North Carolina came out of a bye week and took on Clemson in its first game in the ACC. Week 6 proved to be similar to Week 1 against TCU and Week 4 against UCF when the Tar Heels were routed. The ending score was 38-10, though the game was over midway through the second quarter.
Heading on the road to Cal in the team’s next game, several things need to be fixed on both sides of the ball. Coach Bill Belichick spoke on those things following this embarrassing loss at home.
All quotes via Inside Carolina.
Opening Statement
“A disappointing outcome for us today. I thought we had a good week. I think we were ready to go, and unfortunately we gave some big plays early in the game that really tilted the game, and we’re just never able to recover. The big plays in the passing game, I mean, we probably gave up 200 yards of passing on five plays. Three alignment penalties that were all our fault. So we just got to do a better job of coaching, a better job playing, and just eliminate the mistakes that are fixable.
“I mean that there’s honestly not that many things that we can’t get right, but we got to do a better job of it, and we can’t give up plays like that defensively at the beginning of the game. It just tilts the score. It’s too much, so get back to work here tomorrow, and I think I expect the players to rebound like they did last week, and have another good week here. We’ll get ready to go and keep improving and keep fixing the things that we need to fix.”
On the self-inflicted mistakes
“Well, they don’t have all the time, but they happened two or three critical times today. Lack of concentration, and we need to do a better job coaching. … We have an illegal formation three times. We just can’t make those mistakes. When the players make them, that’s obviously bad. But the fact that they happen is part of that’s coaching too. So I’ll take my share of the responsibility on that. We got to do a better job of coaching.”
Is this a bigger rebuild than you anticipated when you first took the job?
“I’m just not going to make any evaluations like that. We’re just gonna keep working every day and every week and let the guys get better, and the guys that play play better will keep playing and the guys that don’t, maybe there’s other people that can compete and move ahead of them playing time. But we’re just gonna keep grinding. I’m not going to evaluate where things are. Just take a week by week.”
A lot of your games have been on national TV, and a lot of people are watching. How do you overcome these results when talking to people on the recruiting trails?
“We’re just honest about it. Honest that we’re building, and if you want to be part of the program that’s being built, we’re here for you. That’s what we do.”
What was your message to the team after the game?
“I’ll keep my conversations with the team between myself and the team, but I’ll just say we’re gonna work through it and work our way out of it. We’ll get better every week and keep working every week to prepare for the next team. We’ll be ready to go, and that’s what we’re gonna do.”
Do you think that’s being received by your team?
“Yeah, I thought we had a good week. I think we were ready to go. It just doesn’t show up on the scoreboard. But I think the way they competed through the four quarters of the game showed that there was a lot of fighting, a lot of effort in the team. Score didn’t reflected that.”
What ultimately led you to make the decision to start Max Johnson?
“Gio (Lopez) didn’t practice much this week, so that really wasn’t an option. We’ll see where he is going forward. We’ll evaluate it. If there’s anything to evaluate, I don’t know. We’ll see what his situation is this week.”
Do you think that there will ever be a point in time where you just let the young guys play this season?
“Look, the guys that deserve to play, those are the guys who are going to play. That’s all I can tell you. I’m not going to base it on how old they are or whatever. Guys that play the best and deserve to play, they’re the ones that are going to play. So we’ll see how that goes. My expectations are to come in, have a good week this week, and then get ready for Cal. Those are my expectations.”
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This article originally appeared on Tar Heels Wire: Everything UNC football coach Bill Belichick said after Clemson loss
