In a battle of coaches, ‘disrespected’ TCU, Sonny Dykes hammered The Hoodie
Sonny Dykes improved to 1-1 in games against head coaches with massive egos, personas and their own shows for streaming platforms.
The record is probably different than that, but for the second time in the past three years, TCU fell into the most interesting game of college football’s Week 1 schedule because of the opposing head coach.
TCU’s own head coach, and his entire team, were well aware of the talk about playing Bill Belichick and North Carolina.
“We all felt a little disrespected,” Dykes said. “There was a lot of conversation about this game, and it wasn’t about us.”
Undeniably correct.
The same thing happened in 2023. But in ‘23, Deion Sanders and Colorado put it on TCU in Fort Worth, which left Dykes hot to start a season that would crash without so much as a bowl appearance.
Here in ‘25, Dykes and his team did not throw up a repeat of their Deion dud but instead authored a Belichick Beatdown.
“Put it to you this way, I didn’t go into that game with the same level of confidence that I came into this one,” Dykes said. “Not because of our opponent, but the way we prepared. In [2023] I didn’t do a good job of getting our team ready to play. We wanted to make sure given this opportunity on this stage, guys were ready to play. We were.”
A game Sonny Dykes needed
This is one of those games that Dykes needed. He wouldn’t say it, but for the sake of the room temperature around Fort Worth he needed to avoid an “Oh-No-and-Two” against Deion and Belichick. For reasons that don’t add up, Sonny still has more convincing to pockets of a fan base that refuse to accept he may be decent at his job.
When the Tar Heels easily walked down the field on the game’s opening drive to take a 7-0 lead, Belichick and his gang of transfers looked like the better team. By the middle of the third quarter, Kenan Stadium turned into just another North Carolina evacuation site. Other than that opening drive, the Tar Heels did nothing.
Considering all of the changes North Carolina made in the offseason, plus the reality that TCU returns its starting quarterback from a team that won nine games, its win on Monday night should be expected. Maybe not by the final score of 48-14, but a convincing win.
Coincidentally, it was 34 years ago to the day Belichick made his debut as an NFL head coach. He lost to a team from Texas that day, 26-14 to Jimmy Johnson’s Dallas Cowboys.
That outcome was more attractive than what TCU did to him on Monday night. TCU’s 48 points are the most a Belichick team has ever surrendered.
“Have tremendous respect for him and his accomplishments. I mean, it’s without question,” Dykes said. “But we wanted this game to be about us, and it was.”
It should be, but this is Bill Belichick. For a while, every game North Carolina plays will be about him, and whatever TCU did well will be minimized and discarded because it played a rebuilding team.
ESPN commentators picked North Carolina
Nearly all of the talking heads at ESPN who were at the game in Chapel Hill picked Carolina to beat TCU, specifically because of the head coach. And because they didn’t know a thing about TCU.
By the middle of the second quarter, it was apparent that Dykes not only had the vastly better team, but a good team. Both the offensive and defensive lines turned Carolina into what looked more like an FCS rather than an ACC team.
Whatever different look Belichick threw at quarterback Josh Hoover made no difference. Hoover has played a lot of college football, and that experience, plus his talent to throw a ball, yielded the desired results.
“I don’t think I saw anything that surprised me. I felt like I knew what they were doing every time I caught the ball,” said Hoover, who passed for 284 yards with two touchdowns. “Felt pretty good about what they were doing. As far as feeling like I got tricked, not a whole lot. One time they got me.”
TCU ran for 258 yards, and held Carolina to 50. Pick the stat, and TCU kicked and slapped Belichick’s team.
The atmosphere was fun. The weather was perfect.
But this wasn’t much of a game.
Because North Carolina doesn’t look that good, whereas TCU does.
This story was originally published September 2, 2025 at 6:00 AM.
