UNC’s Offense Ready for Breakout Performance Against Syracuse

On this episode of the Tar Heels Insider Podcast, beat writer Grant Chachere breaks down why UNC's matchup against Syracuse could be the breakout game for the Tar Heels' offense, which continues to improve despite its recent struggles.

To watch the podcast, check out the video below.

Here is a partial transcript from Bill Belichick's weekly presser on Tuesday.

Opening Statement

Watching Syracuse, I think Fran (Brown) has done a great job with that program. Spent a lot of time watching them last year. And honestly, what they did offensively was phenomenal. They set a couple dozen school records and led the nation in passing. Had some productive performances almost every week.

I saw a lot of those in the things I was doing last year, just watching them and keeping kind of track of how efficient they were offensively, particularly passing the ball.

Then coming into this year, you know the new quarterback, and kind of second year in the program, it’s unfortunate that, you know the quarterback (Steve Angeli) got hurt, but Rickie Collins has stepped in there and has got a little different skill set, but nevertheless very dangerous with the ball in his hand.

Great athlete, very good runner, and you can just see him getting better every week. He’s only played a couple weeks, but every time he steps on the field, and I thought he was better last week as well, it’s going to continue to get better.

So this is a really good football team that obviously beat Clemson, and has played some very good football in spurts against SMU, Georgia Tech, the better teams in the conference.

Your team has been close to winning these past two weeks. How do you breakthrough this point and get the end result you want?

UNC — Oct 25, 2025; Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA; North Carolina Tar Heels head coach Bill Belichick shakes Virginia Cavaliers head coach Tony Elliott hand after the Tar Heels lose to Virginia in overtime at Kenan Stadium. | Bob Donnan-Imagn Images

Well, you start all over every week. Couple weeks ago after Cal game, you look at that game and you start all over again on Virginia. And now we start all over again on Syracuse, and we’ll do the same thing next week. So each week’s its own week. It’s all a new preparation cycle.

Everything’s different. Players are different, schemes different, environment and the atmosphere is different. So it’s every week’s own entity.

So that’s where we are, we do the same thing every week. That’s all we’ve been doing every week this year. And I’ll see how that can change, because each week is so different.

What led to Madrid Tucker playing such a prominent role last game?

Oct 25, 2025; Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA; Virginia Cavaliers safety Antonio Clary (0) intercepts a pass intended for North Carolina Tar Heels wide receiver Madrid Tucker (86) as cornerback Emmanuel Karnley (19) helps defend near the end of the fourth quarter at Kenan Stadium. | Bob Donnan-Imagn Images

Like a lot of players who are new to the program, and either got here, particularly in that June or July area, they were a little bit behind other players in terms of knowledge, experience, playing experience at this level and so forth. But as we practiced more and competed more, the gap has narrowed, and some of those players have shown that they are ready to compete on this level and have earned more playing time.

At the receiver position, Madrid Tucker has done that, Shanard Clower’s done it. Demon June did as a running back. So we have guys who are playing more than they did earlier in the year, because they have shown that, in our opinion, they’ve shown in competitive situations that they’re ready for those opportunities.

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