The North Carolina Tar Heels traveled to Ireland and took care of business, defeating TCU in a hard-fought battle to begin the 2026 season.
While the world doubted Bill Belichick and the Tar Heels, it didn't see to bother this year's squad one bit. From timely offense to stellar defense over the final three quarters of action, the Tar Heels found a way to get the job done, and while it wasn't pretty, it still counts as a "W" in the win column.
Following the game, Belichick spoke to the media about his team's victory. Check out what the head coach of the Tar Heels had to say below.
Bill Belichick elaborates on UNC's season opening victory over TCU
Defensive adjustments following first few drives of the game
“It was the same plays, and I just think we probably did a better job of playing it. We got used to the speed of it. You know, TCU is a good outside running team. They certainly hurt us with that early with that in the game with some formation in the boundary and got us out of position, so we could have done a better job of coaching that I would say. But we got a few things settled down there, and then you know these guys played hard. We got a lot of plays up front and from the guys on the edge, So yeah, you don’t stop the running game without good team defense.”
Thoughts on Billy Edwards Jr.'s first start as a Tar Heel
“I thought Billy did a solid job managing the game. He didn’t turn the ball over on his side of it, you know. But we got to do a better job of you know taking care of the ball.”
What worked for the defensive line to be so successful
“Good team defense. It’s not one guy that does it. If you play good team defense and force a runner to go, someone is there to tackle him. So everybody just has to take care of their responsibility. TCU is a good, really good outside running team. Payne’s a good back. Again, it’s team defense. Somebody’s got to make the tackle, and so whoever it is, it’s just a result of good team defense that keeps those plays from being explosive.”
What Belichick saw on the final drive from his defense
“This goes all the way back to preseason workouts, spring practice, summer workouts, training camp. It’s all pointed to getting ready for the season, not necessarily just one game, but getting ready for the season. And then the last eight to nine days, we poured a lot in TCU. Certainly we didn’t play competitively enough last year, but this year, I mean, these guys came out with a whole different attitude, and you know, they were going to fight for 60 minutes, and they did.”
What does this victory mean to Belichick and UNC
“It was a great experience for our all of our student athletes to come over here and play in Dublin. You know, it’s a great city. We enjoyed driving around as much as we did. Going from place to place here from the stadium to the hotel and a couple other events we hit. That was great. A big focus for us though to come out and win the game, and that was was our goal. You know maybe the guys will see a little bit more of the city tonight.”
Jelani Thurman's impact
“Jelani gave us some explosive plays, especially early in the game, to kind of get us started there, and then the pass and on the naked and on the flat, you know, that was a big first down there, and at the end on the last drive.”
Support from the Tar Heel fan base
“It almost felt like a home game. Certainly, there was a lot of support here, and that was awesome. It was fantastic to see our our fans come and support us. It’s a long way to go for a football game, and that you know I think speaks to the to the pride in in Carolina from our fans, and especially our alumni, we spent time with them in a couple different events this week, and it’s great to welcome them here. And we appreciate their support. It’d be hard to have a successful program without the support that they’ve given us.”
What does this game tell about the offense?
“We have a long way to go. So we’ll go back and we’ll get to work. There’s a lot of things we can fix, do better, and improve on, and we’ll certainly work on those, so that’s going to certainly be the way it is after every game early in the season. I think once you get to you know fifth, sixth, seventh game of the year, somewhere in there in October, then you kind of hit your stride a little bit, and you know then you start playing the second half of the season. So we’re not there yet. There’s a lot of things that we need to coach better, that we need to execute better.”
How much stock can you put in this one game on film?
“There’s a lot of good situation football that came up today that we can all learn from. Fundamentals are going to continue to be critical at this time of year, and then we’ll start preparing for ETSU. It’ll be kind of similar to this week because we had a long week to prepare for TCU. It’ll be kind of similar for the next game, and then you know after that most every week is going to be just a quick turnaround Saturday to Saturday. So we’re kind of fortunate to have another week of corrections building fundamentals and so forth. We’ll just start getting ready for ETSU.”
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