Bill Belichick's debut with North Carolina came with much fanfare, but the lopsided 48-14 loss against TCU will go into the record books for all the wrong reasons. The performance marked one of the worst performances by the Tar Heels in years and proved a disastrous debut for perhaps the greatest football coach in history. 

The Tar Heels had a brilliant first drive on offense and defense, quickly jumping out to a 7-0 lead. From there, everything went wrong. TCU scored 41 unanswered points through the first 44 minutes of game time. They scored two defensive touchdowns and got a 75-yard breakaway from running back Kevorian Barnes on the first play of the third quarter to put things away. 

Not even Bill Belichick can break the Carolina curse of falling short on big stages

Chip Patterson

However, the final score doesn't do justice to just how devastating a performance Belichick's debut in Chapel Hill really was for the team. Here are key stats that help contextualize just how depressingly they performed. 

• Bill Belichick allowed the most points in a game of his career as a head coach, moving past a 47-17 loss to the Buffalo Bills in 2021. 
• Belichick suffered the second-worst loss of his career, trailing only a 38-3 loss to the Cowboys in 2023. 
• Belichick has trailed by 34+ points only four times in 511 games as a head coach. 

The NFL is generally a defensive league where teams are close to evenly matched. At the college level, Belichick will come to understand just how big the talent differentials are between the good and bad teams -- and he was on the wrong end. 

The Horned Frogs were able to physically bully North Carolina on both sides to the tune of 258 yards and 7.4 yards per carry. Tar Heels quarterback Gio Lopez completed only 4-of-10 passes. It was a total disasterclass, the likes of which Belichick has quite literally never seen in his career. 

Making matters worse, North Carolina still has No. 4 Clemson on the schedule on Oct. 4, which also comes in Chapel Hill. If the TCU matchup was any indication, the records could get even worse in a few weeks. 

• North Carolina allowed the most points in a season opener in program history, surpassing the 41 allowed against 2001 Oklahoma. 
• The Tar Heels lost by their greatest margin since Sept. 27, 2018 against Miami. 
• Mack Brown never lost a game by that margin in his second stint at North Carolina. 

The performance wasn't just terrible by Belichick standards. Instead, it was a historically terrible game for North Carolina as well.  

TCU is a quality opponent, but it wasn't necessarily an outlier. Last year, UNC played Minnesota. The year before, they beat South Carolina. They often play power conference opponents in their openers, but none of them have come close to disasters of this caliber. 

The Tar Heels pushed legendary coach Mack Brown out the door after a 6-6 record in 2024. However, he never had a performance like this, even in his first season after taking over a 2-9 team. Four of his six losses last season were by 10 points or fewer. Certainly, Brown has to be taking a victory lap after seeing what Belichick could do in an offseason. 

• TCU posted its best team rushing performance since 2022 vs. Michigan
• North Carolina recorded its second-worst rushing performance (50 yards) since 2016

There are many stories of this game, but North Carolina's incompetence in the trenches stands apart. On both sides, the Tar Heels got torn apart. TCU's rushing offense was perhaps its weakest unit in 2024, but UNC's porous defense made it look like prime Nebraska. The breakaway run by Barnes in the second half broke the game wide open and proved to be a killshot. 

UNC tried to establish the run early to protect Lopez, but managed to get very little going. No player on the team finished with 40 yards rushing or 4.0 yards per carry. TCU recorded eight tackles for loss and two sacks. The trenches will be a defining flaw by Belichick's first squad, and perhaps one that could put bowl eligibility in question against one of the easiest schedules in the Power Four. 

• Belichick is 0-3 in head coaching debuts, including a two-score loss in 1991 as head coach of the Cleveland Browns. 

If there's a piece of optimism, maybe it's that? Belichick teams never come out swinging right when he takes over. It takes time to build a strong culture and a technically sound team. However, doing it at the collegiate level is a different challenge and Belichick, 73, doesn't have quite as much time.