Mike Watters- Imagn Images After missing the first three games of the season because of a battle with the NCAA for eligibility, Tar Heel kicker Rece Verhoff is now officially available to play. Verhoff was one of 97 student athletes that were a part of a preliminary injunction in a lawsuit filed against the NCAA that was granted by an Indiana judge in Monroe County circuit court on Wednesday afternoon. The lawsuit is challenging the NCAA’s age-based model for players from the

UNC Football After the Tar Heels built a 17-3 lead over Clemson, it looked like Carolina was well on their way to improving to 3-0 in the 2026 season and getting another marquee win under Bill Belichick. Instead, Clemson outscored UNC 25-3 the rest of the way to beat UNC 28-20, sending UNC to 2-1 on the season. The lack of depth defensively, combined with inadequate QB play, showed up in a major way in the second half, highlighting the areas of growth and development the prog

Ashley Tumlin- Imagn Images Just when you felt like the Tar Heels were starting to build a little momentum, this program reminded you of why they can’t have nice things. After racing out to a 17-3 lead midway through the second quarter, they would fall apart on both sides of the ball and allow a bad Clemson team complete the comeback and potentially save their season. Here are our takeaways from an extremely disappointing loss that continues the losing streak against Clemson.

UNC Football The Tar Heels will head to Clemson on Saturday looking to turn the attention back to the field after another week of storylines off the field. The team will be looking for their first win against the Tigers since 2010 and their first road win in the series since 2001. Here’s a look at everything you need to know for the team’s trip to Death Valley. Team Breakdowns Tar Heels The Tar Heels are the team that comes into this matchup with better vibes despite everythi

UNC Football The Tar Heels handled business on Saturday in Chapel Hill against East Tennessee State when they won 35-3 over Will Healy’s crew. While it may not have been the biggest margin of defeat that we have seen from the program against an FCS program, there were a lot of promising performances across the board. Here is a look at who’s trending up and who’s trending down heading into the game in Death Valley against Clemson. ⇧Jelani Thurman Thurman followed a breakout pe

@li.r3d6- Instagram Following an arrest on Tuesday, the university has suspended true freshman wide receiver Keeyun Chapman indefinitely. Chapman was arrested and charged during a traffic stop of fellow true freshman receiver C.J. Sadler on Tuesday night at 9:30 PM at 1050 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. in Chapel Hill. He was charged with a misdemeanor count of carrying a concealed weapon (handgun). In a statement issued by the university on Thursday morning following the resig

UNC Football With the Tar Heels dipping into league play this weekend, the team had to submit an injury report to conference on Wednesday. For the Tar Heels, ten players are listed with official designations for this game. Seven players will be inactive in the game, including the two players, Keeyun Chapman and C.J. Sadler, who were charged during a traffic stop on Tuesday. Tight end Jordan Washington, who sustained an injury earlier this offseason, will be out for a third st

@coscj1- Instagram According to Inside Carolina, two Tar Heel football players were charged in a traffic stop that occurred on Tuesday night in Chapel Hill. True freshman wide receiver Keeyun Chapman was charged with a misdemeanor gun charge, while fellow true freshman C.J. Sadler was charged with driving 60 mph in a 35 mph zone, per the police reports obtained by Inside Carolina. Police pulled Sadler over at 1050 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. in Chapel Hill according to the p

UNC Athletics The Tar Heels are working on building momentum in their 2026 season, where they have gotten off to a 2-0 start, but the program’s 2027 ACC opponents were revealed on Wednesday. While this year’s schedule contains eight conference opponents, the Tar Heels will be one of the teams that will play nine conference games this upcoming season. The program came into the day with four matchups scheduled for next season. The team will host both UCF (September 4th) and Con

UNC Athletics The Tar Heels opened the 100th season in Kenan Stadium in style, beating East Tennessee State 35-3 to improve to 2-0 this season. After a week off following the win over TCU in Dublin, we saw the Tar Heel offense take another step under offensive coordinator Bobby Petrino, and the defense, led by Jaylen Harvey, held ETSU scoreless deep into the second half; after the first two games, it is allowing just 6.5 points per game. It was the perfect tune-up before the

UNC Athletics The Tar Heels kicked off their 100th season in Kenan Stadium as they welcomed Will Healy and East Tennessee State to Chapel Hill for the first time. After some sluggish moments in the first half, the team did what they had to pull away for a comfortable 35-3 win. Here’s a look at our biggest takeaways from a victory that sent the team to 2-0 heading to Clemson. Defensive Line Continues to Get After the Quarterback For a second straight game to start the season,

UNC Athletics The Tar Heels have had another rough week bye week off the field, but it is time for this group to get back to business on the field on Saturday as they face East Tennessee State in the home opener. The team will be looking to build on the upset win over TCU and get closer to a bowl game against an FCS team that is off to a hot start offensively. Here’s everything you need to know about the kickoff to the first home game of the 100th season in Kenan Stadium. Tea

Brett Davis- USA Today Sports According to multiple reports, the Tar Heels will not have recruits at Saturday’s home opener in Kenan Stadium against East Tennessee State as part of a penalty for recruiting violations. Anna Adams of TarHeel247 was the first to report the news earlier this morning and it was later confirmed by national analysts from On3 Sports and Inside Carolina’s Don Callahan. A program spokesperson released a statement about the penalty earlier this afternoo

UNC Athletics The Tar Heels kicked the 2026 season off with a bang by picking up the biggest win of the Bill Belichick era in Dublin, Ireland over TCU. This win readjusts the expectations for this season and provides a spark for a program and fanbase that was sorely needed. Here is a look at the stock report after an encouraging start to the 2026 season. ⇧Xavier Lewis Lewis, a former walk-on, was the best player on the field on Saturday. Last year, Lewis was a guy that the te

University of North Carolina Athletics The Tar Heels opened the 2026 college football season in style, upsetting TCU 15-10 in Dublin to validate the growth of the program under Bill Belichick, who spent the off-season communicating a message about improved chemistry and cohesiveness. Like in most sports, analytics and advanced metrics help us evaluate how a team or a player performed in a certain setting, and football is no different in the age of PFF, along with NextGen Stat

UNC Athletics After a rough first season to say the least for Bill Belichick in Chapel Hill, expectations were low for the Tar Heels heading into a season-opening matchup with TCU in Dublin, Ireland. While it may not have been the prettiest football you will see this season, Saturday finally felt like Bill Belichick football and the Tar Heels did enough to pull out a hard-earned upset and create some excitement for the possibilities of what this season could be. Here are our

Grant Halverson- Getty Images The Tar Heels begin Year 2 under Bill Belichick on Saturday in the Aer Lingus Classic in Dublin, Ireland where they will look to avenge last year’s season opening loss to the TCU Horned Frogs. With a team that is in a much different spot than they were a year ago at this time, there is a budding confidence that the team will at least put together a better showing than they did last year and possibly even pull the upset. Here’s is a look at everyt

Grant Halverson- Getty Images The Tar Heels open the season on Saturday in Dublin, Ireland against the TCU Horned Frogs as they look to avenge last year’s blowout loss and get an important 2026 season off to a fast start. Just like last year, it appears that Bill Belichick will not release a depth chart prior to kickoff, so we’re going to take our best shot at predicting what things will look like on game day. Here’s our projected two deep for Saturday’s tilt. Offense QB # 9

ABC11 There has been much information on Steve Belichick and his situation since it was announced that he was taking a medical leave, but his status for the opener seems to have been determined. According to a report from On3 Sports and Inside Carolina, the Tar Heels second year coordinator is not expected to be on the sideline in Dublin on Saturday as the team takes on TCU. The younger Belichick has been on medical leave from the team since August 6 and there have been no up

UNC Athletics On Monday morning, the Tar Heels officially named their captains for the 2026 season. The group of seven contains senior edge rusher Melkart Abou Jaoude, senior cornerback Kaleb Cost, junior running back Benjamin Hall, senior Isaiah Johnson, graduate center Christo Kelly, graduate linebacker Derek McDonald and junior wide receiver Jordan Shipp. In 646 snaps a year ago, Abou Jaoude tallied 47 total tackles, 12.0 tackles for loss, 10.5 sacks and 42 total quarterba