UNC-TCU: Bill Belichick Postgame Q&A

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — North Carolina took a 7-0 lead over TCU before Monday night’s season opener quickly deteriorated for the Tar Heels into a resounding 48-14 defeat in Bill Belichick‘s debut. Watch and read what the Carolina head man said after his first game coaching the Tar Heels …

Opening statement:

“It was a great atmosphere here for the game tonight. The fans had tremendous injury energy, we played competitively, but then just couldn’t sustain it. So obviously we have a lot of work to do. You know, need to do a better job all the way around — coaching, playing, all three phases of the game just wasn’t up to what it needs to be. And I know we’re a lot better than that, so we’ll need to work on those things and show it on Saturday and turnaround. But give TCU credit, they came in, did a good job, and they were clearly the better team tonight. They deserved to win, and they did it decisively.”

Was there a key sequence that got the team off track?

“It was multiple things. Anytime you give up two turnover touchdowns offensively, that’s not good. We gave up several long plays on defense, where they gained a lot of yards on one play. So just too many of those. There wasn’t any one thing. It was a combination of multiple things. Too many three and outs, too many long plays on defense, and then two turnovers. Well, we had three turnovers, two turnovers for touchdowns…”

Given the short week, how much teaching can you do from this game?

“Yeah, well, we’ll use the time best we can to, like I said, correct the mistakes from tonight and move on, and then get ready for Charlotte. So we’ve got a couple extra days here, and they came off disappointing game themselves, so we’re both a little bit in the same boat here. But, yeah, we got a lot of work to do.”

You guys had a lot of missed tackles tonight …

“Yeah, you said it, we’ve got to do a better job of tackling. There’s no doubt about that, and so we’re just gonna have to work harder on it, and tackle better. I mean, there’s no secret to it, no pill you can take. Just gotta tackle better fundamentally and get more guys around the ball, so we’re not missing so many tackles in space.”

After that first drive, your offense struggled to put points on the board. What did you see from your sideline view that TCU was doing differently?

“Look, they just outplayed us, they outcoached us. I mean, they were just better than we were tonight. That’s all there was to it. They controlled both sides of the line of scrimmage. Their skill players played well. And they did a lot more things right than we did. So give them credit for being the better team. They certainly deserve it.”

Could you assess how Gio Lopez played, his injury status, and if you saw enough from Max Johnson?

“Yeah, we’ll see how Gio is. They took him off, took a look at him, hopefully it’s not too bad, but we’ll see. You know, give Max a lot of credit. He came in after being off for a long time, hung in there and made some plays in a tough situation. So give him a lot of credit for what he did tonight, but we’ll take a look at it after we see where things are at it and go from there. I don’t know. It’s too early to tell now.”

Where did the breakdowns happen in the run game after that first drive happened?

“There were multiple. The biggest thing was they (the OL) had trouble getting off of the linebackers and they let them float over the top. We didn’t get to them like we needed to. We got beat in a couple one-on-one situations. And if you don’t make yards on first down, then you’re in second-, third-and-long. And just too many three-and-outs there in that second quarter. So first down really helps you a lot on second and third down. We just didn’t do a good enough job on first down tonight.”

Were you surprised at how things snowballed?

“We’ll just keep working and keep grinding away. We’re better than what we were tonight, but we have to go out there and and show that, improve it. So nobody’s going to do it for us. We’ll have to do it ourselves, and that’s what we’re going to do.”

What was your message to the team?

“I’ll keep my comments to the team private — between myself and the team. But obviously we have a lot of work to do, that we need to do, and we need to get to it. And that’s a long and short of it.”

Was the environment what you envisioned for a college game?

“Yeah, it was a great environment tonight. I mean, fans are awesome. It’s great energy in the stadium. We just didn’t enough to keep it going. We’ve got to play better for the energy to be sustainable.”

What is your message to the fans after this performance?

“Just what I just been saying. We’re going to get back to work, and we’re going to get better.”

In preparing for Charlotte, what’s the top thing you want to see from your team in practice this week?

“Again, the biggest thing is we have to correct some of the mistakes we made tonight. I mean, we just can’t perform well doing some of the things that we did, we’ve got to be better than that, and obviously we’ve got to deal with Charlotte and the problems they present. But we had too many self-inflicted wounds that we have to eliminate before we can worry about addressing our opponents. Wo we’ll start with that, and then move on to Charlotte.”

To what extent do you feel the injuries to the offensive line were an issue tonight?

“I mean, every injury is an opportunity, so somebody’s out and somebody else is in, they have an opportunity, and so we’ll work with those players and work for them to get better. I think we have enough players that we just have to perform better as a unit. Coach better, play better, work better on our fundamentals. There’s no shortcut to it. We’ve just got to work harder and do a better job. That’s all there is to it?”

If Gio is available on Saturday, will he start?

“Well, let’s see where he’s at. It’s a short week. We’ll see. I don’t know what his availability is right now, so I don’t want to speculate on that.”