Bill Belichick, UNC football players describe 2025 season after loss at NC State

RALEIGH — Crammed into a small room at Carter-Finley Stadium, UNC football coach Bill Belichick saved his shortest press conference of the season for last.

“Disappointing game for us,” Belichick said with a muffled mumble after the Tar Heels’ 42-19 loss to N.C. State in Raleigh.

Following the finale, Belichick spoke to media members for just over four minutes in the final press conference of his debut season. After starting the season with a 48-14 blowout loss to TCU, UNC ended its year in similar fashion on the wrong side of a rout against the Wolfpack (7-5, 4-4 ACC).

The Tar Heels (4-8, 2-6 ACC) allowed touchdowns on each of the first four drives for N.C. State, which had a 28-10 halftime lead and earned its fifth straight win in the series for the third time in program history. The Wolfpack’s 23-point victory against UNC is its largest since winning by 28 at Kenan Stadium in 2014.

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UNC also finished the season with double-digit penalties in three of the last four games, including 11 penalties for 129 yards against the Wolfpack, which got a program-record four rushing TDs from backup quarterback Will Wilson.

For the first time since 1989, UNC lost to N.C. State, Duke and Wake Forest in the same season. It'll head into the offseason on a three-game losing streak against those rival schools.

The Heels played eight teams with five or more wins, going 0-8 and losing those games by an average margin of 17 points. Finishing with its worst record since posting a 2-9 mark in 2018, UNC’s four victories were against Charlotte, Richmond, Syracuse and Stanford.

Those teams finished the 2025 regular season with a combined record 15-32. The Spiders, an FCS program, were the only team among those to finish with a winning record at 7-5.

“It’s hard to put in one word,” said wide receiver Jordan Shipp, who had eight catches for 90 yards and a touchdown.

“We didn’t expect the season to go like this, of course. Nobody expects to go 4-8. Definitely unexpected. Gotta move on. Season’s over with now.”

Linebacker Khmori House described the Tar Heels’ season as a “rollercoaster,” with “ups and downs” that provided plenty of lessons.

“We learned from every loss,” House said. “We take losses as lessons, so just gonna learn from it, build from it, come back and play harder.”

As a sophomore leader for the Tar Heels, Shipp seemed committed to running it back with the Tar Heels in 2026. He was also asked about his recruiting pitch to players interested in joining UNC next season.

“I don’t really think I’m gonna have to do a lot. I mean, we have the greatest coach of all-time. I feel like that kind of sets the landscape for itself,” Shipp said.

“We didn’t have the best season this year, but people understand it’s not common for a new coach to get there a couple months before the season and y’all go undefeated and play in the playoffs. Things happen and you’re gonna have ups and downs. We showed glimpses, we just didn’t do enough. We were two yards away from being bowl eligible (against Cal and Virginia). … We know internally, we’re not as bad as our record shows.”

Belichick wasn't willing to be as candid about his first year at UNC, saying he wasn’t “going to do a season recap” in the minutes after the Tar Heels’ final game.

“We’ll take a look at the season later. … We’ll go back and take a look at it and find ways to improve,” he said.

With the early signing period on Dec. 3, Belichick said it's time to turn the page “pretty quickly” toward 2026 and “there’s a lot of processes” to go through in the next few days and weeks.

“The season just ended, like, a few minutes ago,” Belichick said. “So now we’re gonna move into the offseason.”

Asked about his motivation after a 4-8 season, Shipp pointed to that letdown as the main source of sparking a turnaround in Chapel Hill.

“Because we had a season like this,” Shipp said.

“You go 4-8, you don’t want to have that again. … It’s not like we’re starting back from square one like we did back in December (2024). We have a foundation set, now we just gotta build on it. The good thing about the bottom is that it’s sturdy enough to build off of.”

Rodd Baxley covers North Carolina Tar Heels athletics for The Fayetteville Observer as part of the USA TODAY Network. Follow his ACC coverage on X/Twitter or Bluesky: @RoddBaxley. Got questions regarding UNC? Send them to [email protected].

This article originally appeared on The Fayetteville Observer: What Bill Belichick, UNC football players said after loss at NC State