A purported business trip to Ireland comes with the usual extracurriculars and distractions, but for North Carolina, it’s an opportunity to get away from it all.
After a tumultuous offseason, the Tar Heels will kick off Year 2 under Bill Belichick when they meet TCU on Saturday in the annual Aer Lingus College Football Classic in Dublin.
North Carolina’s stunning hire of the legendary NFL coach last year only resulted in a 4-8 campaign and made headlines for the wrong reasons.
Over the summer, the program was further destabilized. Belichick’s general manager and right-hand man Michael Lombardi was placed on leave due to a human resources complaint. His son Steve Belichick, the defensive coordinator, began an indefinite medical leave earlier this month and is not making the trip with the team, North Carolina confirmed Monday.
If there’s anyone who can help a roster of young men put the blinders on and focus on football, it ought to be the only head coach to win six Super Bowls.
“There’s just no shortcut to it. You just have to keep stacking bricks and building that strong foundation,” Bill Belichick said.
Belichick broke his summer-long silence on the quarterback competition between transfers Billy Edwards Jr. (Wisconsin, Maryland) and Miles O’Neil (Texas A&M). He did pinpoint protection of the football as a key determining factor and ultimately landed on Edwards as the QB1 in the opener.
“I’ve said that about Tom Brady, the greatest quarterback in NFL history,” Belichick said. “As great as Tom was, and he was great, he made a lot of great plays but the most important thing he did was he eliminated the bad ones.”
Edwards has a reliable receiver in Jordan Shipp to serve as a security blanket. Beyond that connection, there are many unanswered questions in a new scheme.
After the Heels mustered just 19.3 points per game in 2025, Belichick added a college offense specialist in Bobby Petrino as the new O-coordinator. Getting the ground game going is a mandate from Belichick. Petrino ended 2025 as Arkansas’ interim head coach and previously recruited O’Neil to Texas A&M.
While TCU coach Sonny Dykes explained that his staff has a grasp on the Tar Heels’ new personnel — Belichick brought in 60 new players — he is more focused on his own team’s performance.
“Anytime you play the first game, it’s always really about yourself,” Dykes said. “It’s about taking care of the football on offense and being sound in the kicking game and not making those really critical mistakes, playing clean from a penalty standpoint.
“All those things early are incredibly important because there is a feeling-out period that takes place.”
TCU is coming off a 9-4 season and an Alamo Bowl victory. The Horned Frogs returned leading rusher Jeremy Payne (623 yards) but lost starting quarterback Josh Hoover to Indiana.
Enter Harvard quarterback Jaden Craig, who offers both mobility (11 rushing TDs over the past three seasons) and Ivy League-level smarts with the football.
“He’s turned the ball over twice, I think, the entire fall camp, and it’s been two tipped balls,” Dykes said. “… He’s had a really good camp. I mean, he’s in command of the offense.”