One Sad Stadium Photo of Bill Belichick's UNC Coaching Debut Said It All

Kristen Wong | Sep 2, 2025

UNC coach Bill Belichick lost his 2025 season-opener in embarrassing fashion Monday night and was crushed by TCU, 48-14. / Bob Donnan-Imagn Images

Bill Belichick and the Tar Heels started off with a bang but ended with a whimper in their season-opening 48-14 blowout loss to TCU on Monday night, marking an infamous college football debut for Belichick that made history for the wrong reasons.

The six-time Super Bowl champion celebrated as only he could when his team scored its first touchdown of the season but then had no answers for a relentless Horned Frogs attack.

TCU scored on a 75-yard touchdown run to start the second half and didn't take their foot off the gas, recording another rushing touchdown and a scoop-and-score shortly after. Meanwhile, UNC quarterback Gio Lopez, who had a lot of trouble completing his passes, went just 4-of-10 for 69 yards and one interception.

It was a night to forget for Belichick and the Tar Heels—and for UNC fans as well.

A screenshot of the ESPN broadcast showed that the stadium in Chapel Hill was almost completely cleared out with 10 minutes left in the season-opener. You can see a light blue section of the stadium taken up by North Carolina's school band, but other than that, fans clearly didn't want to stick around for more embarrassment and probably had better things to do.

10 mins left in Bill Belichick's CFB coaching debut and the only people left in the stadium is the band that can't leave pic.twitter.com/Lv6a51s36i

— Sam Monson (@SamMonsonNFL) September 2, 2025

That pretty much sums up Belichick's Tar Heels debut on Monday night. The UNC coach will look to rally his troops for a hopefully more competitive showing in their next game against Charlotte on Saturday.

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