When it comes to sports, everyone wants to believe, and everyone wants to be fooled. "There's always next year" is a rallying cry with expectations of brighter days ahead.
For North Carolina football, there appeared to be little reason for optimism heading into Bill Belichick's second season as the team's head coach, following a 4-8 debut season and a whole bunch of off-field controversy.
That off-field controversy extended into the preseason for 2026, and the Tar Heels arrived in Ireland to face TCU as healthy underdogs.
UNC pulled off a stunner thanks to Belichick's stifling defense, knocking off TCU 15-10 and injecting some optimism back into the Tar Heel fanbase for the tenure of the six-time Super Bowl champion head coach.
It's hard to blame them, but it's ultimately misplaced. A win is always better than a loss, but that game showed a lot more about TCU than it did about UNC.
UNC fans are allowing themselves to be fooled about Bill Belichick again
TCU hasn't been the same since the Cinderella run to the National Championship Game that ended with a 65-7 thumping at the hands of Georgia. They won nine games last year, but lost star QB Josh Hoover to Indiana in the Transfer Portal, replacing him with an IVY League star in Jaden Craig, who struggled immensely in his first start at the Power Four level.
All the talk of the offseason in Chapel Hill was the addition of Bobby Petrino at OC and how that would provide a major boost to the offense. But UNC managed only 15 points, with the offense netting just a single field goal after the first quarter of play.
There are still legitimate red flags about this UNC team, and looking back, it will lead to universal belief that the matchup in Ireland showed more about the Horned Frogs than the Tar Heels.
Perhaps UNC has taken a step ahead of "dumpster fire," but it's tough to believe that they are going to be much more than mediocre this season. The next calamity is surely around the next corner, and it won't take much for things to start to derail again.
Time will tell the tale. UNC is off for Week 1, but will get a cupcake game against East Tennessee State in Week 2 to start 2-0. After that, the gauntlet begins, with matchups against Clemson, Notre Dame, Pitt, and Duke all in a row that will send their delusional fans crashing back down to reality.
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