The red-shirt sophomore South Alabama transfer, Gio Lopez, has fallen under pressure, both on and off the field. Injury? Lopez faced it. Red-zone turnovers? Lopez has been held accountable for the loss of Bill Belichick’s program in close games. However, he had his comeback, too. Against Virginia, Lopez looked more comfortable and confident. However, confidence had taken a back seat when Belichick and co. stepped into the gridiron for the Syracuse game. And not just him; tension prevailed throughout the North Carolina locker room.  

Lopez and co. had to wait till the second half to lift North Carolina past Syracuse. “The guys just kept grinding,” Belichick told ESPN reporter Paul Carcatera after the game. “Once we got to the fourth quarter, we were able to run the ball and grind it out.” And Lopez was the best one to share the details of the vibe of the locker room.

During the post-game presser, Belichick’s quarterback said how they have struggling as a team to get rid of their poor streak.“I think for us it was just like the last two weeks, where we’re like we got to just get in the end zone. We got to get in the endzone. Like, we’re playing good football.” said Lopez. “We just not capitalized. We’re not finishing plays. We’re not finishing in the red zone. So I think for us it was a good job to finally start finishing in the red zone and you know putting up more than just a field goal. And I think this in the locker room, it just felt like it was ourselves…we just did a good job.”

They walked into the Syracuse game after losing against UCF, Clemson, California, and Virginia. Lopez and co. struck first with a 24-yard field goal from Rece Verhoff after a 50-yard slant-and-sprint by Kobe Paysour set them up deep in Syracuse territory. But the Tar Heels couldn’t finish the drive, and the Orange made them pay, scooping up a fumble and racing 51 yards to the house for a 7-3 lead. The first quarter closed with Syracuse on top and knocking on the door again inside UNC’s red zone.

“We’ve been down so many times and the last two games that we lost, we were losing the whole game as well, until you know the whole game. So I think for us it was just like just keep playing our brand,” added Lopez. Belichick’s boys did not lose hope this time.

North Carolina’s defense came up big early in the fourth when Melkart Abou Jaoude strip-sacked Syracuse QB Joseph Filardi. Four plays later, Lopez found Jordan Shipp for a 21-yard touchdown, their second connection of the drive,  putting UNC up 27-10. And with this, Belichick’s boys ended the drought.

The Tar Heels finally showed up their potential as Gio Lopez is yet to get a clean chit

Syracuse’s head coach, Fran Brown, had kept Lopez and his mates on high alert before the game. “I’m honored to be able to coach at Syracuse University. So it really doesn’t matter who we’re about to go up and play against. It’s an honor to be the head football coach here, to be able to go and compete against anybody,” came his fiery message. 

But North Carolina turned the tables and shifted the vibe altogether in Chapel Hill. After the game, a video featuring Belichick in the locker room went viral. The 32-second video showed the North Carolina head coach coming up with a vocal tonic, “Keep grinding, keep working. Look, let’s get used to it. We’re gonna win a lot more games around here, OK.”

“But you can see the potential we have. We just gotta keep working, keep grinding, fix a few little things here and there, and things are gonna be a lot different going forward,” added the head coach. Yes, the Tar Heels proved their potential for the first time this season. They overcame an early deficit to lock in their first ACC win. But what about the little things that Belichick mentioned about fixing?

An X user, Campbell, rightly pointed out in a tweet, “Pretty obvious that UNC does not trust Gio Lopez’s arm. They are doing a lot of pitches and screen passes to fool the DBs and safeties.” Heading into the Cal matchup, Lopez had completed 62.7% of his passes for 430 yards with three touchdowns and three picks, averaging just 107.5 yards per game, 127th in the nation. His struggles were glaring enough that fans were already clamoring for a change under center.

Given the tweet, Gio Lopez’s problems with moving the ball quickly and making deep ball passes persisted against Syracuse. So, time for the quarterback to clean his slate completely before their face-off against Stanford.