Ex-North Carolina QB Gio Lopez, dad absolutely loathed season with Bill Belichick
Ex-North Carolina QB Gio Lopez, dad absolutely loathed season with Bill Belichick appeared first on ClutchPoints . Add ClutchPoints as a Preferred Source by clicking here .
It was a bad first season for Bill Belichick with North Carolina football . The team finished 4-8, but quarterback Gio Lopez was a bright spot. Lopez took over at North Carolina after playing at South Alabama. Expectations were that Lopez was going to remain at North Carolina .
Lopez then reversed course and decided not to return to North Carolina, instead transferring to Wake Forest. Now, the former Tar Heel quarterback and his father are speaking out about his time at UNC and playing for Belichick, per Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk.
“Back at the other school, it felt like there’s no air,” Lopez said. “Here, it’s fun again. They’re moving us in the right direction, energized, and guys are enjoying football. It’s like fresh air. I’d never had to respond to tough situations like that on that loud of a scale.”
Belichick’s former signal caller did not even name the Tar Heels, just referring to them as the other school. Then, Lopez was asked directly about his former coach.
“It was more like work,” Lopez said. “After that first game, it felt like getting through the day. You don’t want to live like that, where you’re up at night thinking about the next day.”
His father, Barney Lopez, added onto the insight of how Lopez was feeling.
“You were ridiculed if you didn’t do it exactly the way he was told,” the elder Lopez said. “You could be at the dang line, see the play is about to be blown up, but if you try to call it off or audible, you were ridiculed. Gio has always loved the game of football, and he was losing the love for it when he was over there.”
It is predictable that playing under Belichick could be difficult. He has long been panned for being difficult to play for when he was the coach with the New England Patriots . Still, the Patriots were lifting Lombardi Trophies and winning cures a lot of discontent. North Carolina is not even playing for a win in the Pop-Tarts Bowl.
Meanwhile, Wake Forest is looking for a second straight bowl appearance, after winning the Duke’s Mayo Bowl last year. Gio Lopez will not get a chance to face his former coach this year, but if Lopez has another solid year, he could be heading to the NFL before his old coach makes it back to the league.
