Billy Edwards Jr. has been more than just the Tar Heels’ quarterback this season. He’s been the steady hand, the voice in the huddle and, in the biggest moments, the guy UNC can lean on when everything around him gets chaotic.
That was on full display against No. 1 Miami, when the sixth-year quarterback turned a shootout into the best statistical outing of his season and maybe his career.
Edwards threw for 341 yards, matched a career high with four touchdown passes and completed 82% of his throws. The performance earned him ACC Quarterback of the Week honors.
But UNC’s staff and teammates have seen his value stretch well beyond one explosive night. Edwards has brought leadership, experience and poise to a roster that needs all three.
He’s played through contact, bounced back from mistakes and kept the Tar Heels moving. Against Miami, he escaped sacks and lowered himself into traffic for first downs.
Earlier this season, he protected the ball in a tricky opener against TCU, shook off early errors before delivering the game-winning touchdown against Pittsburgh and guided a comeback drive against Duke after a 17-point lead disappeared.
Head coach Bill Belichick has repeatedly pointed to Edwards’ football IQ, especially the way he handles the pre-snap picture. Belichick has said the quarterback often identifies the defense correctly before the snap and gets the offense into the right play, whether that’s a pass or a run.
Quarterbacks coach Matt Lombardi sees the same thing every day.
“He’s very process driven, and he knows that the most important play is the next play,” Lombardi said Monday during UNC’s weekly press conference. “We can’t get too emotional.
We always say in our room, ‘Execution over emotion.’ Whatever happens on the last play, flush it, move on to the next one and try to execute that play as best you can.
It’s very cliche, very coach-speak, but he speaks it out loud.”
That mindset matters for a team with 40 freshmen and 19 transfers, and Edwards has tried to be the link between the coaches and the locker room. It’s a role that fits him so naturally it can be easy to forget he’s a transfer too.
“I’m doing everything in my power to put them in the best chance to be successful,” Edwards said earlier this season. “I want us to all be successful.
So, just really being a guy in the huddle and in the locker room that those guys can look at and look up to. Just going about my business the right way, focusing on the process and letting everything take care of itself.”
Lombardi said coaching Edwards can feel like having another graduate assistant in the quarterback room. He also pointed to the quarterback’s football background, including a brother who coaches at the collegiate level at Richmond.
“He’s using his experience to help the other guys out. And I make sure they know that, too,” Lombardi said.
“Watch how he works. This is how it should be done.
This is what we want.”
Tight end Jordan Washington, another newcomer to the program, said transfers have to earn trust all over again. Edwards has done that.
“He’s stepped up in a way we need our quarterback to,” Washington said.
Edwards also knows the clock is ticking on his college career, which adds another layer to what he’s bringing to UNC. After the 38-35 loss to Miami, he made it clear he’s focused on squeezing every last bit out of the stretch run, starting Saturday at Connecticut.
“We’ve got four guaranteed games left,” Edwards said following UNC’s 38-35 loss to Miami. “Obviously, we decide what our future is. I’m just trying to maximize every opportunity I get.”
Washington has been making his own case for a bigger role, and he’s doing it while putting an early-season mistake behind him. The Texas transfer wanted to address the dropped touchdown against Syracuse, a play that could have been costly if it had mattered. It didn’t, because Demon “JuJu” June scored on the next snap.
“I apologized to the team,” Washington said. “I hugged JuJu after the play. I promised to the team something like that will never happen again.”
Washington has handled the moment with perspective and a little humor, especially considering how uncertain his season looked when he partially tore his ACL just days before the end of spring practice. Now fully cleared and with three games under his belt, he’s not leaning on the injury as an excuse.
“I feel like that’s another excuse. If somebody were to say something like, ‘Hey, you dropped the ball,’ I can’t say, ‘That’s part of my ACL.’”
At 6-foot-4 and 265 pounds, Washington gives UNC more muscle in a tight end room that already includes Jelani Thurman and Shemar Easter. He’s been useful as a blocker and has caught three passes, two of them against Miami.
“He’s got good size and can play at the point of attack,” Belichick said.
Washington said he wants the group to stand out for its edge and reliability.
“We’re going to be the toughest group, the most dependable, the most productive,” he said.
UNC also got a boost on defense with nickelback Kaleb Cost back on the field last week after missing two games because of an injury suffered early in the win at Pittsburgh. In his return, the senior made four tackles and helped the Tar Heels hold Miami’s Malachi Toney, one of the nation’s top receivers, to a season-low 75 receiving yards.
For the defense, the next step is turning more of those stops into takeaways. UNC forced key turnovers in wins at Pitt and Duke, but hasn’t had one since those games.
Another offensive wrinkle has come from Trech Kekahuna, whose presence has been easy to spot even before kickoff. The Honolulu native has been wearing a ti leaf lei during the team’s pregame Old Well Walks, a traditional piece made by his mother back home.
“It’s a ti leaf lei,” said Kekahuna, a redshirt junior in his first season with the program after playing at Wisconsin. “It’s a real traditional thing for us locals and Hawaiians.
Mom made it back home. You pick it off this ti leaf tree.”
Kekahuna has also become more visible in the passing game. His position coach, Garrick McGee, recently called him “dependable” and said the offense needs to get him “in the middle of the action.”
That’s starting to happen. Over the last three games, Kekahuna has caught nine passes for 132 yards, including a season-high 57 yards and his first touchdown of the year against Miami.
“Everybody’s got to be ready to go and make plays in those opportunities,” Belichick said. “Trech had a good couple of man-to-man opportunities on the over route - on the touchdown on the middle read against man coverage at the end of the game.”
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