College football is back, and Bill Belichick's North Carolina? 'They've improved'
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- North Carolina upset TCU 15-10 at the Aer Lingus College Football Classic in Dublin, with Billy Edwards Jr. drawing TCU offside on a fourth-and-1 with 38 seconds left to clinch it.
- TCU coach Sonny Dykes acknowledged North Carolina "improved," conceding a 10-3 lead and just 156 yards allowed after the first quarter — a reversal from TCU's 48-14 rout in Chapel Hill last season.
- UNC's defense limited TCU to 1-of-5 on fourth-down conversions, including two stops inside the 10-yard line, after finishing 134th of 136 FBS teams in fourth-down stops (24 of 32 allowed) in Belichick's 4-8 debut campaign.
- Bill Belichick spent postgame looking "halfway chipper," crediting UNC's chancellor for a Friday pep talk in Dublin and lauding the scout team before performing his own giddy first-down signal.
- Quarterback Billy Edwards Jr., on his fourth school after stints at Wake Forest, Maryland and Wisconsin, hollered the decisive signals that yanked TCU offside and admitted afterward he was "screaming every — probably some bad words out there."
Why it matters: A 4-8 debut season had cast doubt on Belichick's college viability, but a defensive turnaround on fourth downs — the Heels went from 134th of 136 teams in stops to shutting down a top conference foe — gives Belichick tangible progress to build on heading into year two at UNC.
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