Does a seemingly not dreadful North Carolina team stand a chance against a juggernaut of a Notre Dame team in Week 5? Not if you believe Las Vegas oddsmakers.
Bill Belichick will face off against Marcus Freeman and Notre Dame for the first time on Saturday morning, but as with so many Fighting Irish opponents, they’re not expected to stay within three touchdowns when the smoke clears.
Notre Dame is fresh off a 4-0 start, with another big 49-10 win over the Purdue Boilermakers, while the Tar Heels had the week off after a heartbreaking 28-20 loss to Clemson, a game North Carolina looked dominant in for much of the action.
Even with that loss, UNC is 2-1, the best start of Belichick’s short college football coaching career. Obviously, if he can put together an upset of the Irish, it would easily be the biggest win of his career. Bill’s most strident supporters will certainly claim that if there’s a No. 3 team in the country ripe for an upset against a lesser opponent, it's Freeman’s group. It turns out that upset loss in 2024 to North Illinois is still something plenty of programs hold against them.
Notre Dame football opens as three-touchdown favorites over North Carolina
According to DraftKings, Notre Dame has opened as 22.5-point favorites over North Carolina. The total is also sitting at 49.5, meaning that both spreads are very similar to what the Irish saw against Purdue. The big difference is that the Tar Heels are expected to keep the game relatively close.
Expecting North Carolina to keep it close likely comes down to its defense being better than the Boilermakers', since Purdue’s offense has been much, much more powerful than UNC's.
North Carolina counts as one of two more “warmup games” before the second half of the season includes three teams inside the Top 25, starting with BYU. Then, two weeks after the Cougars, they’ll face Miami, and two weeks after that, they’ll face off against SMU.
North Carolina also plays Miami, a week before the Hurricanes face off against Notre Dame. What that game looks like will be interesting, assuming the Irish manhandle the Tar Heels as expected.
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