Gio Lopez getting knocked out of North Carolina’s game against UCF last week could be a blessing in disguise. Bill Belichick isn’t known to develop quarterbacks. I don’t know if we can give him credit for Tom Brady because since he stopped coaching the best quarterback of the 21st century, the one thing that’s held his teams back from success was the quarterback play.
It was largely what got him fired in New England. The defense was still respectable, but Mac Jones wasn't and putting the keys of the offense in his hands after having Tom Brady was always going to end poorly. If Belichick knew how to work with young and inexperienced quarterbacks, then maybe his crippling offense wouldn’t have followed him from the NFL ranks to the college ranks.
At UNC, Belichick took on an entirely new challenge in an era of college football that was always going to be hard to succeed in. What makes what’s going on with the Tar Heels in year one under Belichick is that he handpicked Lopez out of the transfer portal and he’s proving he’s not the answer.
This season before he got hurt, Lopez had 430 passing yards with three passing touchdowns and three interceptions. He didn’t have a single game with more than 160 passing yards and doesn’t have a multiple, passing touchdown game yet this year. With his injury, it could force Belichick to either learn how to develop a quarterback or end up jobless again.
Bill Belichick’s NFL baggage is following him to UNC and it could cost him his college job
Coaching NFL players isn’t the same as coaching collegiate players, which is why college coaches rarely make it as NFL coaches. While the inverse typically yields better results, Belichick is learning a valuable lesson about college football: If you don’t have a good quarterback, you won’t be a good team.
That’s what haunted him in his last few seasons in New England and it’s going to haunt him this season at UNC. With Lopez’s injury, that opens the door for Max Johnson or true freshman Bryce Baker to take over. It’s not likely Baker gets the start thanks to Belichick’s inability to work with young quarterbacks and Johnson has already filled in.
Can UNC ever reach the level with Bill Belichick they hoped?
It’s looking like the Tar Heels won’t have the season under Belichick like they thought they would. The offense has had its problems, but more than that, this team just doesn’t look like a typical Belichick led team. That’s not a big shock, considering this team is full of 18-22 year olds and not professional players.
Belichick is learning just how hard it is to transition back to coaching college players, something he’s never done in his career. This was experimental and it’s proof the experiment is failing. There’s nothing left for Belichick to do other than salvage what’s left of this season and hope he gets another chance next year.
Building a program was always going to take more than one season, but what has happened this season doesn’t have any optimism behind it. If Belichick can figure out how to develop young quarterbacks, maybe UNC can rely on him to save this program. But the same problems he had in the NFL are creeping into his college coaching career and it’s hurting his reputation.
This is what happens when expectations are high for a coach that didn’t know what he was getting into. Maybe Belichick can turn things around, though it’s more likely he gets fired before he continues to run this program further into the ground.