Bill Belichick Names Billy Edwards Jr. Starting QB as UNC Preps for TCU Opener in Dublin

Bill Belichick has his quarterback. The North Carolina head coach on Tuesday named Billy Edwards Jr., a graduate transfer who arrived from Wisconsin in January, as the Tar Heels’ starter for their 2026 season opener against TCU on August 29 in Dublin, Ireland. ESPN’s Pete Thamel first reported the decision, which closes out a competition that stretched back through spring practice and all of fall camp.

Edwards, a 23-year-old sixth-year veteran, beat out three other options: Texas A&M transfer Miles O’Neill, four-star true freshman Travis Burgess and redshirt freshman Au’Tori Newkirk. The battle carried extra intrigue because new UNC offensive coordinator Bobby Petrino previously recruited O’Neill to Texas A&M in 2023, yet Belichick and his staff still opted for the more experienced Edwards to lead the offense in Year 2 of the Belichick era in Chapel Hill.

A Well-Traveled Path to the Starting Job

Edwards’ route to Chapel Hill has taken him through three other Power Four programs. He began his career at Wake Forest before transferring to Maryland, where he had his most productive stretch, throwing for 2,881 yards with 15 touchdowns against nine interceptions across 11 starts in 2024. He then transferred again to Wisconsin for the 2025 season, appearing in just two games before making the move to North Carolina. For his career, Edwards has appeared in 28 games with 16 starts, completing 62.1 percent of his passes for 3,435 yards, 19 touchdowns and 10 interceptions, while also contributing 375 yards and 13 rushing scores on the ground.

That resume of starts at Maryland gives Edwards a level of live-game experience that neither Burgess nor Newkirk can match, and it appears to have been the deciding factor over O’Neill’s familiarity with Petrino’s scheme. Edwards now replaces Gio Lopez, the Wake Forest transfer who quarterbacked UNC through a difficult first season under Belichick, as the Tar Heels look to steady an offense that struggled for consistency in 2025.

Belichick has been deliberate about the timeline all along, repeatedly declining to commit to a starter until fall camp had fully played out. “Once it becomes apparent and clear, then that’s when we’ll make the decision,” he said earlier in camp, and the staff ultimately let the competition run through the final practices before settling on the transfer with the deepest track record. O’Neill’s ties to Petrino’s system made him a credible push, but Edwards’ volume of live snaps at the Power Four level — including a full season as Maryland’s starter — proved to be the tiebreaker.

What the QB Decision Means for UNC’s Betting Market

The timing of the announcement, just 11 days before kickoff, lines up with how bettors have already been pricing this North Carolina team. Sportsbooks set the Tar Heels’ 2026 regular-season win total at just 4.5, among the lowest marks in the ACC, and UNC’s odds to win the conference sit near +15,000 with national championship odds around +40,000 — figures that reflect a roster still being rebuilt after a 4-8 finish in Belichick’s debut campaign. A preseason media poll of 185 ACC voters released in late July picked the Tar Heels to finish 15th out of 17 teams in the conference.

The opener itself already carries a clear line: TCU is favored by roughly 7 to 7.5 points as a heavy moneyline favorite, with the total sitting in the high 40s after ticking down slightly in the days before kickoff at Dublin’s Aviva Stadium. Naming Edwards over three other options signals that Belichick’s staff wants game-managing stability and starting experience over untapped upside at the position, a philosophy that tends to keep a team’s floor from collapsing even when a schedule is unfavorable. Whether that translates into UNC beating its modest win total will hinge heavily on how quickly Edwards and Petrino’s offense mesh in live snaps, starting with a stiff neutral-site test against a Big 12 contender in TCU. For bettors tracking UNC’s season-long numbers, this is the first concrete data point of the year — and one that will shape how the market treats the Tar Heels’ remaining futures through the opening weeks of the season.