CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — North Carolina isn’t ruling out having starting quarterback Gio Lopez available for Saturday night’s football game at Charlotte, head coach Bill Belichick and quarterbacks coach Matt Lombardi said Wednesday.

The transfer Lopez became hobbled and didn’t finish the Tar Heels’ season-opening blowout loss to TCU two nights ago, due to a back injury suffered in the second half.

“Yeah, he’s here today so we’re going to see how it goes, and where it goes from there,” Lombardi said Wednesday at Kenan Football Center, when asked if UNC planned on Lopez participating in practice later in the afternoon. “And we’ll see what it looks like on the practice field. But he was in here today and he looked great, so we’ll see how it goes.”

UNC is tasked with navigating a short week and quick turnaround leading into Saturday night’s matchup for the road assignment at Charlotte’s Richardson Stadium, where the largest on-campus crowd in the school’s brief football history is expected. Charlotte officials are adding extra seating on the stadium concourse above the 49ers’ student section, in preparation for the turnout.

The Tar Heels didn’t practice Tuesday, as they began the process of picking up the pieces and moving on from the TCU defeat that unraveled into a 48-14 disaster. If Lopez isn’t available for Saturday night’s game, UNC backup Max Johnson would be in line for his first start since the 2024 season opener, when he was knocked out of that victory at Minnesota by a gruesome broken leg that threatened to end his college playing career.

Belichick said he spoke with Lopez on Wednesday morning. “He’s doing pretty good,” Belichick said. “We’ll see how it goes. We haven’t practiced yet this week, so we’ll see what things look like today when we get out there.”

Lopez proved one of the better quarterbacks on the Group of Five level at South Alabama. He played in 11 of 13 games last season in 2024 as a redshirt freshman, and produced 274.7 yards of total offense, ranking No. 22 nationally in that category on the FBS level. He finished fourth in the Sun Belt Conference in passing (232.6 yards per game) last season, fourth in touchdown passes (18), fourth in completion percentage (206-for-312, 66 percent), and third in fewest interceptions (five). He also ran for 465 yards and seven touchdowns, while averaging 5.7 yards per carry.

But after piloting the Tar Heels’ surgical 83-yard touchdown drive that began Monday night’s season opener with a bang — he hit Jordan Shipp on 39- and 19-yard strikes to help fuel the march — his first game at Carolina turned unproductive.

He finished just 4-of-10 for 69 passing yards and coughed up two turnovers, both of which TCU returned for touchdowns. The Tar Heels trailed 10-7 in the later  stages of the first half, when TCU’s Bud Clark jumped a Lopez throw for an interception. And he breezed in from 25 yards for a touchdown, as the Horned Frogs hopped ahead 17-7. Clark, one of the better safeties in college football, read that situation the whole way, with Lopez trying to force a ball to Shipp.

“Look, we all have plays we’d like to have back from the game,” Belichick said Wednesday. “Calls, plays, passes, tackles, you name it. You can’t participate in a game like that and not feel like there’s some things you could’ve done better, or you’d like to do over again. So learn from those, move on, and get ready for Charlotte. And that’s all we can control.

“We need to learn some lessons from what happened in the TCU game. At the same time, there’s nothing we can do about that one. It’s over with and we need to move on.”

Johnson entered in the third quarter, after Lopez fumbled on a sack, and TCU defensive end Devean Deal scooped and scored on a 37-yard return, putting the Frogs ahead 41-7. The sack sent Lopez exiting in pain. In-game reports from the sideline had Lopez complaining about his back and hip. Then, he collapsed and screamed in the tunnel as he hobbled off toward the Tar Heels’ locker room.

From there, Johnson went 9-of-11 passing for 103 yards against TCU. He hit his brother, tight end Jake Johnson, for a 2-yard touchdown in the final minute of the third quarter.

“I think we’re going to look at everything in terms of an offense,” Lombardi said Wednesday, when asked if the Tar Heels need to adjust their scheme to better utilize Lopez’s dual-threat talents. “I think when you don’t perform well, you’re going to look at things we did well, things we didn’t do well.

“So I think we’re going to take that all into account. I don’t think it’s necessarily just because of his skillset or things we have to do to match his skillset. He can do everything in our eyes. So we’re going to do what’s best for the team, and do what gives us the best chance to win at the end of the day.”