College Football Stories

Week Zero of college football season is quickly approaching. While there are no blockbuster, ranked-on-ranked match-ups, there are certainly some quality games. Also, college football is finally back so quit complaining! We have TCU/UNC part two, this time in Dublin, Ireland. We have Virginia and NC State battling it out in Brazil Charlottesville; this year it actually counts as a conference game. North Dakota State is at home for their first game as a member of the Mountain West. And, of course, Hawaii! We’ve really missed you, college football. Welcome back.

NC State @ Virginia

The Wolfpack and Cavaliers played last year in Week Two in a non-conference game. This was due to the ACC’s ridiculous expansion to a 17-team league. Both schools wanted to preserve their conference rivalry so they agreed to schedule one another as an out of conference opponent in the years that the ACC did not schedule them to meet as in-conference opponents; not confusing at all, right? This was important to Virginia last season, as the Hoos made the ACC Championship Game despite their 35-31 loss to the Wolfpack. Had it counted as a conference match-up, UVA would have been subject to a crazy six-way tie to determine the spots in the 2025 title game.

The Wolfpack and Cavaliers first squared off in 1904, a 5-0 UVA victory. They played one another every season from 1977 to 2003; they have only met eight times since. The Wolfpack hold a 37-21-1 advantage in the series. NC State has won six out of the last seven against the Hoos, including four in a row. State holds the longest win streak in the series at 12 from 1958 to 1970. Wolfpack head coach Dave Doeren has never lost to Virginia.

The Cavaliers will have former Penn State and Missouri transfer quarterback Beau Pribula leading an offense full of experienced pieces. The Hoos’ starting five on the offensive line are all graduates. Running back Peyton Lewis and wide receivers Rico Flores and Da’Shawn Martin are transfer weapons at the skill positions. Cornerback Donavon Platt and linebacker Kam Robinson lead a unit that was second in the ACC and top-25 nationally in scoring defense in 2025.

CJ Bailey returns as the starting signal-caller for the Wolfpack for the third straight season. The addition of his former high school teammate and Miami transfer JoJo Trader at receiver should prove beneficial. Sophomore running back Duke Scott will attempt to fill the shoes of Hollywood Smothers, who transferred to Texas. The Wolfpack’s projected defensive starters include four transfers, all of which are in the back seven. Transfer linebackers Harvey Dyson (Tulane) and Popo Aguirre (Miami) had College Football Playoff experience last season.

This year’s contest kicks off August 29th, at 3:30 PM on ESPN from Scott Stadium in Charlottesville, Virginia. The game was originally scheduled to played in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, but due to common sense logistical issues, it was moved back to the States. The Cavaliers are currently less than a touchdown favorite at home against NC State.

Jacksonville State @ North Dakota State

The Jacksonville State Gamecocks have been a Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) member since 2023. In those three short years, the Gamecocks have compiled a 27-14 overall record, a 20-4 record in Conference USA, two conference title game appearances, two bowl wins, and a conference championship. Charles Kelly enters year two as the head coach after taking over for Rich Rodriguez following the 2024 season.

During that same time period, the North Dakota State Bison went 37-7 with a national championship and three top-5 finishes in the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS). It has been well documented, by me, how dominant the Bison have been at the FCS level for the last 15 years. Beginning this year, the Bison hope to replicate this success as members of the Mountain West. Head coach Tim Polasek’s Bison begin this journey on Aug. 29th, at 5:30 PM, on CBS Sports Network.

NDSU and Jax State have played three times, with the Gamecocks having a 2-1 advantage. The last meeting between the two teams was in the 2015 FCS National Championship game, a 37-10 win for the Bison. This will be the first contest played in the Fargo, North Dakota. Both schools are among the top three betting favorites to win their respective conferences. The Bison are a seven point home favorite over the Gamecocks as of August 21, 2026.

UNC vs. TCU

Last year’s meeting between the North Carolina Tar Heels and the TCU Horned Frogs was supposed to be the coming out party for Jordon Hudson Bill Belichick. The legendary six-time Super Bowl champion was hired at UNC in 2025 and proclaimed the Heels as the “33rd team”. Seemingly every current and former ESPN was on-site in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, for this Monday night season opener.

The Heels began the night with an excellent opening drive that ended with a touchdown. At the 10:55 mark in the first quarter, UNC led TCU 7-0. After the first play from scrimmage to start the second half, the score was 27-7 Horned Frogs. Sonny Dykes and TCU ran the Heels–and all of their sissy blue-clad fans–out of the building. The Horned Frogs won 48-14 in a game that never felt that close. Chapel Bill’s first game as a college head coach was a sign of what was to come throughout his first season. The Heels finished 4-8 overall and 2-6 in the ACC. Against Power Four teams, UNC eclipsed the 20-point mark just three times all year.

TCU was on top of the college football world and hypnotizing fans everywhere back in 2022. The Frogs beat the Michigan Wolverines in a classic CFP semi-final before getting pummeled by the Georgia Bulldogs in the National Championship. After a 5-7 campaign in 2023, Dykes and the Frogs have put together back-to-back 9-win seasons, and should be poised to have a successful 2026 season.

Carolina hopes to have better success on offense this year by bringing in experienced offensive mind and motorcycle enthusiast Bobby Petrino. Bill’s son Steve Belichick is sticking around for another year to call the defense. Former Maryland and Wisconsin graduate transfer Billy Edwards is likely the starting QB. Running back Demon June and receiver Jordan Shipp are the returning skill players on an offensive two-deep littered with transfers.

Belichick the younger’s defense is not quite as transfer-laden. Melkart Abou Jaoude is among the returners on the defensive front. The 6-foot-5, 260-pound defensive end tallied 10.5 sacks a season ago. Senior cornerback Kaleb Cost is a two-year returning starter that should lead the secondary.

The Horned Frogs lost QB Josh Hoover to the Indiana Hoosiers via the transfer portal, and are relying on Harvard transfer Jaden Craig to fill the void. Jordan Dwyer and South Alabama transfer Jeremy Scott will be Craig’s primary targets at wideout. Running back Jeremy Payne returns after rushing for over 600 yards and 5 TD’s last season.

Former Tar Heel and Virginia Tech Hokie linebacker Michael Short is the lone transfer addition to the starting defense for the Frogs. The defensive line returns some big, experienced players like defensive end Paul Oyewale and defensive tackle Markis Deal. TCU’s secondary will be anchored by safety Jamel Johnson, who was a Jim Thorpe Award finalist in 2025 as one of the best defensive backs in the nation.

Kickoff for this one is in Dublin, Ireland, at high noon on Aug. 29th for the Aer Lingus College Football Classic. This is the 11th iteration of the Ireland game, and the first international college football game for both UNC and TCU. Each of the last two seasons have produced fantastic games in Dublin, including Georgia Tech taking down Florida State in 2024 and Iowa State defeating Kansas State in 2025. The Horned Frogs are 7.5 point favorites over the Tar Heels.

Other Week Zero games include USC against San Jose State, Sacramento State in a conference game against Eastern Michigan (figure that one out), Hawaii traveling to the mainland to take on Stanford, Florida State opening up at home against New Mexico State, and Mountain West-favorite UNLV taking on the Memphis Tigers.