CHAPEL HILL - North Carolina’s season got off to an unusual start, and the Tar Heels are trying to turn that into an advantage.
After opening the year with a win over TCU in week zero in Dublin, Ireland, UNC sat out the first full weekend of the college football season and used the earliest bye available to keep working toward Saturday’s home opener against East Tennessee State. That extra week gave the Heels more time on the practice field, but it also interrupted the early rhythm that comes with a fresh win.
Bill Belichick addressed that balance on Monday, saying the extra time can be useful this early in the year.
"Certainly, it's good to have a little extra time, especially early in a year, to correct some of the mistakes from TCU before we moved on so quickly to ETSU," he said. "Overall, you take advantage of whatever time you have. If you have a long week, then eventually you're going to have a short week and vice versa."
For linebacker Derek McDonald, the bye was a practical benefit as much as anything else. He piled up 11 total tackles in the opener and said the trip back from Ireland would have made a quick turnaround difficult.
"I think it would've been tough to come back from Ireland and play a game last week," he said. "It was just long travel and readjusting to the time zones."
UNC’s schedule gives the Heels another break later in the season, though that second bye arrives only two weeks after the first, right after a trip to Clemson. After that, North Carolina comes back home to face Notre Dame on October 3 and then plays the rest of the year without another open date.
That final stretch is a demanding one: three ranked opponents and two in-state rivalries are waiting in the back half of the schedule.
McDonald said the team is prepared for that workload.
"It will be interesting to see how the early bye week in the season goes with us having so many games, but we'll be ready to go," he said. "Our strength staff will have us in good shape."
North Carolina dealt with a similar setup in 2025, when two early byes were also part of the schedule. Last season, the Heels had open dates around a week six game against Clemson and then played the final seven games without a break, finishing 2-5 in that stretch.
Belichick’s view of the situation was straightforward.
"When they schedule them, we play them," he puts it plainly.
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