3Dog Thursday College Football Preview for North Carolina-Minnesota
Thursday, Aug. 29
8 p.m. Eastern, 5 p.m. Pacific
Fox
The 2024 college football season arrives with North Carolina and Minnesota playing what is the best game on the board Thursday night. It’s a light and not very sexy schedule for the first Thursday of the college football season. We have usually seen a bigger game with a more high-profile team in recent years. Utah has hosted Florida. Ohio State has played Minnesota. Texas A&M has played South Carolina. Other nationally-recognized programs have started their seasons on Thursday nights. This year’s first Thursday slate is not nearly as attractive. This game, however, is worth watching. Mack Brown of North Carolina and P.J. Fleck will try to get their programs to make significant improvements over 2023. North Carolina failed to maximize its potential under Drake Maye. The Tar Heels have to be better at every non-quarterback position on the field in order to aspire to bigger dreams. Minnesota had a very rough 2023 season and needs a lot more from its passing game, which has held back the program. Two teams have a lot to prove in Minneapolis.
North Carolina Tar Heels vs Minnesota Golden Gophers Odds
Spread: North Carolina -1.5 (-110), Minnesota +1.5 (-110)
Total: 50.5 (Over -110, Under -110)
Underdog moneyline: Minnesota +105
Players to Watch
The North Carolina Tar Heels and Minnesota Golden Gophers both have new quarterbacks, which is the first and most natural place to look when considering how to size up a Week 1 game in a college football season.
North Carolina’s starter was supposed to be Max Johnson, and technically, that might still be the case, but Johnson has not taken ownership of the No. 1 spot on the depth chart the way many people expected him to. Mack Brown has said that Johnson and Conner Harrell will both get playing time in this game. What does that mean for the UNC offense and the level of continuity it will be able to display? That’s a fascinating and centrally important question. Is this going to be a situation where Johnson gets a few series and then Harrell gets a few drives of his own, or will this be a case of Johnson being the starter and Harrell coming in for a few specialty plays and packages designed just for him? How Brown and the North Carolina staff divide the plays and possessions for the two Tar Heel quarterbacks is the main plot point to watch on Thursday.
For Minnesota, Max Brosmer is the new quarterback. He is a transfer from New Hampshire, putting him in position to become an FCS-to-FBS transfer who could potentially sneak up on the competition this season. Judging a quarterback based on FCS film is a challenge. This is not to imply that FCS game film doesn’t matter or doesn’t reveal a quarterback’s true quality. A signal-caller could be great, independent of the competition he faces. The point is that FCS film doesn’t necessarily offer a strong or reliable basis for judging how well a quarterback will fare against an FBS team, and more precisely, a power conference opponent which is expected to be decent at the very least (six or seven wins) this season.
Brosmer taking command of the Minnesota offense, while North Carolina’s two quarterbacks show why neither one took full control of the starting position in August preseason camp, would be the scenario which leads to Minnesota, as a slight underdog, barking up a storm as 3Dog Thursday begins coverage of another college football campaign.