Trailing 21-20 in Death Valley on Saturday, North Carolina faced fourth-and-1 and Billy Edwards Jr. threw deep left toward tight end Jelani Thurman. The pass fell incomplete, Clemson took over on downs, and the Tar Heels lost 28-20 after leading 17-6 at halftime. The Tar Heel Blog described the play as a play-action shot called by offensive coordinator Bobby Petrino instead of a run, and a second Yahoo-syndicated analysis called it a head-scratcher in a game where UNC ran for 214 yards. Bill Belichick's version was shorter. He said, "I felt like it was a good play."
The run game was the one thing working all afternoon. Benjamin Hall carried 18 times for 130 yards and caught a 15-yard touchdown; Demon June added 12 carries, 57 yards and a score. Hall said afterward, "I don't think it got any harder to run the ball" after halftime. Edwards, meanwhile, went 5-of-8 in the first half and 8-of-22 in the second, finishing 13-of-30 for 135 yards with a touchdown and a late interception, what Sports Illustrated called his worst outing as a Tar Heel, with the News & Observer noting his limited mobility became a problem as Clemson's pressure grew.
That matters more than one bad Saturday usually would, because Edwards is the whole quarterback plan. He arrived as a graduate transfer who started 11 games for Maryland in 2024 but played only two injury-shortened games for Wisconsin in 2025, and UNC handed him the job after Gio Lopez and Max Johnson supplied 224 of last year's 227 pass completions. Two clean, turnover-free starts built real confidence. A third start in which the offense leaned on him instead of on a ground game gaining 5.5 a pop is the first evidence pointing the other way. One rough afternoon does not undo two clean starts, but Edwards' arm is what the plan rests on whenever the run game stalls.
The defense told a two-sided story too. Without Melkart Abou Jaoude, who missed a second straight game with the hand/wrist injury he suffered in the TCU opener, UNC still produced three sacks and six tackles for loss, two sacks from Xavier Lewis. Then Clemson broke a 45-yard Gideon Davidson run to set up the go-ahead touchdown and a 34-yard Tyler Brown touchdown run to seal it. Linebacker Derek McDonald did not dress it up. He said, "They tried to go fast, get us out of our element ... but we just missed tackles, to be honest with you." Belichick's own accounting matched, "We missed a couple of opportunities on offense and missed some tackles on defense. We had a couple long runs that hurt us."
All of that landed in the same week the program changed defensive leadership. On Sept. 17, two days before kickoff, UNC announced its internal investigation was resolved, concluding that "certain actions demonstrated a disregard for Carolina's values and standards of conduct" but were "isolated in scope and not a systemic failure," and announced defensive coordinator Steve Belichick's resignation, effective Oct. 27, at the end of a medical leave that began Aug. 6. CBS Sports' Matt Zenitz reported that secondary coach Brian Belichick has called the defense during that leave and is expected to keep the role permanently.
What the bye is actually for
North Carolina does not play this week. Nobody else's game moves the needle for the Tar Heels either, at 2-1 with no realistic conference-title path in the projections, there is no scoreboard to scan on Saturday. Check the interactive guide and the methodology if you want the numbers behind that.
With no scoreboard to watch, the interesting question is what UNC fixes. Petrino has said from the start that a precise run game and sound pass protection are the first requirements of his offense, and at Clemson that part worked. What did not was trusting it when it counted, twice, two runs from the 7-yard line that gained 3 yards and then nothing, and the fourth-and-1 throw. Notre Dame comes to Kenan Stadium on Oct. 3. Two weeks is enough time to decide whether short yardage belongs to Hall or to a play-action shot, and enough time for Brian Belichick's group to spend some practice periods on tackling in space. Those are small, concrete fixes. This team has already shown it can lead a Power Four opponent by 14 on the road; the open question is whether it can close.