All that’s left for UNC football is NC State after another loss, this one to Duke

By the time the Blue Devils began ringing the Victory Bell on the interlocking UNC logo at midfield — gleefully, repeatedly, tauntingly — many of the Tar Heels were already walking to the tunnel, helmets lowered. Another season’s worth of frustrations compressing into a single, familiar image for UNC football fans.

North Carolina entered Saturday with two games left and everything still mathematically possible: two rivalry wins and bowl eligibility in Year 1 under Bill Belichick. Duke first, then N.C. State. Two victories to get the Tar Heels to six wins on the year.

But now? Only one game remains. And the Tar Heels’ chances of beating the Wolfpack — a team that’s been openly licking its chops ahead of this matchup, going back to when Belichick’s hiring at UNC was a mere rumor — feels no more certain. And yet, a win next Saturday is even more necessary.

The Tar Heels lost to Duke, 32-25, on Saturday at Kenan Stadium in a game shaped by self-inflicted mistakes. Penalties that extended drives. Undisciplined moments. Defensive miscues. Short-circuited possessions. UNC quarterback Gio Lopez offered his most complete performance in Carolina Blue after leading one of the statistically worst offenses in Power 4 all fall. It still wasn’t enough.

Duke rushed the ball 43 times, compared to UNC’s 52 total offensive plays, and controlled 12 more minutes of possession time. Still, the Blue Devils nearly handed the game back in the second half. And North Carolina, not to be outdone, out self-destructed a Duke squad who Manny Diaz previously deemed “architects of our own demise.”

“I mean, when you get nine [defensive] penalties, it’s shooting yourself in the foot,” UNC redshirt senior linebacker Andrew Simpson, who finished with six tackles, said. “It’s hard to play good defense when you’re just penalizing yourself after a good play or even a bad one… so we definitely got to get better at that.”

And now, North Carolina’s North Star is beating N.C. State. Bowl hopes are all-but dashed. The Blue Devils have the Bell, and were certain to let UNC know it after the game.

All that’s left to look forward to for the Tar Heels is defeating the red team in Raleigh.

“My biggest thing, I just want to beat State,” North Carolina sophomore wideout Jordan Shipp, who finished with eight catches for 83 yards, said. “That’s where my mind is now.”

UNC began the game by marching 75 yards down the field in 13 plays, capped by Lopez’s 1-yard plunge. It looked like the type of play the Tar Heels could build on. They did not.

There was the pass interference on Thaddeus Dixon in the first quarter, which extended an early Duke drive. The same drive saw a roughing-the-kicker penalty called on Marcus Allen — a gift-wrapped first down after Duke missed a 46-yard field goal attempt, immediately followed by a 14-yard touchdown. Two substitution infractions followed. A defensive holding call wiped out a sack. And then, in the fourth quarter, the Tar Heels were called for three unsportsmanlike conduct penalties.

By night’s end, UNC tallied 12 penalties for 103 yards.

“We had a lot of mistakes, a lot of penalties out there in tonight’s game,” Shipp said. “I feel like that’s something that we can’t do... we can’t let the emotions get high. A couple unsportsmanlike conducts. Like I said, man, it comes down to us beating ourselves.”

The frustrations were clear: helmet bumps, shoves after the whistle, chirping with Duke players. And the frustration in the building Sunday will surely be magnified because UNC played some of its best football of the season in the second half.

“I thought Gio played well tonight,” Belichick said. “You know, he took some hits. He showed a lot of toughness, showed a lot of accuracy throwing the ball, made some great decisions.”

The South Alabama transfer appeared sharp and poised as he completed 21 of 27 passes for 204 yards and no turnovers. Lopez shook off a sputtering end to the first half to engineer two second-half touchdown drives that put North Carolina up 25-24 in the fourth quarter.

And then came the play UNC players will see replayed in their sleep.

On fourth-and-three from the UNC 27-yard line, Duke lined up for what appeared to be a 45-yard field goal try. Holder Kade Reynoldson then flipped the ball to kicker Todd Pelino, who sprinted untouched for 26 yards to the UNC 1-yard line.

Blue Devils running back Anderson Castle scored on the next play. Duke led 32-25. UNC didn’t pick up another first down.

“Just made too many mistakes, too many bad plays,” Belichick said. “Obviously, too many penalties.”

He paused.

“So that’s about the story.”

The final chapter on Belichick’s first season is all but written. The Tar Heels will finish with a losing record. That much is now guaranteed. Their bowl streak since 2019 is likely over too. That much is nearly certain.

And now they face an N.C. State team that needed no additional motivation but likely received it anyway, watching UNC’s late-game meltdown.

“I’m not, like, real smart,” Belichick said sarcastically on Saturday. “But, yeah, I’ve learned that pretty quickly. I understand the [N.C. State] rivalry.”

Returning players like Shipp, too, know what’s coming.

“We expect those guys to be just as chippy,” he said. “We’re gonna bring that same energy as well.”

But energy won’t be enough. After the Clemson blowout, the bye-week tumult, the midseason rally against Syracuse and Stanford that gave UNC a sliver of hope, the Wake Forest wake-up call and now the gut punch against Duke, all that’s left is N.C. State.

Beat State, or go 0-for-the-state. Beat State, or end Year 1 empty-handed. Beat State, or enter an offseason full of questions — and, possibly, lots of roster turnover — with nothing but regret.

That’s all that’s left now for the Tar Heels.

“They beat us, they got the bell, cool,” Shipp said. “Got to move on to the next. Man, we can dwell on it after we play State. That’s where my mind is now.”

This story was originally published November 23, 2025 at 5:30 AM.