In just his second game with the Tar Heels Bill Belichick earned his first college victory and reminded everyone that New England is firmly in the past.
Bill Belichick’s first win at North Carolina came in a 20 to 3 victory over Charlotte. The Hall of Fame coach leaned on discipline, fundamentals and situational football while making it clear his former team is not welcome around his program.
“Good win for our team tonight” Belichick said. “Short week and a lot of negativity from the outside but they really just got back to work. I thought we played a lot better tonight. Rain delay was challenging for both teams obviously but things got going and I thought we did a good job not turning the ball over which is a big improvement from last week. Played better defense tackled better and played better in the kicking game. We had some decent field position in the kicking game. So overall it was a solid effort. Certainly a lot of room for improvement but the players deserved it. They came back after a short week went on the road and got the win.”
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Asked about earning his first game ball as UNC coach, Belichick deflected the attention. “It is great but it is really about the team. The players went out there made the plays tonight. Staff did a great job. It was disappointing Monday night against TCU but these guys bounced back. They are the ones that deserve the credit tonight.”
Belichick highlighted the late touchdown drive before halftime. “That was a big drive for us. Gio…managed the clock well. We made a couple first downs and got in position to score and ultimately got the touchdown only left a few seconds on the clock. That was a big swing for us. Very well executed. Got a big run there from Bullet on the touchdown run. Offensive line blocked well Gio made a couple key plays. Anytime you go 80 yards you have to execute a bunch of them and we did.”
On the ground game Belichick praised his backs. “It is nice when there is a hole to see the backs run through it. June ran well. He has got some explosion. But I thought really all our backs ran hard. Charlotte blitzed us quite a bit so there were a lot of pass protection situations. Their linebackers are good blitzers but those guys did a good job in pass protection too.”
Belichick also pointed to the play of quarterback Gio Lopez. “Gio did a really good job of improvising and extending some plays where there was not much there. That is one of his real strengths. He really helped us out here a couple times. Some of it was design but a lot of it was just the go which is good.”
Defensively Belichick credited fundamentals. “It always comes back to fundamentals defeating blocks holding our gaps and tackling. We had more positive plays on first down which created second and long and third and long. That is the great situation to rush the passer. Overall just a more solid effort and fewer mistakes more positive plays.”
When asked about his former team Belichick was blunt. “It is clear that I am not welcome there around their facility and so they are not welcome in ours. Very simple.”
Belichick finished with a reminder of how difficult it is to win at any level. “It is always good to win. It is hard to win. You have to do a lot of things right. You have to do them better than your opponent. Players deserve the credit for the win.”
North Carolina returns home to host Richmond next Saturday at 3:30.
