Notre Dame doesn’t play North Carolina until October, but after the Tar Heels announced their starting quarterback earlier this week, it’s a safe bet that the Fighting Irish defenders are already licking their chops.
Bill Belichick’s QB1 for at least Week 1 will be former Wisconsin signal-caller Billy Edwards Jr. That’s the same Edwards Jr. who threw just 16 passes last year for the Badgers and whose best season was an okey-doke 2024 campaign with the Maryland Terrapins. That year, Edwards threw for a decent enough 2,881 yards, but his 15-to-9 interception ratio wasn’t particularly impressive.
Billy Edwards Jr.’s late-season decline offers Notre Dame football a clear opening
Of course, his performance with the Terps was impressive enough for Badgers’ head coach Luke Fickell to bring him in to compete for his team’s starting quarterback last spring. Edwards threw 13 passes in his opener against Miami (O), then 3 in Week 4 against Maryland. Injuries wiped out the rest of his season, and he didn’t look great in those two short outings.
Against the Redhawks, he completed 6 of 13 passes for 68 yards. He completed only one of three passes against Maryland, though it was a 45-yard completion. If he comes anywhere close to repeating his 43.8% completion percentage for North Carolina against Notre Dame, the Irish will romp over the Tar Heels the way they did against Syracuse last fall.
The difference between the game against the Orange and the upcoming contest against Billy Edwards Jr. and North Carolina is that Syracuse went into the game with several quarterbacks hurt. It turned to Joseph Filardi, knowing full well a blowout loss was possible, even likely.
The blowout did happen as Filardi completed just 14 of 26 passes for 83 yards and 3 interceptions. Two of those picks were returned for 40+ yard touchdowns by Notre Dame defensive backs.
Edwards should be better than Filardi, but even if he has a better arm and more experience as a starting quarterback, it’s worth noting that the former Terp’s last season in Maryland was less impressive when split in half. Edwards started the 2024 campaign off well enough, but his squad lost its last four games. In those four contests, he threw just two touchdowns and five interceptions. He was also well below his season’s 65% completion percentage, finishing at 54.3% on 78 of 142 passes.
If the way he finished 2024 was a hint of what was to come for Billy Edwards Jr. from then on, Notre Dame’s defense should absolutely be licking its chops. The Irish have made better quarterbacks than the one North Carolina is planning to send out there this year look like they don’t belong on the same field. On October 3, things could get ugly in Chapel Hill quickly.
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