- North Carolina named Billy Edwards Jr. its starting quarterback for the Aug. 29 opener against TCU in Dublin.
- Edwards threw for 2,881 yards and 15 touchdowns as Maryland’s starter in 2024 before injury cut short his Wisconsin season.
- The Tar Heels are +10000 to win the ACC, 14th of 17 teams and open the season as 7.5-point underdogs against TCU.
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – North Carolina has named Billy Edwards Jr. its starting quarterback for the Aug. 29 opener against TCU at Aviva Stadium in Dublin, the game that opens the 2026 college football season, ESPN reported Tuesday. Edwards, 23, beat out Texas A&M transfer Miles O’Neill for the job.
Edwards Brings The Most Starting Experience Of The Four
North Carolina coach Bill Belichick kept the job open through the first two weeks of camp. Edwards won it with the longest college resume of the four quarterbacks who opened camp competing for the job, a field that also included returning redshirt freshman Au’Tori Newkirk and true freshman Travis Burgess.
He redshirted at Wake Forest, started a full season at Maryland in 2024 and threw for 2,881 yards and 15 touchdowns in 11 games, then spent last season at Wisconsin, where an injury ended his year.
His signature game at Maryland was a 29-28 upset of Southern California. Edwards completed 39 of 50 passes for 373 yards and two touchdowns and scored the winning points himself from 3 yards out with 53 seconds left. Completing 78 percent of 50 attempts is a heavy workload thrown accurately.
O’Neill, a 6-foot-5 redshirt sophomore, arrived from Texas A&M with 12 career completions for 171 yards and two touchdowns across eight appearances, barely a game’s worth of work. Bobby Petrino, named North Carolina’s offensive coordinator in January, ran the evaluation through camp.
The Season Starts Aug. 29 At Aviva Stadium
The game is the fifth consecutive Aer Lingus College Football Classic and opens the college football season. The Tar Heels are 7.5-point underdogs against TCU.
It is also the second straight year the two schools have opened against each other. North Carolina leads the series 3-1. TCU won last year’s meeting 48-14.
North Carolina Is +10000 On The ACC Board
The market has the Tar Heels well down the conference board. Bovada has North Carolina at +10000 to win the ACC, 14th of the 17 teams priced and behind both Duke at +6500 and Wake Forest at +7500. Miami is the -140 favorite, with SMU +700, Louisville +1000 and Clemson +1600 next.
Those numbers are payouts, not forecasts. A +10000 ticket pays $10,000 in profit on a $100 stake, and the price implies roughly 1 percent. Whether North Carolina’s true chance of winning the ACC is better or worse than 1 percent is the entire bet, and the same logic runs down the board.
