Duke yanked the Victory Bell straight out of Chapel Hill with a statement. In a rivalry game that turned wild, erratic, and downright chaotic, the Blue Devils stunned North Carolina 32-25 with a fake-field-goal dagger and a fourth-quarter swing UNC never recovered from. For Bill Belichick, this wasn’t just another loss. This was the one that sealed his first losing record in college football.

“Belichick says #UNC was focused on the next opponent at hand, now worrying about future bowl eligibility,” Tar Heels Wire posted on X on November 22.

That’s an eerie comment considering UNC needed to win out to keep postseason hopes alive. At 3-7, they walked into Kenan Stadium needing two straight victories. Duke, sitting at 5-5, needed just one more to punch its own ticket. Yet UNC beat itself in all the ways Bill Belichick later admitted.

“Belichick said #UNC was able to give #Duke some problems in its second-half comeback attempt,” Tar Heels Wire tweeted. 

The HC wasn’t wrong. Down 24-10, UNC found a rhythm behind Gio Lopez, who hit four different targets on a furious drive capped by Jordan Shipp’s 20-yard score. A two-point conversion cut it to 24-18. Soon after, Davion Gause powered in another touchdown to take a 25-24 lead with 13:13 left, flipping Kenan Stadium into a frenzy. But momentum in this rivalry is a rental, and Duke was about to reclaim it in the most devilish way possible.

With UNC clinging to a one-point lead and just 2:20 remaining, Duke lined up for a 44-yard field goal. Kicker Todd Pelino took the pitch and raced 26 yards untouched, catching UNC mid-dive on a fake kick that never happened. Anderson Castle punched in his third touchdown of the day, Duke added the two-point try, and suddenly UNC’s late-game heroics were dust. And according to Bill Belichick, UNC’s mistakes were fatal.

“Belichick says UNC committed too many mistakes,” the school’s official X page added. “Bill Belichick agreed with Jordan Shipp’s comment that #UNC is beating itself in losses.”

Hard to argue when the Tar Heels racked up 12 penalties for 103 yards and their final drive didn’t even cross midfield. Lopez finished an efficient 21-for-27 for 204 yards, and Gause posted 63 yards on eight carries. But effort without execution destroys a season. And speaking of seasons crumbling, that leads us right into the bigger picture.

Bill Belichick Will Not Go Bowling

North Carolina’s six-year bowl streak is done. This was supposed to be the Bill Belichick reboot, the “Beat Duke” era he invoked because of his father’s UNC ties. Instead, he not only didn’t beat Duke, he hasn’t won enough to revive a program that has now spiraled to three straight losing seasons, counting his final two in New England.

There’s still some hope though. A 5-7 finish could sneak UNC into a bowl on APR tiebreakers. But to get there, the Tar Heels must beat NC State next week, a team UNC hasn’t taken down since 2020 and has beaten only twice since 2015. For Bill Belichick, the challenge isn’t just beating a rival. It’s proving the program is still capable of responding when everything is on the line.

To his credit, the Tar Heels did show improvement on one side of the ball. A defense ranked 28th nationally in yards per play kept UNC competitive deep into ACC play, even as the offense sputtered at 120th. Close losses like a fumble at the goal line at Cal, an overtime heartbreak at Virginia, a stumble against Wake Forest created a pattern UNC couldn’t break. Bill Belichick’s debut season will be remembered as a grind of narrow margins and costly miscues, a year that revealed both structural issues and glimmers worth building on.