North Carolina head coach Bill Belichick addressed the media after the Tar Heels suffered a heartbreaking loss to the Cal Golden Bears.

UNC (2-4, 0-2 ACC) endured its third straight defeat of the season and its seventh consecutive loss to a Power Four school. Meanwhile, Cal (5-2, 2-1 ACC) moved within one win of bowl eligibility.

The Tar Heels nearly pulled off a late win. Quarterback Gio Lopez completed a crucial pass to Nathan Leacock, but just before Leacock could cross the goal line, California’s Brent Austin forced a fumble. Austin recovered the ball in the end zone for a touchback, dashing the hopes of North Carolina fans seeking their first victory over a Power Four opponent since November last season.

Gio Lopez completed 19 of 35 passes for 167 yards. Wide receiver Kobe Paysour turned in his best game of the season, collecting 101 yards on six catches for an average of 16.8 yards per reception. Paysour is the only North Carolina wide receiver to top 100 receiving yards in a game this season.

Running back Benjamin Hall contributed 68 rushing yards on 14 carries, including an 18-yard touchdown run in the first quarter. 

For Cal, quarterback Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele threw for 209 passing yards, completing 21 of 39 attempts, and ran for a touchdown, Wide receiver Jacob De Jesus caught 13 passes for 105 yards, while running back Kendrick Raphael rushed for 81 yards and a touchdown.

UNC

Oct 17, 2025; Berkeley, California, USA; North Carolina Tar Heels head coach Bill Belichick looks on before the game against the California Golden Bears at California Memorial Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Eakin Howard-Imagn Images / Eakin Howard-Imagn Images

OPENING STATEMENT

Your couple of big mistakes hurt us, but a lot of things we could have done better in all three phases. So just can’t pull a bit short today, or couple inches, I guess, on the touchdown, on the fumble, but just keep working on things that obviously we need to do a better job of third and long on defense, third kind of conversions on offense, ball security.

On Kobe Paysour

He’s a tough competitor. He’s been like that on special teams and on offense.

Cal

Oct 17, 2025; Berkeley, California, USA; North Carolina Tar Heels quarterback Gio Lopez (7) evades tackle by California Golden Bears linebacker Cade Uluave (0) in the second quarter at California Memorial Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Eakin Howard-Imagn Images / Eakin Howard-Imagn Images

On Improvement

Yeah, as I said, we’ve been improving every week. So I’m not going to back off that. I think that’s true, but meaning you can’t turn them all over and win, it’s just that’s too hard. So we’ve got eliminate some of those kind of mistakes. You know, tackle better, simply, better on third down, both sides of the ball. So still, things we need to do that it might have been enough we hadn’t turned the ball over, but we did get any turnovers on defense.

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