North Carolina vs Appalachian State Odds: New Faces to Lead UNC’s Rebuilt Offense

App State Hopes to Control the Clock With Power Running Game

Kidd Brewer Stadium should be electric with an ACC team coming to town for the first time since Wake Forest visited and came away with a one-point victory in 2017.

North Carolina is just 4-6 in its last 10 road openers. Only two of those games came against non-Power-5 conference teams. Appalachian State is 4-4 in season openers since moving up to the Football Bowl Subdivision level. The losses came to Michigan, Tennessee, Georgia, and Penn State so scheduling challenging openers is nothing new. The North Carolina vs Appalachian State odds lists the visiting Tar Heels as 1.5-point favorites according to the North Carolina point spread.

North Carolina (+1800) comes in with the fifth-best odds to win the ACC title while Appalachian State (+225) is the favorite in the Sun Belt in the football spreads.

North Carolina vs Appalachian State Game Information

• Matchup: North Carolina (1-0); Appalachian State (10-4, 7-1 in Sun Belt Conference in 2021)
• Location: Kidd Brewer Stadium, Boone, North Carolina
• Date/Time: Saturday, 12:00 p.m. ET
• TV: ESPNU

Maye Off to Impressive Start for North Carolina

Drake Maye had no issues learning everything he could about the North Carolina program. His father Mark is a former UNC captain and he is still 12th on North Carolina’s list for career passing yards.

Maye threw 10 passes as a freshman with nine of them coming in a win over Wofford. With Sam Howell off to the NFL, Maye earned the starting job and was 29 of 37 for 294 yards with five touchdowns and no interceptions in a season-opening win over Florida A&M. Maye also ran for 55 yards. Freshman Omarion Hampton ran for 101 yards and two touchdowns while sophomore Elijah Green added 69 rushing yards in the win.

Josh Downs, coming off a 100-catch season, picked up where he left off with nine catches for 78 yards and two touchdowns. His return is a major reason why the North Carolina vs Appalachian State odds favors the Tar Heels.

Sophomore Power Echols led North Carolina’s defense with 10 tackles and one of the Tar Heels’ three sacks.

Appalachian State Ready to hit Ground Running

Appalachian State could easily be bringing back a pair of 1,000-yard rushers. Nate Noel ran for 1,126 yards while Camerun Peoples added 926 yards and 14 touchdowns despite missing two games. Noel averaged 5.7 yards per carrying and Peoples checked in at 5.6 so expect to see plenty from both of them in 2022.

Quarterback Chase Brice is back for his sixth season. He threw for 3,337 yards with 27 touchdowns. Many of his top receivers have moved on and it will be worth watching to see how redshirt freshman center Troy Everett holds up in the middle of the offensive line.

Trey Cobb is back to lead the defense as is Nick Hampton.

The defense could start two fifth-year seniors, four fifth-year juniors, and sixth-year senior cornerback Steven Jones Jr. Perhaps all that experience is why the North Carolina vs Appalachian State odds only favor the visiting ACC title contender by 1.5 points.

Appalachian State was one of four Sun Belt teams to allow more than 3,000 passing yards a season ago and the defense will be tested right away with North Carolina looking to air things out.

North Carolina vs Appalachian State Head to Head

This is the first meeting between the teams since Appalachian State won 34-31 on the road against a North Carolina team that was favored by 2.5 points.

Appalachian State has lost seven of its last eight games against ACC teams with the lone win coming against North Carolina. The Mountaineers have covered each of the last three matchups against ACC competition and that includes a 25-23 loss at Miami in 2021 as a 7.5-point underdog.

The last time North Carolina faced a team from the Sun Belt, the Tar Heels rolled to a 59-17 win over Georgia State as a 26-point favorite on Sept. 11, 2021

North Carolina vs Appalachian State Injury Update

For North Carolina, defensive back Tony Grimes (upper body) is questionable. Running back British Brooks (lower body) is out for the season, defensive back Ja’Qurious Conley (lower body) is expected to be out until late September, receiver Tylee Craft is out indefinitely while receiver Antoine Green (upper body) is out until late October.

North Carolina vs Appalachian State Betting Preview

North Carolina allowed just 56 rushing yards on 27 carries in the opener against Florida A&M. Expect the Tar Heels to be tested much more by the running game of Appalachian State.

North Carolina has won just one of its last five road games and is 1-4 against the spread over the last five games.
Appalachian State takes a six-game home winning streak into the game while the Mountaineers have covered eight of their last 10 games as the underdog.

Appalachian State failed to cover in each of its last three games a season ago while North Carolina is 1-4 in its last five games as a road favorite.

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