BERKELEY, Calif. (AP) — The Bill Belichick era at North Carolina already had endured several lopsided losses. Now the Tar Heels have a heartbreaking one to go with it.
The one thing that North Carolina is still searching for is its first victory over a power opponent since the six-time Super Bowl champion coach took over the program.
After losing its first three games against power conference teams by an average of 29 points, the Tar Heels hung tough against California on Friday night until Nathan Leacock’s fumble at the goal line turned a possible go-ahead touchdown late in the fourth quarter into the defining moment of a 21-18 loss.
“We’ve been improving every week,” Belichick said. “I’m not going to back off. I think that’s true. But you can’t turn the ball over and win. It’s just too hard. We’ve got to eliminate some of those kind of mistakes.”
The most costly one came late when it seemed like the Tar Heels were poised for a comeback win. Gio Lopez hit Leacock on a short pass and Leacock was running toward the end zone when Brent Austin knocked the ball out just before he crossed the goal line. Austin then dove on the loose ball in the end zone to give the Golden Bears the ball back with 3:48 to play.
Cal ran all but five seconds off on the ensuing drive and the Tar Heels went down to another loss.
“It wasn’t just him,” receiver Kobe Paysour said about Leacock. “We all had bad plays in the game, so it’s not just his fault.”
The Tar Heels also lost a fumble on the first play from scrimmage to set up a Cal touchdown but fared much better overall running the ball and getting stops on defense.
“It might have been enough we had to turn the ball over but we did,” Belichick said. “And we didn’t get any turnovers on defense so until that changes it’s a little bit of an uphill struggle.”
The 73-year-old Belichick is in the first year of a deal that guarantees $10 million in base and supplemental pay for each of the next two seasons. Team general manager Michael Lombardi, a former NFL executive who’s largely a partner with Belichick in this college endeavor, is making $1.5 million for each of the next two seasons.
The talk about building the “33rd” NFL team with an NFL-style approach in college hasn’t generated positive results, with the team’s only wins coming against lower-level Richmond and Charlotte.
Belichick’s short tenure at North Carolina has included plenty of focus on happenings off the field, including plenty about his relationship with 24-year-old girlfriend Jordon Hudson that generated chants of “High school girlfriend!” from the Cal student section during the game.
There was also a planned documentary that was canceled, the suspension of an assistant coach and a report that Belichick had been seeking an exit strategy from coaching North Carolina that he had to address in a statement last week and a news conference earlier this week.
Then came another report that Lombardi went to Saudi Arabia over the summer where he met with a “Saudi national who is a college football fan, interested in supporting Coach Belichick,” according to the school.
“I’ll just talk about the game here,” Belichick said when asked about it. “I’m just focused on the game. I’m not going to deal with any of those.”