Bill Belichick’s North Carolina team gets a chance to do two things at once on Saturday night: protect its bowl hopes and put the brakes on a Louisville group that has found its stride.
The Cardinals come into Kenan Stadium on Nov. 14 with a four-game winning streak and a 5-2 mark in conference play. UNC, meanwhile, is trying to build off a much-needed 38-21 win over UConn after dropping four of its previous six games. The Tar Heels are 5-4 overall, and a first bowl game under Belichick is within reach - but Louisville is bringing plenty of firepower to Chapel Hill.
This matchup may not shake up the ACC Championship race, but it still carries real weight for both teams. Louisville opened the season 2-3, then flipped the script with four straight wins. The Cardinals haven’t allowed more than 26 points in a game since Saturday, Oct. 3, and even if none of those wins came against ranked opponents, the offense has been rolling.
At the center of it all is quarterback Lincoln Kienholz. He’s thrown for 300-plus yards four different times this season, has 14 touchdown passes against just three interceptions, and ranks 17th in college football with 2,276 passing yards. He’s also been a factor on the ground, leading the team in rushing three times and doing it in two of the last three games.
Kienholz put up 310 passing yards and added 53 rushing yards in the Oct. 17 win over Syracuse, which is a good snapshot of how dangerous he can be when he’s in rhythm. For UNC, the challenge is obvious: slow him down, and a lot of Louisville’s offense gets harder to sustain.
That’s easier said than done, though, because Isaac Brown gives the Cardinals another weapon that can tilt a game. The junior running back has already posted a 235-yard outing against Florida State and has four 100-yard games this season, including 163 yards against then-No. 16 SMU.
Louisville’s passing game has been just as tricky to track. Treyshun Hurry hadn’t led the team in receiving yards all season until he grabbed 104 of Kienholz’s 182 passing yards at Georgia Tech. Before that, Tre Richardson and Lawayne McCoy had been trading the team lead.
Richardson and McCoy both rank among the top 100 receivers nationally in receiving yards. Richardson brings the heavier workload with 44 catches, while McCoy has been the explosive option, tied for fifth in the country with 20.5 yards per reception.
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Former Tar Heel Harrison Ingram Just Made His NBA Case Again
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Ingrams path has already taken him from North Carolina to the NBA, where he was drafted by the San Antonio Spurs before getting limited action there, and then onto a two-way deal with the Utah Jazz on Oct. 17, 2026. Performances like this one only strengthen his case for a bigger look, especially for a player whose value has always come from doing a little bit of everything rather than fitting neatly into one box. [Read more 🡒]