TCU gets its 2026 season started Saturday morning in Dublin, and the opener brings a North Carolina team that looks a lot different on paper than the one the Horned Frogs handled last year. Kickoff is set for 11 a.m. against a Tar Heels program trying to rebound in Bill Belichick’s second year, while TCU has bigger goals in sight with a run at the Big 12 championship game.
The matchup comes with plenty of attention beyond the field. Both programs have dealt with offseason noise, but Saturday gives them a chance to put football front and center on a standalone national TV stage. And for TCU, there’s also recent history: last season’s opener ended in a 48-14 rout of North Carolina in Belichick’s college coaching debut.
North Carolina’s biggest change starts with the offense. The Tar Heels brought in Bobby Petrino from Arkansas to run the attack, and that hire is the clearest reason they believe this year can look better than a 4-8 finish.
Petrino arrives with a long reputation as one of college football’s sharpest offensive minds, and he inherits a unit that struggled badly a year ago. North Carolina ranked 120th out of 136 teams in scoring offense, averaged 19.2 points per game and managed 20 or more points against Power Four opponents only three times.
Petrino’s recent Arkansas offense gives Carolina some reason for hope. The Razorbacks averaged 32.9 points per game last season, which ranked 24th nationally and fifth in the SEC.
The personnel in Chapel Hill isn’t as loaded as what Petrino had in Fayetteville, but his track record at places like Missouri State and Western Kentucky adds to the belief that he can squeeze more out of this group. That alone makes North Carolina a real threat to be better than it was in 2025.
At quarterback, the Tar Heels turned to Billy Edwards Jr., a sixth-year player who was recently named the starter after Gio Lopez transferred to rival Wake Forest. Edwards has bounced around, with stops at Maryland and Wisconsin before landing at North Carolina. He brings more than 500 career passing attempts and 16 starts to the job.
His biggest stretch came at Maryland in 2024, when he started 11 games and threw for 2,881 yards, 15 touchdowns and nine interceptions while completing 65% of his passes. His Wisconsin stop never really got off the ground; he was injured in the opener, tried to come back the following week and quickly left again.
He threw only 16 passes last season. Edwards looks more like a steady hand than a star, but Petrino’s system could help push his game forward.
The Tar Heels also enter the opener with plenty of offseason storylines hanging around the program. Belichick’s first year in Chapel Hill was overshadowed by the public attention on his relationship with Jordon Hudson and her involvement with the program. This offseason brought a different kind of turbulence, with general manager Michael Lombardi stepping away amid an investigation and Belichick’s son and defensive coordinator, Steve, going on medical leave weeks before the opener.
Belichick said he had no update on his son and also declined to say who would call plays on defense against TCU. It may not matter once the game starts, but it is hardly ideal to carry that much uncertainty into Week 1.
North Carolina still has some players who can make things interesting, especially in Petrino’s offense. Sophomore running back Demon June led the team with 464 rushing yards and two touchdowns last season while averaging 5.5 yards per carry.
Junior receiver Jordan Shipp is another name to keep close tabs on after finishing with 671 receiving yards and six touchdowns. He also caught four passes for 84 yards against TCU last year, and he’ll be a difficult cover for sophomore cornerback Gil Jackson or senior Vernon Glover.
On the defensive side, the Tar Heels will count on senior edge rusher Melkart Abou Jaoude and junior cornerback Jaiden Patterson. Abou Jaoude posted 10.5 sacks last season, making him one of the ACC’s better pass rushers, while Patterson added five pass deflections and an interception as North Carolina’s top coverage defender.
The Tar Heels added a number of transfers to help fill out the roster, but many of their most important weapons are the same ones TCU already saw a year ago.
In Other News...
TCU Countdown Brings Back A Horned Frogs Quarterback Fans Still Debate
Casey Pachall is back in the conversation around TCU football, and for Horned Frogs fans, that alone brings up plenty of mixed memories. The former quarterback played 28 games in Fort Worth and piled up 4,467 passing yards with 32 touchdowns, with his best stretch coming in 2011 when he helped lead TCU to an 11-2 record and a Poinsettia Bowl victory.
Pachalls career after college never settled into the kind of long pro run some once imagined. He went undrafted in 2014 and had brief stops in the Canadian Football League and the Fall Experimental Football League, leaving his TCU legacy to be remembered mostly through what might have been as much as what he did on the field. [Read more 🡒]
Sonny Dykes Just Set The Tone For TCUs Ireland Opener
With TCUs trip to Ireland drawing closer, Sonny Dykes used a recent media session to frame the opener as more than just another early-season road game. The Horned Frogs coach touched on the logistics of the overseas trip, the state of the offensive line, roster continuity and the progress several players have made as the program turns toward the 2026 football season.
Jamel Johnson and Jaden Craig also spoke with reporters, giving the buildup a player-side perspective as TCU works through its final preparations. The conversation did not lock the Horned Frogs into any one storyline, but it did make clear that Dykes wants the opener to reflect a team that has kept its core together and spent the offseason building depth where it matters most. [Read more 🡒]