UNC Football’s Loudest Alarm:
Total Defensive Collapse Vs. TCU

By David Glenn
North Carolina Sports Network
(last updated Sept. 5, 2025)

In his 511 games as a head coach in the National Football League, Bill Belichick never watched one of his teams give up 48 or more points in a single contest.

In his first game at North Carolina, his Tar Heels yielded 48 points to TCU, and that number definitely could have been higher — maybe much higher — if Horned Frogs coach Sonny Dykes hadn’t mercifully simplified his team’s play-calling in the second half.

TCU led 41-7 with 6:56 remaining in the third quarter, meaning there were still almost 22 minutes left to play. At that point, Carolina fans’ early exodus from sold-out Kenan Stadium accelerated, such that the venue was more than half-empty for the remainder of the game.

“Give TCU credit,” Belichick said. “They came in, did a good job, and they were clearly the better team tonight. They deserved to win, and they did it decisively.”

Indeed.

Oddly, 14 of TCU’s 48 points came with the Carolina offense on the field. The Horned Frogs turned two turnovers by UNC’s starting quarterback, South Alabama transfer Gio Lopez, into immediate touchdowns.

Lopez, a late transfer portal entry who didn’t arrive in Chapel Hill until after spring practice, threw an ill-advised pass into the flat that veteran TCU safety Bud Clark turned into a 25-yard pick-six in the second quarter. Later, veteran TCU linebacker Devean Deal turned a Lopez fumble into a 37-yard scoop-and-score play.

“Any time you give up two turnover touchdowns offensively, that’s not good,” Belichick said. “We had three turnovers, two for touchdowns.”

While it’s not uncommon for a brand-new offense with lots of new faces to struggle, especially in a season opener against a high-quality opponent, it was far more jolting to watch UNC’s defense collapse in front of Belichick, one of the greatest defensive minds in NFL history.

TCU posted 29 first downs to the Tar Heels’ 10.

TCU gained 542 yards to the Tar Heels’ 222.

TCU averaged more than seven yards per carry to the Tar Heels’ 1.8.

“Look, they just outplayed us, outcoached us,” Belichick said. “I mean, they were just better than we were tonight. That’s all there was to it.”

TCU quarterback Josh Hoover, who was rarely under pressure and never sacked, completed 27 of his 36 passing attempts for 284 yards, two touchdowns and one interception.

TCU wide receiver Jordan Dwyer had nine receptions for 136 yards, including a 27-yard touchdown grab against UNC senior cornerback Marcus Allen, who was repeatedly targeted by the Horned Frogs’ passing attack.

TCU running back Kevorian Barnes gained 113 yards on 11 carries, including a 75-yard touchdown run on which not a single UNC defender even brushed his jersey.

Overall, it was just too easy.

“We’ve got to do a better job of tackling. There’s no doubt about that,” Belichick said. “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.”

Anyone who was shocked by UNC’s loss to TCU simply ignored some obvious facts.

While Belichick appears to be recruiting well for the future, his first team in Chapel Hill is woefully short on NFL-caliber talent. When Dykes made his huge first-year splash at TCU, in 2022, he — unlike Belichick — had a number of sturdy building blocks.

Belichick and his defensive coordinator, son Steve Belichick, do appear to have some quality players on defense, so there’s at least a chance for improvement this season.

Washington cornerback transfer Thaddeus Dixon, an NFL prospect, actually played well against TCU. The Horned Frogs made it crystal-clear from their opening drive that they weren’t going to throw in Dixon’s direction often.

At linebacker, too, UNC has some proven commodities. All three starters against TCU — Andrew Simpson (All-Mountain West at Boise State), Mikai Gbayor (Nebraska) and Khmori House (Washington) — had previous starting experience at the college level, either in a Power Four conference and/or with a high-caliber program.

Elsewhere on defense, though, the Tar Heels have far more questions than answers, and the problems against TCU definitely started in the trenches.

With legendary UNC sackmasters Julius Peppers and Lawrence Taylor (both members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame) in attendance, Carolina generated almost no pass rush. While TCU’s defense posted eight tackles behind the line of scrimmage, UNC managed only three.

“(TCU) controlled both sides of the line of scrimmage,” Belichick said. “They did a lot more things right than we did.”

In Carolina’s opening 3-3-5 alignment against TCU, the starters on the line were sophomore tackle D’Antre Robinson (a promising 6-4, 315-pound Florida transfer), redshirt freshman end Leroy Jackson (one career tackle) and redshirt junior end Isaiah Johnson (an Arizona transfer with nine career tackles).

UNC’s most accomplished defensive lineman, UConn transfer Pryce Yates, did not play against TCU. (There was no official explanation for his absence, although an injury is suspected.) A 6-4, 265-pound fifth-year senior, he started 27 games for the Huskies over the past three seasons and was the defensive MVP in their Fenway Bowl victory over the Tar Heels last season.

When Carolina finally released its first public depth chart of the season, three days after the TCU debacle, the only significant changes in the projected starting lineup were on the defensive line. Penn State transfer Smith Vilbert (a 6-6, 282-pound sixth-year senior who had only one start in five years with the Nittany Lions) and Melkart Abou-Jaoude (a 6-5, 260-pound redshirt junior who starred at Delaware in the FCS ranks last season) joined Robinson and Jackson on the revised starting line, in a 4-2-5 alignment.

UNC’s next two games, at 0-1 Charlotte on Saturday night and home against Richmond (an FCS program) on Sept. 13, present what are expected to be the weakest opponents on the Tar Heels’ 2025 schedule … and perhaps the best opportunities for the team to show improvement.

“We’ll just keep working and keep grinding away,” Belichick said. “We’re better than what we were tonight, but we have to go out there 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.”