It was already close to Sunday morning by the time Bill Belichick stepped the podium following UNC’s stunning 31-30 overtime loss to Syracuse. Belichick’s program had taken all the positive momentum built up over the last few weeks and promptly squelched it in front of a sellout Kenan Stadium crowd.
One way to describe Belichick after losses is taciturn. And Saturday night was no exception.
“Not too much to say about this one,” Belichick said. “They made a couple more plays than we did today, and that was the difference in the game.”
When Belichick says he doesn’t have much to say, he means it. The head coach’s press conference lasted all of 3:21, and his postgame radio hit with Jones Angell on the Tar Heel Sports Network a mere 1:36.
The players weren’t much more talkative. In a game where Carolina seemingly had every opportunity to send the Orange packing, the Tar Heels simply could not make the plays which had won them close games against TCU, Pittsburgh and Duke. Syracuse, on the other hand, finally won a close game after gut-wrenching losses to the likes of Cal, Virginia and Louisville.
“It’s just football,” receiver Jordan Shipp said of the Tar Heels’ offensive struggles in the second half. “You want to convert every time you’re out there… it is what it is.”
As for Carolina’s defensive struggles which let the Orange back into the ballgame, linebacker and Syracuse transfer Derek McDonald took a similar tack.
“Those flaws that I’m talking about, it’s just football, to be honest with you,” McDonald said. “Some days you do a little bit better at them than other days, but the only thing you can keep doing is keep getting better at them and keep attacking them every practice every week. So that’s what we’re gonna do.”
One play from 5-2, UNC is now 4-3 with the unenviable task of hosting top-ranked Miami at Kenan Stadium Halloween night. The Hurricanes’ high-powered offense was no doubt licking its chops watching a quarterback who hadn’t played since September slice and dice his way through the Tar Heels’ defense.
Carolina had been trending up since its own comeback wins against the Panthers and Blue Devils earlier in October. Belichick had even started to win back some of the fans who had abandoned ship amid the disastrous 2025 season. But one should never underestimate the ability of the Tar Heels to halt their own momentum. And that’s not simply a reporter taking a cheap shot: Shipp said so himself.
“I think we’re holding ourselves back,” he said. “Some self-inflicted wounds. Some small stuff. It’s one small detail that could spring a play for a 60-yard touchdown.”
On the brink of a potential breakthrough, UNC now finds itself going back to the drawing board with a college football blue blood coming to town Saturday. Should the heavily-favored Hurricanes indeed beat the Tar Heels, that would drop Carolina to 1-3 at home — with the only win coming against FCS East Tennessee State. Belichick has only one home win in his two seasons in charge against an ACC opponent: Stanford.
Kenan Stadium fans have been let down before. Many times, in fact. So maybe we shouldn’t be at all surprised the Tar Heels choked a game away they had every chance of winning. As Shipp and McDonald both said, that’s just football.
Or more specifically, that’s just Carolina football.
Featured image via UNC-Chapel Hill
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