Pumped Bill Belichick sees controversial early call pay off as UNC stuns TCU in opener

Bill Belichick started off the college football season as Captain Conservative — only to see it pay off in a big way.On the first drive of North Carolina’s game on Saturday against heavily favored TCU in Ireland, Belichick angered the analytics crowd by taking the points on a chip-shot field goal instead of leaving the offense on the field for fourth-and-goal.Score one for the coaching mastermind, because North Carolina put its faith in its defense and ultimately needed the three points to provide breathing room in a 15-10 victory at Aviva Stadium.The Tar Heels, who went 4-8 in Belichick’s first season at the helm, are off to a good start with the upset as 7.5-point underdogs.A 4-yard run set up second-and-goal at the 1-yard line for the Tar Heels, who lost a yard on a run up the middle and then threw a third-down incompletion.

Aeron Burrell converted a 20-yard kick for a 3-0 lead at the end of a 10-play, game-opening drive.Who would’ve known then how big those three points would be over the next 50 minutes?Had North Carolina failed on a fourth-and-goal and everything else played out the same, TCU only would have needed three points to take the lead and might have kicked a go-ahead field goal on fourth-and-goal from the 5-yard line late in the third quarter.But the Horned Frogs instead went for it on fourth down and it failed.Later in the game, TCU turned the ball over again on fourth-and-goal from the 10-yard line.Two field goals on those drives would have given TCU the win.

But the Horned Frogs were chasing a five-point deficit instead of a two-point deficit.Belichick is under pressure in Chapel Hill because his general manager and right-hand man, Michael Lombardi, is on administrative leave, and the school is allegedly being investigated for human-resources violations, including a bullying culture and NIL-related payment practices. Ironically, North Carolina put the victory on ice by getting aggressive — or so it seemed — with 30 seconds remaining ...