Bill Belichick saw enough from North Carolina to call it one of the Tar Heels’ better efforts of his tenure, but the scoreboard still landed hard on UNC in a 37-26 loss to No. 3 Notre Dame on Saturday.
The Tar Heels kept finding ways to hang around. They were down 21-7 late in the second quarter before a goal-line stand kept Notre Dame from stretching the margin. North Carolina then put together a touchdown drive before halftime, and Jaden Jefferson flipped the momentum again to start the third quarter with a 98-yard kickoff return that cut the Irish lead to 21-20.
Notre Dame shut the door quickly after that.
The Fighting Irish leaned on their rushing game and piled up 122 yards on the ground in the third quarter alone. A 17-play, 75-yard march that ate up more than nine minutes ended with quarterback CJ Carr scoring on a fourth-down keeper. Carr finished with 234 passing yards, four touchdown passes and another score on the ground.
Belichick didn’t hide the missed chances that made the difference.
“We were certainly competitive, we missed some opportunities,” Belichick said. “We just need to do a better job of coaching and playing, take advantage of those opportunities. They're a good team; it's not like anything was easy today.”
UNC quarterback Billy Edwards Jr. threw three touchdown passes in the loss, but Belichick made it clear the passing game wasn’t on one player alone.
“The passing game’s really about team execution,” Belichick said. “It's not just the quarterback.”
North Carolina showed fight throughout the afternoon, but Notre Dame answered every push and left the Tar Heels with another loss, even after what Belichick viewed as a step forward.
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Notre Dame Stayed At No. 3 But A Bigger Concern Is Growing
Notre Dame handled North Carolina 37-26 and kept rolling in the polls, staying at No. 3 in both the AP and Coaches rankings for a fifth straight week. The win also pushed the Irish to 22-2 all time against the Tar Heels, another reminder that the program has usually taken care of business in this matchup even when the game has not always looked clean.
The bigger issue is what comes next, because the ranking steadiness has not quieted the questions around a team that still has to sharpen up before the end of the regular season. With college football around it shifting in the standings and Stanford up next, Notre Dames margin for error is getting thinner, and the next stretch will say a lot more about its national standing than the poll number did this week. [Read more 🡒]
Notre Dame Defense Just Got The Wake-Up Call Fans Feared
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Senior safety Luke Talich was right in the middle of it, making an interception and blocking an extra point while playing with a wrist brace. Defensive coordinator Chris Ash still had execution issues to sort through afterward, and the bigger takeaway was less about celebration than correction. For a defense heading into a tougher stretch, the game looked like a reminder that the floor is higher when the unit is focused, but the margin for error is still too thin to ignore. [Read more 🡒]
CJ Carr Has Notre Dame In A Heisman Spotlight Again
The Heisman conversation is already starting to take shape in the 2026 college football season, and Notre Dame has a familiar name back in the mix. CJ Carr is among five early contenders drawing attention, alongside Jeremiah Smith at Ohio State, Keelon Russell at Alabama, Darian Mensah at Miami and Gunner Stockton at Georgia, with each players production and team success helping frame the opening stretch of the race.
For Notre Dame, Carrs presence matters because the Irish have spent enough seasons waiting for a quarterback to break into the national awards picture again. The race is still in its early stages, though, and the next round of key games could quickly separate the serious challengers from the rest of the field, which means Carrs path to staying in that spotlight is only going to get tougher from here. [Read more 🡒]