UNC Football: First Quarter Grades
NCAAF College Football News, Photos, Stats, Scores, Schedule & Videos...
Well, after the Tar Heels blew a 17-6 halftime lead against Clemson to collect their first loss of the season, the North Carolina football season is now a quarter of the way over and with that comes some first quarter grades.
Quarterbacks:
Billy Edwards ranks as the fourteenth-best passer in the ACC by yardage (in case you forgot, there are 17 football members in the ACC). The next two quarterbacks on that list are a combined 5-1, while the seventeenth guy on the list is Tait Reynolds who has only started one game this season and yet is less than 200 yards behind Edwards. Additionally, Edwards is second-to-last in the conference in completion percentage, ahead of only Syracuse’s Steve Angeli who also has 120 more yards and one more touchdown than Edwards does.
Just for fun:
Quarterback A: 78.6 completion percentage, 9.1 ypa, 1 total touchdown, 0 interceptions, 1 sacks
Quarterback B: 73.3 completion percentage, 10.1 ypa, 7 total touchdowns, 1 interception, 6 sacks
Quarterback C: 71.8 completion percentage, 6.6 ypa, 2 total touchdowns, 2 interceptions, 8 sacks
Quarterback D: 65.5 completion percentage, 6.0 ypa, 2 total touchdowns, 1 interception, 4 sacks
Quarterback E: 62.9 completion percentage, 8.4 ypa, 9 total touchdowns, 1 interception, 5 sacks
Quarterback F: 56.4 completion percentage, 7.8 ypa, 3 total touchdowns, 1 interception, 7 sacks
All of these quarterbacks have something in common: they all spent at least one practice at UNC under Bill Belichick. So, which of these quarterbacks would you rather have this season? QBs B and E look pretty good. So does QB A. QB F and C, not so much.
Well, QBs B and E are Ryan Browne and Gio Lopez, respectively. If you wonder where the youth movement should be, look no further than QB A, who is Bryce Baker. Meanwhile, QBs F and C are Edwards and Taron Dickson respectively, the two guys the team originally brought in to compete for the starter spot this season. QB C is Max Johnson — who still looks better than the guy we have.
Grade: F+. The team needs to make a change at quarterback, but Miles O’Neill looks worse than Edwards (3.7 ypa and 50% completion rate) and it would be coaching maleficence to ask Burgess to make his first start against Notre Dame.
Running Backs:
Benjamin Hall’s 215 yards ranks ninth in the ACC and eighth amongst running backs. Demon June is tied for second in the ACC with four rushing touchdowns. Jaylen McGill’s 6.6 ypc would be good for third in the ACC — if he had enough carries to be eligible (more on that in the coaching section). On the whole, UNC does have a decent three-headed running attack, and Hall showed against ETSU and Clemson that he is also dangerous catching passes out of the backfield (four receptions for 42 yards and two touchdowns this season).
Grade: B-. Overall, the usage needs to change some but Hall’s receiving skills make him a dangerous third down weapon, while June has established himself as a redzone threat.
Wide Receivers:
Jordan Shipp is the Tar Heel’s top wide receiver, ranking twentieth in the ACC with 164 yards, while his 13 receptions are tied for fifteenth. The only thing Shipp is missing this season is a touchdown. No other UNC wide receiver ranks in the top 50, with the rest of the wide receiver core combing for just 14 receptions for 186 yards.
Grade: C-. If not for Shipp (who gets an A on his own) this grade would be closer to the one for quarterbacks, as for a second straight season the team appears to have only one legit wide receiver.
Tight Ends:
I was very careful to keep using the term wide receiver above because unlike last season, the Tar Heels do have another quality receiver in Jelani Thurman. Thurman’s 183 receiving yards not only ranks second amongst all ACC tight ends but fifth nationally amongst all tight ends. His 16.6 ypc are good for third in the conference at the position.
Grade: B. Thurman is the star here, as he gives UNC someone else who can catch the ball other than Shipp.
Offensive Line:
It is hard to fairly grade an offensive line as not everything attributed to them is necessarily their fault. However, with that said, UNC’s quarterbacks have been sacked the third most in the league, and the Heels have lost the fifth most sack yards in the league. Additionally, the rushing attack ranks twelfth in the ACC in yards per game (though it does rank fifth in yards per carry).
Grade: C. Nothing much to see here. While Edwards is not the most mobile quarterback and it is hard to blame the O-Line too much for the sacks, they do get some blame, hence the middle-of-the-road grade. The biggest concern here is if one of the five starters gets injured.
Defensive Line:
North Carolina ranks fifth in the ACC in rushing yards per game, only allowing 123. They also rank second in the ACC with 10 total sacks on the season and that is with last season’s sack leader, Melkart Abou Jaoude, out for most of the season.
Grade: B-. This is mostly for the efforts of Xavier Lewis who is tied for the national lead at six sacks on the season. At this rate he is on pace for 24 sacks, though let’s see how he does against much tougher offensive lines for Notre Dame and Miami.
Linebackers:
Derek McDonald and Peyton Seelman lead the team with 24 and 20 tackles respectively. If you have watched the games, you also know they miss a lot of tackles.
Grade: F-. This is what I wrote in my linebacker preview: “The biggest issue is the team replaced its top three linebackers with two transfers, one of whom is coming off a serious injury after seeing his playing time diminish, another who has struggled against FBS opponents in the past, and a bunch of unproven freshmen and redshirted returnees.” I will say, it is nice to be proven right on occasion.
Defensive Backs:
North Carolina has allowed only one passing touchdown all season, which came in the third quarter against Clemson. That ranks as best in the ACC and top ten in the nation. The Tar Heels also rank seventh in the conference in air yards allowed, only permitting opposing offenses to throw for 189.3 yards per game. The opposing team’s quartback rating is 117.0, which is tied for seventh in the ACC. Greg Smith has both the team’s interceptions, and Coleman Bryson leads the team in passes defended.
Grade: B. The defensive backfield has been helped out by the pass rush, but has also helped out the poor play at linebacker as at least five defensive backs have at least 10 tackles this season.
Special Teams:
Special teams starts and ends with Aeron Burrell who has handled all kicking duties for the team this season. Burrell’s 57.1 field goal percentage ranks second-to-last in the ACC. His long of 33 ranks seventeenth out of nineteen kickers who have made a field goal in the conference this season. Burrell does rank third in the ACC with a 46.4 yards per punt, though his net average ranks sixth. JoJo Troupe and Demon June have combined for 39 total kick return yards this season, while Troupe and Trech Kekahuna have combined for 26 punt return yards.
Grade: D-. Obviously there isn’t much to the return game, so most of this falls on Burrell who is a punter pretending to be a place kicker because the team management failed to get a kicker this off season. Speaking of which…
Coaching:
So last season the team was 2-1 after three games. This season is 2-1 after three games. Let’s compare, shall we:
2025 Offense: 837 total yards (446 passing, 391 rushing), 75 total points, 41 first downs, 33.3% on third downs, four sacks allowed, four turnovers.
2026 Offense: 1098 total yards (633 passing, 465 rushing), 70 total points, 63 first downs, 38.2% on third downs, seven sacks allowed, four turnovers.
2025 Defense: 1012 total yards allowed (609 passing, 403 rushing), 57 total points allowed, 65 first downs allowed, 46.3% on third downs, four sacks, and six turnovers forced.
2026 Defense: 937 total yards allowed (568 passing, 369 rushing), 41 total points allowed, 54 first downs allowed, 44.4% on third downs, ten sacks, and five turnovers forced.
Looking at the raw numbers, this year’s team looks better. Honestly, the biggest difference between the two seasons is the TCU game to open each season. If that game last year had been closer, the overall numbers look similar, especially on defense.
Grade: D. The team has two new guys at both coordinator spots, but through three games the teams look eerily similar. Honestly, this grade looks generous considering that Bill Belichick was probably outcoached in the past two games.
What do you think of the team in this first quarter of play? Let us know in the comments below.
More at NCAAF College Football News, Photos, Stats, Scores, Schedule & Videos