Billy Edwards Jr. didn’t win North Carolina’s quarterback job by flashing once or twice. He won it the same way he’s won jobs at three different schools now: by stacking steady days, learning fast and cutting down the mistakes that can sink a quarterback room.
The Tar Heels named Edwards their No. 1 quarterback after a competition with Miles O’Neill, Au’Tori Newkirk and Travis Burgess. For Edwards, it’s the third straight season he’s entered a new program and come out on top. He was the starter at Maryland in 2024 and had already won the Wisconsin job in 2025 before a season-ending injury.
“The biggest thing for me was just putting my head down and knowing that it’s not going to be one day, it’s not going to be one snap, one play,” Edwards said. “The big word that I kind of repeated to myself was consistency.
Just knowing that whether I had a good day or a bad day, it’s not going to last. You got to show up tomorrow and continue to do the same thing, continue to put your best foot forward.”
North Carolina opens the season Saturday, Aug. 29 against TCU in Dublin, Ireland, and Edwards arrives there with plenty of mileage already on him. He began at Wake Forest in 2021 without seeing game action, then spent three seasons at Maryland. He played sparingly in 2022 and 2023 before taking over in 2024, when he threw for 2,881 yards and 15 touchdowns in 11 games for the Terrapins.
His next stop was Wisconsin for his fifth season, but that ride ended quickly. Edwards was injured in the season opener, returned for one game later in the year and missed the rest of the season with a sprained knee ligament. He threw only 16 passes.
Back in the portal, the 23-year-old said he wanted a spot that offered him “an opportunity to grow.”
“Working for a coach like [offensive coordinator] Coach [Bobby] Petrino and playing for a coach like [head] Coach [Bill] Belichick, those were obviously the two biggest factors for me,” Edwards said.
He’s been out of a brace since spring practice and hasn’t used one during summer workouts or camp. He also put in a huge chunk of offseason work to master Petrino’s system, making 1,000 flashcards to learn the plays and concepts. Edwards said he drew on both parents for that kind of preparation - his father was a longtime high school football coach, while his mother still teaches.
“I got a blend of those two,” Edwards said, copping to stealing his mom’s school supplies to best prepare.
“It’s kind of humbling when you come in the beginning and you get new terminology and you get a new playbook,” he said. “But I find it really fun. I find it really enjoyable.”
That kind of detail work fits cleanly with Belichick’s message. The coach has repeatedly emphasized the need for his quarterback to avoid negative plays, and Edwards has leaned into that idea.
North Carolina’s first game under Belichick last year ended in a 48-14 loss to TCU, when the Horned Frogs scored on an interception return and a fumble return. The Tar Heels finished with 15 turnovers last season, including 12 in losses.
“The only way we can go forward is by not going backwards,” said Edwards, who had nine interceptions in 2024. “Just really eliminating the negative plays, just trying to consistently put us in the best looks possible, whether it’s check runs or getting us out of a play.”
His teammates have noticed the command that comes with all that experience. Linebacker Derek McDonald said Edwards is already comfortable working through reads and showing veteran savvy in summer seven-on-seven work.
“He knows how to go through his reads,” McDonald said. “Even in seven-on-seven in the summer, when we would just be out there, he would mess with the linebackers, try to move us off the spot a little bit. He’s played a lot of football and he’s an experienced quarterback and a lot of guys will have confidence being around him.”
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