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#UNC coach Bill Belichick after loss to Duke
Nov 23, 2025
#UNC coach Bill Belichick after loss to Duke
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0:00
really um you know proud of the effort
0:02
uh everybody gave um all week and and
0:05
tonight um you know obviously came up a
0:08
few plays short and um you know it's
0:10
disappointing um um but you know give
0:14
due credit they they made a few more
0:15
plays than we did at critical times and
0:17
um you know ultimately uh that was the
0:20
difference in the game so um
0:23
just keep grinding here go back to work
0:26
um and you know be ready for first state
0:29
next week But um
0:32
and just made too many mistakes, too
0:35
many bad plays, obviously too many
0:36
penalties. Um so
0:43
that's about the story.
0:46
Really not a lot to add to that.
0:47
We'll get started on the right.
0:49
Bill, Duke's kicker, Pino, came in, I
0:51
think 68% on field goals. Did you ever
0:53
think there there was a chance with
0:54
fake?
0:55
There's always a chance with fate. What
0:57
do you think was the the biggest mistake
0:59
there on that play then?
1:01
We didn't have it covered.
1:05
Bill, they were like five for six on
1:07
fourth down. They hitted some big third
1:10
and longs. What was sort of the
1:11
consistent problem you guys were having
1:13
in some of those situations?
1:14
Yeah, well, we had he stepped up in
1:17
pocket um or they hit a draw, you know,
1:20
up inside a couple times. So, uh, we did
1:23
better on that in the second half, but,
1:25
um, yeah, look, Menz is a good player
1:27
and, you know, he he got us a couple
1:29
times on that. You know, there are
1:31
fourth down. So, um,
1:36
yeah, we got him some, he got us some
1:39
on the left of the front.
1:41
Two quick ones on the touchdown to the
1:43
tight end in the first half. The four
1:46
offensive lineman, did that look like
1:47
the formation you ran back in the NFL?
1:50
And how difficult was it to ID? Who was
1:54
Yeah, we just Yeah, we just we just lost
1:56
the tight end
2:00
right next to it, coach.
2:01
Yeah, Bill, you mentioned making
2:03
mistakes. You talk about the penalties,
2:04
not on defense. Um you kind of from your
2:07
vantage point on some of those plays.
2:09
What do you think? Do you think there
2:10
was any sort of common threat to those
2:12
mistakes and how much
2:17
on what are you talking about the
2:19
penalties? Yeah, defensive penalties and
2:21
just any penalties.
2:23
There was defensive penalties and there
2:24
was offensive penalties. I mean, we had
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them both. Like we had too many
2:28
penalties on everything.
2:32
We had personal foul on offense. We had
2:34
two personal fouls on offense. We had
2:36
illegal formation on offense. We had
2:37
holding penalty on offense.
2:41
You know, had some penalties on defense,
2:44
too. Had penalties on special team. It's
2:46
just too many penalties.
2:50
front row on the right. Coach,
2:51
hey coach, at the beginning of the
2:52
second half, you guys were the on. What
2:54
was the decision for that despite Duke's
2:57
offense being electric pretty early?
3:01
Thought we could recover it, but ball
3:03
didn't go 10 yards, so
3:05
we weren't able to make the play. There
3:08
was some space there. We thought we, you
3:09
know, thought we could make a play on
3:10
that, but we just didn't execute it well
3:12
enough.
3:14
Second row right there. Hey coach, you
3:16
were only able to win two home games in
3:19
your first year at the collegiate rings.
3:21
Do you feel like you let fans down in
3:22
any way? And what is your message to
3:24
them for those that may be listening to
3:26
your comments after?
3:29
Uh yeah, word and keep competing every
3:31
week. That's what we've been doing. So
3:32
that's not going to change.
3:35
Second row left.
3:36
Bill, you talked about kind of improving
3:38
the front line and it looked like kind
3:40
of your undisiplined state for the
3:42
penalties and the tackling mix. Did you
3:44
see them kind of fundamentals tonight?
3:47
Uh yeah, Stson could have been better
3:49
for sure.
3:51
Second row of the life, coach Shelby.
3:53
Yeah. Um just obviously a really
3:55
emotionally hard loss for a lot of these
3:58
players given just it's Duke senior
4:01
night. How do you, you know, pick this
4:03
team up and get them ready for?
4:07
It's same thing we do every week.
4:11
You know, once it's over, it's over.
4:12
There's nothing you can do about They
4:13
got to move on
4:15
far left coach
4:17
and build. I mean f first drive electric
4:20
y'all go down and score. Offense falls
4:22
kind of into a lull and then wakes up
4:25
again in the third quarter. You all take
4:27
you all take the lead late. You know
4:28
kind of what were you guys doing
4:31
different offensively in that second
4:33
half to fight back and you know give
4:35
yourselves a fighting chance to win
4:36
tonight's game.
4:41
Well, I think they made some adjustments
4:42
after the first drive. Um, and then we
4:45
made some adjustments in the third
4:47
quarter. Um, so, you know, it's kind of
4:51
football goes back and forth out. You
4:53
know, if you hurt somebody with
4:54
something, then they usually try to do
4:56
something to compensate and vice versa.
5:01
So, that's just football. You know,
5:03
again, Manny's good coach. I mean, he
5:04
does a good job. Um, and you know, they
5:09
gave us some problems. We gave them some
5:10
problems in the end. They made more
5:11
plays than we did. So, it's therefore
5:14
the result.
5:16
Third drill on the left, Brian.
5:18
Given that you're trying to build this
5:19
program, how important was full elig
5:21
eligibility to you and getting those
5:23
extra practices. How disappointing was
5:25
it that you guys likely have?
5:28
Yeah, we're just playing one game at a
5:29
time. I'm not worried about anything in
5:31
the future. You know, we're worried
5:33
about Duke prepared for Duke and now
5:34
we'll go for NC State.
5:37
Roll right in. Uh, Bill, when you look
5:39
at four and seven in one hand and then
5:41
areas of progress that you talked about
5:43
the last five or six weeks in the other
5:45
hand, how do you kind of juxtapose the
5:47
two? Do you look a lot at four and seven
5:49
or you just a lot more looking at some
5:51
of the areas that you guys have made
5:53
some movement?
5:56
Well, as I've said all year, there's a
5:57
lot of things that we need to do better
5:58
and so at the end of the season when
6:01
that time comes, we'll go back and take
6:03
a look at things and, you know, make
6:05
some adjustments. Obviously, there's
6:06
going to be a lot of there'll be some
6:08
personnel turnover. You saw all the
6:09
seniors today that won't won't be back
6:11
and I'm sure there'll be other players
6:12
that, you know, that we transition on.
6:14
We have players coming in. So, we'll see
6:16
how that goes. Um, but yeah, we'll we'll
6:18
evaluate everything we do and and always
6:21
try to find a little better way of doing
6:22
it. Either more efficient or, you know,
6:24
maybe it's a better idea to do a better
6:26
way than we're doing it.
6:28
At this juncture, what is scoring 17 at
6:30
this point?
6:32
Means we have one game left and put
6:34
everything we got into that one.
6:36
front row on the left coach.
6:37
Yeah, Bill, quick this clarification
6:38
question out there on senior night. Bar
6:41
Green is out there for you guys as well.
6:42
Um, is he planning on graduating early
6:44
and just kind of obviously
6:47
Yeah, the graduation uh or the senior
6:50
night's really based on academics.
6:52
So, there's multiple eligibility um
6:57
situations that may or may not
6:59
materialize.
7:01
That's all uh NCAA regulated, not UNCC
7:05
regulated. So um I'm not sure.
7:09
Was that a situation where you kind of
7:10
asked to participate in it?
7:12
Again, it was academic. It was academic
7:14
um qualification for that. It wasn't
7:18
it's not about eligibility. It's about
7:21
graduating seniors. That that was the
7:23
classification. Right or wrong with you
7:25
agree with an eye or whatever that it is
7:27
what it is. Like that's what it was. So,
7:29
I'm I'm not commenting on what any of
7:32
those players eligibility is or isn't
7:34
going forward. It's players that
7:37
academically um that that was the
7:41
classification. I don't even know what
7:42
that was. I mean, I'm not I don't know
7:44
what everybody's academic status is.
7:46
That was done through the university.
7:49
Far coach burned
7:52
ships and it felt like in these losses
7:55
that you guys beat yourselves in most of
7:57
those cases. How would you describe it?
7:59
Would you agree with that? And how would
8:01
you kind of see those?
8:02
Yeah, I mean, I think there's a lot of
8:04
games where we all feel like, hey, if we
8:06
could have made one more play, done one
8:07
more thing right, done one less thing
8:09
wrong, whatever it was, that probably
8:12
most everybody on the team feels that
8:13
way. Every coach, every player
8:15
participated in the game. You know, when
8:17
you lose a close game, you, you know, we
8:18
all look back and say it's one thing we
8:20
could have done better, done
8:21
differently, and that might have made a
8:22
difference. So, um, I think that's a
8:25
pretty common feeling for us all to
8:26
have. Yeah.
8:28
front row right in the center. Coach,
8:30
what what made those two scoring drives
8:33
work so well? What did Gio defense do
8:36
well to make those drive so smooth?
8:40
Yeah, I mean, look, I thought Gio played
8:41
well all night. You know, he he took
8:43
some hits. He showed a lot of toughness,
8:44
showed a lot of accuracy throwing the
8:46
ball, but he made some great decisions.
8:48
Um, and so, you know,
8:52
it, you know, in the end there, they
8:54
couple times they took some things away
8:56
from us. There wasn't much there, but I
8:57
thought he did an excellent job of
8:59
managing the game. Um, making positive
9:01
plays and as I said, hanging in there
9:03
against, you know, one of the best
9:04
defensive lines that we're going to
9:05
face. Um, you know, we knew, I talked
9:08
about that last week. I knew that they
9:09
would give us some problems and and they
9:11
did. Um, they got a good, you know, good
9:14
good group of um defensive ends, a
9:16
couple good inside guys, and, you know,
9:19
like I said, we got them sometimes, but
9:21
they definitely got us a few times, too.
9:22
I thought Gio really hung in there and
9:24
threw the ball accurately. And like I
9:26
said, showed a lot of toughness.
9:28
Two more here. Brian, go ahead.
9:30
Do you intentionally have more planned
9:31
runs for him this game?
9:34
I mean, there there weren't that many
9:36
planned runs there. There's options.
9:40
He can depend on what the defense does
9:42
there. There are multiple things that
9:44
can happen. The ball get handed off or
9:45
it could he could keep it or he can
9:47
throw it to somebody. It just depends on
9:49
the play and how it unfolds. There are
9:51
different there are different types of
9:53
plays. It wasn't all one play.
9:55
Two more here, Brian and then Shelby
9:56
will finish.
9:57
Even after opening press conference, we
9:59
talked about the Duke game. Obviously
10:01
well versed in that way. How much have
10:03
you been educated on the state game? I
10:04
think many fans around here would
10:06
consider that an even bigger game than
10:08
this game. Is that something you've had
10:09
to to learn a little bit more about?
10:13
Um
10:15
yeah, Brian, I mean I'm not like real
10:17
smart, but yeah, I learned that pretty
10:19
quickly. I don't I understand the
10:20
rivalry.
10:22
Go ahead, Shelby. Last one. Yeah, just
10:24
um we talked a lot this season about
10:26
tackling, how much you guys have worked
10:28
on besides it in practice. Um few plays
10:31
or few drives rather do or just like
10:33
multiple miss tackles. Um curious just
10:37
what you thought of that was today. Just
10:39
simple execution, positioning
10:42
that.
10:44
Yeah, look, there's certainly
10:46
fundamentally things we could have done
10:47
better tackling. Um, I mean, Shepard's
10:50
one of the best backs in the conference.
10:52
So, I mean, tackling pretty good guy. I
10:54
mean, he's he doesn't go down easy. He's
10:56
a very good back. So,
10:59
yeah, we got him a few times and there's
11:00
a couple times we didn't get him. And
11:02
and he runs with good contact balance.
11:03
He's strong. Um, he's got good vision
11:06
and I mean, it's one of the best backs
11:08
in the conference. I mean, well, guy
11:11
missed a few games, but he still got,
11:12
you know, big numbers, which
11:15
if you give a good back some space or if
11:17
you don't give him a lot of space, I
11:18
mean, those guys make yards, b against
11:20
everybody. But that said, we, you know,
11:23
we'll still continue to work on our
11:24
tackling and fundamentally, you know,
11:27
try to improve it. But, I give him
11:30
credit. Some of those yards he earned.
11:32
Some of them he didn't get much, but
11:34
there was definitely some that he earned
11:35
with his good running skills.
11:37
Thank you.
11:38
Okay. That's
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