 16Virginia Cavaliers |
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 North Carolina Tar Heels |
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| ACC Network | Saturday, October 25th 12:00 PM EDT | |
Chapel Hill, N.C. — Atop the list of North Carolina’s on-field struggles in head coach Bill Belichick’s first season is the Tar Heels’ complete offensive futility, possessing the ACC’s worst offense.
UNC ranks last in the ACC in passing offense, total offense, scoring offense and third-down offense and next-to-last in time of possession. That will have to change Saturday against No. 16 Virginia, which has the league’s top scoring offense.
Much of the blame has fallen on starting quarterback Gio Lopez, the South Alabama transfer who has yet to pass for 200 yards in a game and has the same number of touchdowns as interceptions (three). Lopez was involved in a car wreck days before the season opener and has battled injuries through the first half of the season. Lopez said after the Cal game that he was as healthy as he’s been all season.
“In any offense, if the quarterback plays well, the offense plays well,” UNC quarterbacks coach Matt Lombardi said. “I think that’s the name of the game. And we strive, in our room, to do a better job at that especially on critical downs, third down, red zone. Our performance has to rise above everybody else’s.”
No. 16 Virginia is 6-1 overall and 3-0 in the ACC. The Cavaliers’ lone loss came to ACC foe NC State, but that game was scheduled as a nonconference matchup and doesn’t count in the league standings.
UNC (2-4, 0-2) has yet to score 21 points against a Football Bowl Subdivision opponent this season, topping out at 20 in a win over Charlotte. The Tar Heels’ 18 points against Cal last week represented the most for the program in four games against Power 4 opponents.
Virginia, with transfer quarterback Chandler Morris under center, is averaging 40 points per game and has the league’s No. 3 rushing offense at 203.9 yards per game. The Cavaliers are tops in the ACC in turnover margin and second in time of possession and third-down offense.
Lopez arrived in Chapel Hill after spring practice ended, giving him limited opportunities to gain command of the offense. He was named the starter before the season opener, but has been outplayed by backup Max Johnson. Lopez’s practice reps have also been limited due to injuries.
“As a team we’re growing and understanding our scheme and what we’re trying to get accomplished,” Lopez said after the Cal game. “I feel like a lot of us kind of struggled in a sense of what are we trying to do. It felt like we weren’t a team, everyone was individuals playing, just 11 individuals. Then we started growing as a team each week. I think it’s starting to come together and I think that overall as a scheme we understand what we’re trying to do now.”
For the season, Lopez is completing 59.8% of his passes for 597 yards. He has a 31.2 Total Quarterback Rating, an ESPN stat that grades the performances of quarterbacks. Lopez ranks No. 130 out of 140 qualified college quarterbacks. Morris is No. 24 at 75.3.
Lombardi was the assistant quarterbacks coach with the Carolina Panthers in 2022, when the franchise acquired quarterback Baker Mayfield right before training camp, a situation that he compared to Lopez’s late arrival.
“This guy [Mayfield] was unbelievable in terms of just his memory and just how he can recall things and pick up an offense in the blink of an eye,” Lombardi said. “And you think that he’s ready, but the guy just showed up four weeks ago and now he’s starting for you.”
Mayfield, now an MVP candidate with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, struggled in Carolina, completing a career-worst 57.8% of his passes and had the worst passer rating of his career.
That experience has been instructive how Lombardi has tried to handle Lopez, focusing on incremental improvement.
“As a player, he’s getting more and more comfortable being under center, calling plays in the huddle, for sure, getting in and out of the huddle, that type of leadership, things that aren’t skill involved,” Lombardi said. “It’s more of his communication. He’s getting a lot more confidence and you can see that every day because he’s getting reps of it more and more.”
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