UNC Football’s horrible season mercifully ends with loss to NC State

UNC Football’s 2025 season came to an end on Saturday with a 42-19 loss to NC State in Raleigh. For many Carolina fans, it is likely a merciful end to a frustrating and disappointing season. The Wolfpack’s 42 points were the most they’ve scored against the Tar Heels in more than two decades. The win was also State’s fifth straight victory against the Tar Heels.

Both sides of the ball were pretty awful for UNC. There was no run game to speak of and the Tar Heels settled for field goals on two of their three drives longer than 40 yards. The other resulted in their lone touchdown of the game. Gio Lopez left with an ugly looking injury in the second half after a State player fell on his leg after the play seemed over. Bill Belichick could have given fans a look at any quarterback of the future in that situation, but decided to roll Max Johnson out there instead. Johnson was actually the team’s leading rusher with 28 yards on the ground until Benjamin Hall got some garbage time yards late to pass him. With five minutes left, Belichick finally went to Au’tori Newkirk at quarterback for reasons. Newkirk helped put together UNC’s second touchdown drive, marching 65 yards down the field before finding Jordan Owens in the end zone.

The defense, which had been lauded as an improved group, was basically a turnstile for the Wolfpack offense. State scored two touchdowns in every quarter except the third in which they were held scoreless. Will Wilson came on for the Wolfpack in red zone situations and ended up taking it in for four scores. State was 4-4 going for it on fourth down and averaged almost a first down for every completion.

In addition to the bad offense and bad defense, the Heels’ lack of discipline was evident in this one. They were penalized 11 times for 129 yards. There is just not a lot more that can be said about a wholly uncompetitive game in a season that, frankly, sucked. There should be strong refusal to let anyone associated with the school or program attempt to paint things as anything but awful. Unfortunately, there is virtually no indication that anything will be done about that before next season. The expectation, it seems, is that everyone will just believe things will be different next time. That feels optimistic at best.