Billy Edwards threw for three touchdowns and North Carolina scored 21 points off three turnovers as the Tar Heels defeated UConn 38-21 to snap a two-game losing streak in coach Bill Belichick’s return to New England.

It was Belichick’s first game back coaching in New England since his tenure with the NFL’s Patriots came to an end.

“It’s good to be back in New England,” Belichick said. “It was an interesting game. I think UConn is a really challenging team, they put a lot of pressure on us.

“The team rebounded pretty well after a couple of tough losses.”

Timir Hickman-Collins returned an interception 62 yards for a touchdown and had a fumble recovery to set up a 6-yard touchdown pass from Edwards to Jordan Shipp. Edwards had a fourth-down completion and put the game away with a 3-yard scoring pass to Jelani Thurman with 3:38 remaining after Jalon Thompson’s interception gave the ball back to the Tar Heels.

“We’ve been really harping on (getting) turnovers, every day in practice we have been doing that,” Hickman-Collins said. “Today, me and our DB (Jalon Thompson), a lot of us had turnovers.”

Kalieb Osborne had completions of 23 and 28 yards and a 25-yard run to set up Cyncir Bowers’ 13-yard touchdown run to pull UConn within seven points with 10:01 remaining in the third quarter. Osborne threw for 245 yards, but completed just 17 of 35 passes against a North Carolina defense that was allowing teams to complete 65% of their passes.

“I thought Carolina put us in some tough situations and won the football game,” UConn coach Jason Candle said. “I didn’t feel like we were at our best. We did some things that set them up in short fields. The turnovers were a big deal today.”

Benjamin Hall had a 39-yard touchdown run. He finished with 81 yards on nine carries. Edwards connected with Jelani Thurman on a 3-yard touchdown with 24 seconds remaining in the first half. Thurman now has eight touchdown catches to tie the North Carolina single-season record for TDs by a tight end.

Osborne threw touchdown passes of 18 yards to Ryder Treadway and 24 yards to Cam Abshire as the Huskies trailed 28-14 at halftime.

Peyton Seelmann led North Carolina (5-4) with nine tackles and two sacks. Hayden Pegg had 12 tackles and an interception for UConn (4-5).

Belichick, Diaco back in Connecticut

Belichick coached the Patriots to six Super Bowl titles. He played at Wesleyan University from 1971-74, which is about 20 miles away from Rentschler Field. Belichick nearly guided North Carolina to a win over No. 1 Miami last week.

Bob Diaco, North Carolina’s defensive line coach, coached UConn from 2014-16. UConn won six games in Diaco’s second season before losing to Marshall in the St. Petersburg Bowl. He was fired after a 3-9 record in 2016. Diaco went 11-26 in his three seasons with the Huskies.

Up next

North Carolina hosts Louisville on Nov. 14.

UConn is home against James Madison on Nov. 14.