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The build-up for the Tar Heels’ game against TCU was immense. Then the magnitude of his failure was epic, a humiliating 48-14 defeat to the Horned Frogs.

Belichick paced the sidelines with his trademark scowl, like a disapproving grandpa watching a kid’s birthday party go off the rails. After the Tar Heels flashed promise with a quick touchdown drove, the rest of the evening devolved into a merciless beatdown.

The Tar Heels brought whisk brooms to a shovel fight.

“They outplayed us, they outcoached us, they were just better than we were tonight,� Belichick said after the game. “That's all there is to it.�

And . . .  

"We're better than what we were tonight, but we have to go out there and show that and prove it,� he said. “Nobody's going to do it for us. We're going to have to do it ourselves, and that's what we're going to do."

Well, we'll see. Those Super Bowl rings earned with the New England Patriots give Belichick exulted standing in the NFL, but this is college football. 

Writing for USA Today, Paul Myerberg captured the scene:

From start to finish, the whole thing was weird.

Watching Bill Belichick follow North Carolina out of the tunnel for the season opener against TCU was jarring even the better part of a year after his arrival, demanding you finally come to grips with the fact that this is something that’s actually happening: Belichick. College football. North Carolina.

Part of your brain saw Albert Einstein walking into a new position teaching high school algebra. Another part saw Johnny Unitas as a backup for the San Diego Chargers. Something just did not compute.

The reception wasn’t surprising, though. From the sold-out ticket allotment through the community’s frenzied excitement surrounding his debut, the atmosphere inside Kenan Stadium — flashing lights, choreographed blackouts, even Michael Jordan in a luxury box — reflected the unrestrained jubilation over the school’s football-forward decision to hire a six-time Super Bowl champion as the coach of this perpetually underachieving program.

But good vibes don’t win football games. For Belichick and UNC, the party ended not long after kickoff, in a brutal blowout loss that managed to erase nine months of hope and hype in a single 60-minute package.

So what happens next? Will Belichick’s genius shine through as the Tar Heels regroup during the weeks ahead? Or will the Tar Heels stumble forth as a college football curiosity, the aging coach and his spry girlfriend, young enough to be his granddaughter, providing a sideshow for our amusement.

Here is what else folks were writing about this beatdown:

Candace Buckner, The Washington Post: "This game demanded a Monday night prime-time slot for one reason. Production trucks arrived in Chapel Hill for only one person. Earlier in the day, a Raleigh-area news station dispatched a helicopter to capture aerial views of Belichick leading the team through a walk across campus. The same outlet presented the loaded, if not excessive, question on its lower-third graphic: ‘IS THIS THE BIGGEST HEAD COACHING DEBUT IN TRIANGLE SPORTS HISTORY?’ The night’s conversation needed to focus on Belichick, his roster construction, his shift from pros to college, his impact on the campus, his celebrity spectacle. We tuned in, curious to see the coach’s second great act. And, probably, for some stargazing, too.�

Brendan Marks, The Athletic: “Ever since December, when the Tar Heels pushed their chips to the center on a 73-year-old who’d never coached a game in college, the spotlight has been on this one night. On B-Day — Belichick Day, the day when the six-time Super Bowl-winning head coach would signal a new era of football in Chapel Hill. Which is why, understandably, UNC threw the pregame party to end all pregames . . . What began as a celebration, as a precursor of future success, could not have turned more sour. UNC waited nine months, and spent millions of dollars, for empty stands before the fourth quarter began. For loyalists who stayed until the final whistle, so few and far between, you could quite literally count them? (Unofficially 69 in the eastern end zone, by one reporter’s count.) The countless UNC dignitaries who made the pilgrimage back to Chapel Hill — Michael Jordan, Lawrence Taylor, Mia Hamm, Julius Peppers — couldn’t leave early, for optics, but buried their heads in their phones all the same. Anything but what was right in front of them. The official time of death — not just for this one game, but for the larger UNC hype machine — was 11:24 p.m., a whimper of an end to a day that once held so much excitement.�

David Hale, : “For a fan base that had waited nine months for this moment, however, it could be harder to turn the page. Belichick never promised a quick fix, but there were reasonable assurances that this team would play with physicality and fundamentals, that UNC wouldn't be outcoached or outschemed. By halftime Monday, the veil had been lifted. Belichick has six Super Bowl rings, but this was a bigger job than perhaps any he had assumed before. The excitement that reached its apex after the opening touchdown drive perfectly showcased what this experiment could look like. The question now is whether UNC's reality will match the dream or if Belichick's first drive as a college coach will be remembered as the pinnacle of his tenure here.”

Ray Ratto, The Defector: “As wary as he has typically been about the dangers of novelty, Bill Belichick must have known that the extremely public pantsing that he and his new team endured on Monday night was a possibility. But even those among you who wanted his first game as the capo di tutti capi of North Carolina athletics to be more comeuppance than celebration surely didn't dare dream that this was coming. The beating that Belichick and his North Carolina Tar Heels took Monday night at the hands, legs and feet of TCU was historically noteworthy—at 48-14, it was the worst UNC opener ever, the most points a Belichick-coached team has ever allowed, and the third-most lopsided loss in his long coaching career. For those not inclined toward the magic of Chapel Hill, the game was also a veritable Rose Parade of schadenfreude. It was such a comprehensive hammering, in fact, that some of you may swear off hate-watching the Tar Heels in the future, secure in the knowledge that you no longer have to pay him or them any mind. And honestly, good for you. You went to bed happy because, well, watching Bill Belichick get whomped does that to folks.�

MEGAPHONE

"It was a hell of a game, down to the last play. Right out of the gate. It's like getting the final exam [on] Day 1 of class. They made a 65; we made a 58. Neither one of us were great."

Clemson coach Dabo Swinney, on his team’s 17-10 to LSU.

“I thought we dominated them in the second half, so he's really a really good grader for giving himself a 58, or he's a really hard grader on us. Or he didn't see the second half, which, that might be the case. He might not have wanted to see the second half.�

LSU coach Brian Kelly, firing back at Swinney.