As the Notre Dame football team prepares for its upcoming game against North Carolina, one question about who to prep for was answered on Monday.
Despite the best start to his Tar Heels career, head coach Bill Belichick had several members of the media wondering if he might make a change at quarterback. Billy Edwards opened the season as the starter, but struggled mightily in UNC’s first loss of the year. For now, at least, Belichick is sticking with his starter.
Yes, there’s more that the passing game could provide,” Belichick admitted on Monday. However, he said it’s not all on the quarterback, which is why Billy Edwards will get the start against Notre Dame.
“There’s a lot of detail that goes into every route and every throw,” Belichick said, “and so sometimes we have to make adjustments on that.”
North Carolina faces Notre Dame football as massive underdog amid ongoing passing game struggles
Belichick replied simply, “I do” to a question about whether he expects Edwards to remain the Tar Heels starter going forward. While he didn’t specifically predict that Edwards will remain in that position even if his struggles continue, Belichick said he doesn’t want to create a “musical chairs” scenario with backup Miles O’Neill and Edwards flipping positions in the depth chart. In the meantime, he believes the team can piece together enough improvements from the quarterback, receivers, and offensive game plan to produce more in the passing game.
Belichick said passing, at every level, involves “timing, execution, the operation of the play,” as well as protection, but also minor details like a receiver's route technique and a quarterback’s anticipation of where a pass catcher is headed.
“I mean, I’m not trying to turn this into landing a guy on the moon,” Belichick said.
At times during his tenure at Chapel Hill, winning has seemed more like trying to get a man to Mars. Quarterback play has especially been uneven at best in the last two years with North Carolina. Edwards himself has been up and down. His performance against Clemson was easily his worst as a Tar Heel.
Edwards completed just 13 of 30 passes for 135 yards, 1 touchdown, and 1 interception. The Tar Heels’ QB1 is on his third team in five years, and even his “best” collegiate season was far from outstanding. In 2024 with the Maryland Terrapins, he completed 65% of his passes for 2,881 yards, 15 touchdowns, and 9 interceptions.
This season, Edwards has completed 56.4% of his passes for 611 yards, 3 touchdowns, and 1 interception.
While Edwards no doubt appreciates the vote of confidence from Bill Belichick,North Carolina is a three-touchdown underdog to Notre Dame this week. This hardly seems like a great situation when the team is trying to figure out its quarterback play.
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