UNC Spring Camp Position Breakdown: Quarterbacks
The position every North Carolina fan will be watching throughout spring practice is quarterback.
The Tar Heels finished last season 119th nationally in scoring at 19.3 points per game and 129th in total offense at 288.8 yards per game, a sharp drop-off after fielding one of the nation’s top offenses in all five seasons under former coach Mack Brown.
A key part of the problem was the passing game, as the Tar Heels threw for only 183.5 yards per game, which ranked next-to-last in the ACC and 109th nationally. Gio Lopez and Max Johnson , who both struggled at Carolina, transferred to Wake Forest and Georgia Southern , respectively.
The regression in Bill Belichick’s first year in charge led UNC to part ways with offensive coordinator Freddie Kitchens and bring in renowned yet controversial Bobby Petrino.
Moreover, UNC brought in Billy Edwards and Taron Dickens out of the portal to compete for the starting job.
If North Carolina wants to go 8-4 instead of 4-8 as it did last season, it starts at quarterback. Here is a breakdown of every scholarship quarterback on the roster.
Billy Edwards, R-Sr.
Edwards played in only two games last season after suffering a season-ending injury at Wisconsin .
In 2024, however, Edwards completed 65 percent of his passes for 2,881 yards with 15 touchdowns and nine interceptions while at Maryland . He ranked second in the Big Ten in passing yards per game at 261.9 and recorded 142 first-down completions.
He had four games with 300 or more passing yards and eight with at least 250. By comparison, Lopez had as many 300-yard games as games with zero touchdown passes. Edwards’ best performance came in a 29-28 win over USC, when he threw for a season-high 373 yards with two touchdowns and one interception.
He likely would have surpassed 3,000 passing yards if he had not been knocked out of Maryland’s 29-13 loss in the second-to-last game of the season, which also caused him to miss the finale at Penn State .
Belichick and his staff liked that Edwards is a veteran who started at quarterback in the rugged Big Ten.
Taron Dickens, R-Soph.
North Carolina got a late pickup out of the transfer portal with the Western Carolina transfer, as Dickens was one of the top players — let alone quarterbacks — at the FCS level.
In 18 games and 13 starts, Dickens has completed 74 percent of his passes for 5,063 yards with 51 touchdowns and only five interceptions. He also has rushed for 371 yards and three touchdowns.
His best season was last year, when he threw for 3,508 yards (a school record) with 38 touchdowns (a Southern Conference record) and only two interceptions. Even more impressive, he did this in only nine games after he missed the first three games of the season because of eligibility concerns. For his efforts, he was the SoCon Player of the Year and was the runner-up for the Walter Payton Award, which is the FCS equivalent of the Heisman Trophy.
Miles O’Neill, R-Soph.
O’Neill spent the past two seasons at Texas A&M, appearing in eight games and completing 12 of 20 passes for 171 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions, mostly in mop-up duty. Last season, he completed 7 of 14 passes for 120 yards with one touchdown and two interceptions.
O’Neill has ties to UNC through offensive coordinator Bobby Petrino, who recruited him to Texas A&M when Petrino held the same position in College Station.
Au’Tori Newkirk, R-Fr.
Newkirk beat out highly heralded freshman Bryce Baker for the third-string role behind Gio Lopez and Max Johnson last season. The redshirt freshman appeared in two games for Carolina in the 2025 season while preserving his redshirt. He saw action against Richmond and NC State, completing three of his six pass attempts. Newkirk threw his first career touchdown pass at NC State, a 4-yard strike to tight end Jordan Owens.
Travis Burgess, Fr.
Burgess, a 6-foot-4, 193-pound native of Grayson, Georgia, was one of the top quarterbacks in the country out of Grayson High School. He was selected to the prestigious Elite 11 Finals, showcasing the nation’s top high school quarterbacks.
He helped lead Grayson to the Georgia Class 6A state championship as a junior, guiding the Rams to a 14-1 record and a No. 7 national ranking in the MaxPreps Top 25 in 2024. That season, Burgess threw for 2,225 yards and 23 touchdowns, completing 154 of 256 passes (60.2 percent). He was also a threat on the ground, rushing 58 times for 596 yards (10.3 yards per carry) and four touchdowns.
He missed a large portion of his senior season because of a season-ending injury.
Follow us @TarHeelsWire on X and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of North Carolina Tar Heels news, notes and opinions.
This article originally appeared on Tar Heels Wire: UNC Football: Breakdown of quarterback room with spring camp underway
