Edwards' 232 yards headline Tar Heels' 1-0 start
Billy Edwards threw for 232 yards in his Tar Heel debut, two Tar Heels picked up ACC weekly honors, and Kenan's late longtime director got a season-opening tribute before East Tennessee State visits.
Edwards' near-flawless debut has Petrino's new offense humming
Billy Edwards Jr. said he made "like 1,000 flash cards" this camp just to keep up with Bobby Petrino's playbook, and it showed in his first start as a Tar Heel: 232 passing yards in a 15-10 win over TCU in Dublin on August 29, the clean, mistake-free game he'd been chasing all spring. Petrino, running a veer-and-shoot scheme in his first year calling plays in Chapel Hill, found an early favorite in tight end Jelani Thurman, who caught 2 passes for 55 yards including a 35-yard gain, per Sports Illustrated. It's the third straight year Edwards has won a starting job at a third different school, after stops at Maryland and Wisconsin, beating out Miles O'Neill, Au'Tori Newkirk and Travis Burgess in camp to get this one.
TCU15-10Beat writer Chris Vannini put a number on how good it looked afterward: North Carolina threw for more yards against TCU than in any game last year, averaging better than 8 yards per attempt, and asked on X whether Petrino is "cooking" in Chapel Hill. Jaylen McGill scored the first touchdown of his Tar Heel career to tie it at 10 in the first quarter, and Aeron Burrell went 2-for-2 on field goals, including a 28-yarder that put Carolina up for good in the third. Edwards did it without starting tight end J. Warren, who Covers' injury log still lists as Out with an undisclosed injury and no timetable given.
The good vibes off that opener took a hit this week when Michael Lombardi resigned as UNC's football GM, Belichick's longtime aide stepping down four days into the season while the school's internal investigation into him keeps going. It's the messier half of the same opening week — the roster is delivering, the front office is a headline for the wrong reason.
The defense that couldn't stop 4th down last year picked up two ACC honors for one afternoon
This defense ranked 134th nationally on 4th down a year ago, letting opponents convert 24 of 32 tries. On August 29, TCU went 1-for-5 against it, including a goal-line stand, and Xavier Lewis was named the program's player of the game for it. The ACC made it official Monday: 7 tackles, 4.5 tackles for loss and 2 sacks, each a career high, with a Pro Football Focus grade of 88.2 that led everyone on the field, per goheels.com. He was also named MVP of the Aer Lingus College Football Classic.
Derek McDonald was honored alongside him as the ACC's Linebacker of the Week. It helped that TCU was short-handed — leading returning receiver Jordan Dwyer, who caught 54 balls for 730 yards and 7 touchdowns last season, made the trip but sat with a lingering foot injury, and defensive lineman Zach Chapman missed the game after sitting out camp hurt. TCU coach Sonny Dykes gave Carolina the compliment straight afterward: "They've improved." That win puts North Carolina at 1-0 in the ACC alongside Florida State, Stanford, Virginia and Wake Forest, with only Georgia Tech and NC State among the tracked group starting 0-1.
The opener carried a tribute to the man who ran Kenan for two decades
The morning of the TCU game, @UNCFootball posted a tribute reading "James Spurling, forever a Tar Heel." Spurling, the longtime director of Kenan Stadium and the Kenan Football Center, died suddenly on February 5 at 68, per a UNC release, after more than five decades around the program dating back to the 1970s, when he was a teenager who struck up a friendship with then-coach Ernie Williamson.
Belichick's statement at the time called Spurling's work "invaluable" and his dedication to the university "unequaled," adding that "above all, his character as a person was exemplary." Spurling had run day-to-day operations at Kenan since 2006, from event logistics to team travel, and former All-America cornerback Dré Bly has described him as the glue behind Carolina football since the '90s — which made a season opener as far from Chapel Hill as Dublin a fitting one to carry his name onto the field.
Kenan finally gets to see this offense in person
North Carolina is back home on September 12 vs. East Tennessee State, the first look Chapel Hill gets at Petrino's offense in person after the trip to Dublin. The Buccaneers arrive 0-1 after a 37-49 loss to Campbell to open their own season, still finding their footing before this one.
There's no market number posted on the game yet — it hasn't been priced — which only sharpens the contrast with 3 weeks out, when the Tar Heels travel to Clemson on September 19 to open real ACC road business. For now the assignment at Kenan is simpler: keep the offense that took Dublin building, and get J. Warren back on the field.