Coming off their first bye week of the season, the UCF Knights (2-0) face their first power conference opponent Saturday at the Bounce House, and it’s a noteworthy one: the North Carolina Tar Heels, led by legendary former New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick.
Let’s get up to speed on the Heels:
Gameday Info
- Kickoff: Saturday, September 20th, 3:30 p.m. ET
- Location: Acrisure Bounce House
- TV: FOX
- Spread: UCF -6.5 (FanDuel)
- Weather: 86°, humid with a chance of storms. — Accuweather
- Series: First meeting
About the Tar Heels
Record: 2-1
Last Week: Beat Richmond, 41-6
The Heels in some ways are still recovering from an opening night beatdown at the hands of TCU in Chapel Hill. They beat Charlotte in the Queen City the week
after in an unimpressive 20-3 performance and then handled Richmond last week.
Head Coach: Bill Belichick
Let’s get this out of the way: It’s Bill Belichick.
29 years as an NFL head coach (24 with the New England Patriots). Six Super Bowl titles. Nine AFC titles. 17 divisional titles in 19 years. Two more Super Bowl titles with the Giants as a defensive coordinator.
He is, without question, the greatest head coach in NFL history.
And now, at 73, he’s coaching in college. Perhaps he’s revisiting his youth, when his father, Steve, was an assistant at Navy, and Bill would often attend Navy practices and games in Annapolis as a kid.
In 2025, this is an entirely different challenge, and we’re going to find out how he is handling that challenge on Saturday.
UNC Offense
Key Player: QB Gio Lopez
- 6-0, 203 lb. Redshirt Sophomore from Madison, Alabama
- 2025: 58.5% (31/53), 343 yards, 3 TDs, 1 INT, 74 rushing yards and a TD
Lopez transferred to UNC after a breakout year at South Alabama in 2024. He got knocked out of the TCU game with an injury and was not overly impressive against Charlotte and Richmond.
But Lopez is a mobile, elusive lefty who helped South Alabama to a bowl game last year in back of 66%, 2500+ passing yards, 465 rushing yards and 25 total TDs (18 pass/7 rush). If he’s able to pull it together, as he showed signs of doing against Richmond last week, he could cause UCF’s defense some major problems, as mobile QBs tend to do.
Other Guys to Watch
- Leading Rusher: #35 Demon June — 23 rushes, 200 yards, 8.3 yards/rush, 1 TD
- Leading Receiver: #1 Jordan Shipp — 10 catches, 149 yards, 2 TD
UNC Defense
Key Player: LB Andrew Simpson
- 6-0, 238 Senior from Norwalk, California
- 2025: 22 tackles, one sack
Simpson transferred in from Boise State, where he spent his first three years and accumulated 140 tackles, 12.5 sacks, five forced fumbles, and three picks. He played against UCF in Boise back in 2023, recording one tackle.
Other Guys to Watch
- Leader in Sacks: #9 Melkart Abou-Jaoude — 8 tackles, two sacks, one fumble recovery
- Leader in Passes Defended: #29 Marcus Allen — 8 tackles, three passes defended
The More You Know…
- UCF has never had a true bye week under Scott Frost. In both previous seasons, UCF’s last open dates were actually postponements because of hurricanes.
- UCF is 5-15 all-time vs. the ACC
- UCF and North Carolina were supposed to meet in Chapel Hill in 2018, but that game got wiped due to Hurricane Florence. We will see them again up there in 2027.
- Notable coaches on the UNC Staff:
- Steve Belichick — Defensive Coordinator
- Freddie Kitchens — Offensive Coordinator (Former Browns Head Coach)
- Natrone Means — RB Coach (Former Charger and Jaguar)
- Jamie Collins — Inside LB Coach (Former Patriot)
- Bob Diaco — DL Coach (Former UConn Head Coach and originator of the ConFLiCT)
- Scott Frost played under then-defensive coordinator Bill Belichick with the New York Jets. Frost moved to Safety once his college career at Nebraska was over, and head coach Bill Parcells and the Jets drafted him in 1998. He played two seasons under Belichick and Parcells before their controversial parting, when Belichick initiall took and then left the Jets’ head coaching job for the Patriots, and the rest is history.
