’s not quite in that league yet. Too early to get the bust ready for the Hall of Fame. But he works hard. He does a good job. He’s getting better. We’ll see where it goes. I’m glad we have him. He’s certainly taken advantage of his playtime reps both in nthe run game and the passing game. He needs to improve his blitz pickup. He needs to refine some other skills. But he’s certainly getting there, and he’s been a big plus. So glad we have him. Love JuJu.”