UNC football briefly threatens upset, but is overpowered by Notre Dame. Takeaways
Bill Belichick felt his University of North Carolina football team set itself with a couple of chances after pulling to within one point of its top-three opponent Saturday. The Tar Heels relished those chances, and took time to address the positive steps forward despite a 37-26 home loss to Notre Dame.
Defensive back Jaiden Patterson said the team had seen the conversation in the media: UNC was “supposed to” have gotten blown out. The Fighting Irish were considered 21.5-point favorites earlier in the week. But the predictions are just statistics, Patterson said.
“That’s just Kalshi,” Patterson said.
Patterson feels the Tar Heels “can compete with anyone.” Belichick said his team did compete. And there was a genuine buzz at Kenan Memorial Stadium as North Carolina defenders on the line put their hands in the grass, with 11:08 left in the third quarter, ahead of their biggest defensive stand yet. The sky was gray, the rain poured down, the Tar Heels still trailed after a botched point after touchdown attempt. But after a flash play, a 98-yard kickoff return touchdown 14 seconds into the second half to bring the game within 21-20, there seemingly was belief: UNC might be capable of pulling off its first top-three win. Ever.
UNC had Notre Dame in a fourth-and-2 situation near midfield, threatening to take over momentum — possibly for good. Yet there’s a reason Patterson and the Tar Heels stopped short of boasting postgame, for all the narratives they might have proven otherwise.
The rest of the game’s pace can only be described as deflating.
“We missed some opportunities,” Belichick said.
Notre Dame (5-0) ran up the middle to convert that fourth down, then kept running up the middle to methodically take the air out of a very brief upset feeling for UNC (2-2). While Saturday may have provided some of the best moments of the Tar Heels’ season so far — and genuine reason for optimism in the midst of a bout with a potential national title contender — Notre Dame still thoroughly overpowered them. After pulling within one point on the second half’s opening kickoff, UNC fell down two touchdowns just 14:52 later.
It wasn’t a pitiful performance for the Tar Heels by any stretch. Wide receiver Jordan Shipp caught seven passes for 109 yards, tight end Jelani Thurman caught five passes for 50 yards and two touchdowns, and quarterback Billy Edwards Jr. tied his career high with three touchdown passes. And this was a litmus test, after all. The Tar Heels had entered the game with a wait-and-see approach, with several indicating their excitement on Monday with the opportunity to play a top-three opponent at home. The Tar Heels seemingly took steps forward two games removed from a brutal collapse at Clemson, but are still nowhere near competing with teams the caliber of Notre Dame.
“We still lost,” Shipp said. “I mean, we weren’t looking at [Notre Dame as the] No. 3 team in the country. We’re looking at: That’s the way we gotta play this week.”
UNC struck first, as it did two weeks prior, but it looked like the mirage wouldn’t last nearly as long against the Fighting Irish. The Tar Heels went 74 yards in seven plays after forcing a punt on Notre Dame’s first offensive drive, with tight end Shamar Easter scoring on a short route to the right flat that he took in from the 6-yard line for a touchdown. Even after scoring the first touchdown, the Tar Heels could only keep from trailing for 3:03, though.
Notre Dame went 75 yards in seven plays, and after getting the ball back, Tar Heels quarterback Billy Edwards Jr. was crushed in the backfield on a ball that popped in the air for an interception. Notre Dame scored on a 12-yard pass one play later, taking a 14-7 lead with 6:26 to go in the first quarter.
Edwards lofted a pass for another interception on the next drive, yet UNC had the Fighting Irish in a third-and-7 at the 39-yard line as the first quarter ended. Belichick was asked about the unfolding situation on the ESPN broadcast.
“We’ll see how it goes,” Belichick said on the broadcast.
It went poorly. Notre Dame wide receiver Jordan Faison busted past the UNC coverage, and made a diving 39-yard touchdown catch without a Tar Heels defender anywhere near him. It was 21-7 just 15:07 into the game. After the touchdown drive, North Carolina’s next three pushes only went 19 yards total. It seemed like those in attendance had already seen what needed to be seen — these teams are nowhere close, and the results may look ugly. But with a turnover on downs at the 3-yard line on Notre Dame’s final real drive of the second half, UNC built some momentum.
The Tar Heels went 97 yards in 15 plays for a score, and then after halftime, kick returner Jaden Jefferson touched the ball for the first time in his college career and took the second half’s opening kickoff all the way to the end zone — the first kick-return score for UNC since Chris Culliver returned one for 95 yards in a bowl game against UConn in 2024. It even showed some good later, with a 75-yard touchdown drive capped by a 10-yard touchdown grab by Thurman for his first multi-score game — and making UNC’s upset effort appear closer.
But in between, the Fighting Irish took 20 rushes 122 yards in the third quarter alone. Notre Dame quarterback CJ Carr scored a 3-yard rushing touchdown at the 5:44 mark of the third quarter, then Fighting Irish running back Nolan James Jr. took a short pass 6 yards into the end zone to make it 34-20 just six seconds into the final frame. UNC had no answer to Notre Dame running both the ball and the clock until there were no chances for the home team left, and Patterson didn’t have the answer postgame for why the Fighting Irish were so successful with that methodical game plan, either.
“Honestly, I can’t really answer that. They were just running,” Patterson said. “We just got to execute.”
While the runs kept coming at UNC, the fourth downs kept converting for Notre Dame. And now that it’s over, Shipp said they’ll watch the film, learn from it, then leave it behind. There were things the Tar Heels executed well against Notre Dame, a true force nationally. Players like Shipp even had career games. But none of that matters, Shipp said: they still lost. And UNC’s now lost its last two in a row.
There’s reason to focus on the positive steps. But the Tar Heels weren’t celebrating anything Saturday.
Here’s what stood out from the game.
Billy Edwards Jr. takes shot early, struggles, but bounces back
For the second straight game, Edwards led a solid first drive for the Tar Heels. But there was little he could do on his pass attempt with around 6:41 left in the first quarter. Boubacar Traore just crushed him.
With his arm coming forward, Edwards took a hard shot to his chest and the ball flew into the air. Notre Dame linebacker Kyngstonn Viliamu-Asa hardly had to move to pull the interception into his arms. Addressing Edwards’ struggles after North Carolina’s first two drives against Clemson, Belichick defended Edwards, saying that passing struggles are on more than just the quarterback and that was a protection issue. But Edwards’ next interception couldn’t be blamed on that.
“Things happen,” Shipp said. “That’s not (on him).”
On a snap just 2:48 later, Edwards lofted a ball in the air way too high for wide receiver Shipp, giving Notre Dame safety Luke Talich time to get back in the play and intercept it. This was the way things trended for Edwards, who was still shaking out his arm from the previous hit after the second interception. It looked bad. But then the Tar Heels quarterback provided some hope.
A 97-yard drive to score a touchdown with 21 seconds before the half was — considering the opponent — likely the best of Edwards’ season. He completed 8 of 9 passes for 88 yards and a 14-yard touchdown pass to tight end Jelani Thurman.
Edwards and the Tar Heels’ offense needed more on Saturday than the quarterback’s 17-of-28 passing line, totaling 208 yards with three touchdowns and two interceptions, especially against the Fighting Irish. But at a moment that looked like it could turn brutal for the quarterback, he delivered a steadier game that could have given the Tar Heels a chance, had this not been the Fighting Irish.
“That’s always what you’re looking for, is to have a good rhythm and have good timing,” Belichick said. “But again, it’s not just the quarterback, not just the receiver.”
UNC gashed in the run game after key player’s injury
UNC defensive lineman Isaiah Johnson tried to play through an injury he sustained in the second quarter, but the big interior run stopper looked hobbled as he returned for a snap in the third quarter. The Fighting Irish, seemingly, noticed that.
“Well, yeah, it didn’t help,” Belichick said about the impact of Johnson’s injury on the run game. “He’s a good player.”
Without its third-best run defender, per PFF, in the 320-pound Johnson on the interior, Notre Dame simply ran the ball up the middle. It was successful all game attacking UNC in the running game, but particularly in the second half. Notre Dame rushed 30 times for 166 yards in the second half, bringing its game total to 5.4 yards per carry in a 241-yard effort. UNC showed a clear lack of depth on the inside against the run, and Notre Dame took all the air out of a stadium that thought it was about to witness an upset.
“We got to do a better job,” Belichick said. “We got to, you know, obviously coach it better, play it better.
“They’re an inside running team, and they ran inside better than, I’d say, they should have.”
Fighting Irish successful when aggressive
The horrid breakdown in the backend of the secondary behind it, UNC’s defense seemed to gain some control as Notre Dame started its first drive of the third quarter. A fourth-down stop at the 3-yard line led to a series of events that gave the Tar Heels two more scores, down 21-20 just 14 seconds into the second half. The first fourth down that UNC forced on that ensuing drive came with 11:08 remaining in the third quarter. Notre Dame converted that, and then two more fourth downs to score a touchdown on that drive.
“We’ll go back and look at the film,” Belichick said, “but you know, not quite close enough.”
The Fighting Irish converted on a fourth-and-1 on the UNC 30-yard line and then again from the 3-yard line for a touchdown in a fourth-and-goal situation. That came on a scramble by Carr, an example Belichick said was “a reverse” of the Clemson game: The Tar Heels had a few players in position, but couldn’t make plays.
But it’s telling that Notre Dame was not afraid to be aggressive against the Tar Heels, despite their first down try seeming like it might have provided a shot in the arm to UNC after the first stop. The Fighting Irish didn’t let up, though. And North Carolina couldn’t stop them.
This story was originally published October 3, 2026 at 3:39 PM with the headline "UNC football briefly threatens upset, but is overpowered by Notre Dame. Takeaways."
