North Carolina

UNC football clobbered again, this time by ACC foe Clemson. What we learned

Key Takeaways
Key Takeaways

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  • UNC defense collapsed early, surrendered 28 first-quarter points and 399 yards.
  • Offense stagnated with Gio Lopez injured; Max Johnson threw 213 yards and showed no rhythm.
  • Coaching errors and penalties disrupted execution, extending UNC losing streak vs Clemson.

It took just one play for Clemson to set the tone on Saturday.

With a double-pass trick play on the first snap of the game, Tigers quarterback Cade Klubnik found Antonio Williams, who connected down the field with fellow wideout T.J. Moore. He was wide open and trotted all the way from the 40-yard line to the end zone.

North Carolina entered Saturday’s game coming off a bye week, and yet, looked completely unprepared to face Clemson. The Tigers tacked on four total touchdowns in the opening quarter en route to an 38-10 beating of the Tar Heels in UNC’s first ACC matchup of the Bill Belichick era.

Saturday marked the most points North Carolina (2-3, 0-1 ACC) has allowed in an opening quarter since 2001, when Oklahoma scored 31 in the first quarter in a 41-27 win in Norman. The loss also extends North Carolina’s losing streak against Clemson (2-3, 1-2 ACC) to seven games.

“Disappointing outcome for us today,” Belichick said. “I thought we had a good week. I thought we were ready to go.”

In a pregame appearance on College Gameday, Belichick said the team spent the week following the 34-9 loss to UCF working on fundamentals. The following week was spent getting ready for Clemson, he said Saturday.

Belichick, his coaching staff and his players emphasized a return to the basics. They spoke of incremental progress. Even university leadership weighed in on the matter at a Sept. 25 Board of Trustees meeting.

“It’s not the kind of thing that we judge after four games or even after one season,” UNC Chancellor Lee Roberts said on Sept. 25. “These things take time. We last won the conference championship in 1980, and so we have significant work to do, significant investment to make to get the program where we want it to be.”

Down 35-3 to Clemson, the Tar Heels’ students section is devoid of fans during the third quarter on Saturday, October 4, 2025 at Kenan Stadium in Chapel Hill, N.C.
Down 35-3 to Clemson, the Tar Heels’ students section is devoid of fans during the third quarter on Saturday, October 4, 2025 at Kenan Stadium in Chapel Hill, N.C. Robert Willett rwillett@newsobserver.com

So what did we learn on Saturday? Even after the embarrassment the Tar Heels suffered in losses to TCU and UCF, after a bye week and an opportunity to hit the reset button, there are still few signs of improvement for this team.

North Carolina’s defense looks porous again

Clemson’s opening play was symptomatic of North Carolina’s defensive performance as a whole on Saturday.

UNC gave up 28 points to the Tigers in the first quarter — more than Clemson has scored in any of its first four games.

The Tigers, who entered Saturday with the worst-ranked offense in the ACC, recorded 367 yards in the first half alone. Clemson recorded 290 of its net 399 passing yards on Saturday in just 10 explosive plays as Klubnik continued to gash the Tar Heels’ secondary.

“We gave up some big plays early in the game that really tilted the game,” Belichick said. “We were just never able to recover.”

Even when UNC’s defense looked like it was going to catch a break on two would-be interceptions, the plays were either overturned or negated by penalties.

What appeared, upon first glance, to be a Thaddeus Dixon interception at the end of the second quarter was called back. A review revealed Dixon didn’t have clear possession of the ball when he hit the ground. It would’ve been the first interception for the defensive back (and, arguably, UNC’s top NFL Draft prospect) this season.

Then, late in the third quarter, it looked like Gavin Gibson recorded a clean interception. That, too, was called back — this time due to a Marcus Allen interference penalty.

The game was so out of hand that, by the end of the third quarter, Clemson rolled out not one — but two — backup quarterbacks in Christopher Vizzina and Trent Pearman. The two combined for 70 yards.

Offense sputters under Johnson

The Tar Heels, to their credit, managed to score yet again — a field goal, this time — on Saturday’s opening drive. Rece Verhoff nearly tacked on another field goal with an attempt that bounced off the left upright. And Freddie Kitchens’ offense seemed more intent on finding wideout and top offensive threat Jordan Shipp, who was targeted six times for five catches and 41 yards.

That’s about all there is to write home about on the offensive side of the ball for UNC.

With starting quarterback Gio Lopez out, veteran Max Johnson took over. He recorded a largely futile 213 yards — the first Tar Heel to throw for over 200 yards this season — and 26 completions on 42 attempts.

The Tar Heels as a whole didn’t find much success on the ground, running for 57 total yards. Demon June, who offered a glimmer of hope for UNC after his breakout 148-yard performance against Richmond in Week 3, managed to pick up just 16 yards on five attempts.

With Lopez still recovering from the leg injury he suffered against UCF, and Johnson’s performance not boosting too much confidence in his own abilities, it’s unclear who will be the Tar Heels’ signal-caller moving forward.

And given UNC’s inability through three Power 4 matchups to get much of any offensive rhythm going, it’s unclear who — if anybody — will step up for the Tar Heels as a playmaker this fall.

Unforced errors plague the Tar Heels

With 7:07 left on the clock in the second quarter, Belichick had to burn a timeout just before Clemson was set to punt the ball when North Carolina had 12 players on the field.

The error cost Belichick, the special-teams guru, a timeout and was yet another example of the many unforced errors committed by the Tar Heels on Saturday.

There were presnap penalties and alignment issues. Poor awareness led to wideout Javarius Green catching a deep pass late in the second quarter out of bounds. He was wide open and, had Johnson’s throw been lower or Green attempted to high point the ball, UNC could’ve easily scored its first touchdown of the afternoon.

The general lack of execution, in addition to a sputtering offense and porous defense, created a trainwreck of a performance for UNC on Saturday.

That much was clear to the many UNC fans who beelined to the exits as early as the first quarter, creating a nearly-empty atmosphere at Kenan Stadium by the end of the game.

“It don’t really matter who’s in the stands,” Shipp said after the game. “All that matters is what we got in the locker room.”

This story was originally published October 4, 2025 at 3:51 PM.

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