Bill Belichick has named Gio Lopez to be the North Carolina Tar Heels’ starter for Week 1 of college football against TCU. The Tar Heels will host the Horned Frogs on Labor Day, Monday at Kenan Memorial Stadium in Chapel Hill.
Speaking with the press at Kenan Football Center on Wednesday, Belichick explained his decision as follows:
“Gio has made a ton of progress. We’ve evaluated things through training camp. And now as we get ready for TCU, he’ll be our starting quarterback. So we’ll give him the majority of reps in practice and make sure that we get him as much preparation as possible. But everybody needs to be ready to go.
“I feel very comfortable with him and what he’s doing, but he’ll get better as we go forward, because we just will. We have a lot of practices in front of us and a lot of games in front of us, and we’ll all learn a lot from those. So I think he’s ready, but I think he’ll be, like everybody, more ready as we go forward.”
— Carolina Football (@UNCFootball) August 27, 2025
Lopez is a three-star transfer from South Alabama, who earlier in the year joined North Carolina. As South Alabama’s starter last year, he recorded 2,559 passing yards, with 18 touchdowns and five interceptions. His completion percentage was 66%.
Bill Belichick on difference between coaching at the NFL and college level
Days before his debut as a college football coach, Bill Belichick sat down with the Boston Globe to talk about the differences between coaching at the NFL and college level. It definitely seemed like a jab at the Kraft family.
“There’s no owner, there’s no owner’s son, there’s no cap, everything that goes with the marketing and everything else, which I’m all for that,” Belichick said. “But it’s way less of what it was at that level. Generic NFL teams, you have the owner, president, general manager, personnel director, college director, pro director, cap guy, some other consultant, then head coach.
“I’d say when we had our best years in New England, we had fewer people and more of a direct vision. And as that expanded, it became harder to be successful.”
Robert Kraft, owner of the New England Patriots, and Bill Belichick have had a very public falling out over the team’s performance after Tom Brady’s departure. There’s also been a back and forth between them about who decided to allow Tom Brady to leave for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
According to Kraft, Belichick told him in 2019 that Brady couldn’t play anymore, and then the quarterback went on to win another Super Bowl. They have also fought over who should be credited for the team’s success in the 2000s and 2010s.
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