NC/ACC Week 11 College Football Previews:

Duke, UNC, ECU, Western Carolina Among
In-State Teams Facing Pivotal Matchups
(DG’s “This Week In CFB” YouTube Show = Posted Below)

By David Glenn
North Carolina Sports Network
(last updated Nov. 4, 2025)

The 2025 college football season continues via a compelling Week 11 schedule, with Duke visiting UConn, Appalachian State, East Carolina and UNC all favored in important home games, Western Carolina hosting one of the biggest regular-season contests in program history, and Johnson C Smith seeking to clinch a spot in the CIAA championship game.

Meanwhile, the most prominent Week 11 matchups nationally include intra-league clashes in the Atlantic Coast Conference and the Southeastern Conference, plus another edition of a famous rivalry that’s been played almost every year for the past century: Wake Forest at #12 Virginia (7 p.m., ESPN), LSU at #4 Alabama (7:30 p.m., ABC) and Navy at #10 Notre Dame (7:30 p.m., NBC/Peacock).

From the wide-ranging schedule (see below) in the Old North State, here are more details from this week’s “Three To See” selections:

In-State “Three To See,” Game One

Duke (5-3) at UConn (6-3), Sat., 3:30 p.m. (CBSSN)

The weekly game previews here at the North Carolina Sports Network don’t often address the weather factor, in part because these articles typically are posted on Tuesdays, which makes Saturday weather forecasts even more speculative and unreliable than usual.

However, in this case, an exception is made, only in this narrow context: The only way UConn has a realistic chance to beat Duke (a nine-point favorite) in this game is if the weather in Storrs late Saturday afternoon is some combination of cold, windy, wet and/or nasty.

Led by Tulane transfer Darian Mensah at quarterback, Duke has one of the most prolific passing attacks in all of college football this season, and UConn’s defense was absolutely torn up in all three of the team’s losses this season: at Syracuse, at Delaware and at Rice.

Unless the weather gets in the way — high winds, wet footballs and/or frozen fingers tend to favor the defense — Mensah will have a great chance to exceed his 321 passing yards per game average, which ranks #2 nationally, and some combination of wide receivers Cooper Barkate, Que’Sean Brown, Sahmir Hagans and Andrel Anthony could put up big numbers, too.

Second-year Duke coach Manny Diaz has had to answer questions about the head coaching vacancy at Penn State, where he served as the defensive coordinator for outstanding teams in 2022 (11-2) and 2023 (10-3), but he offers daily reminders to his players about minimizing distractions, and he’s trying to follow that advice himself as he attempts to lead the Blue Devils to the ACC championship game.

Under fourth-year head coach Jim Mora Jr., formerly the head coach of the NFL’s Atlanta Falcons and Seattle Seahawks and at UCLA in the college ranks, UConn went 9-4 last season, beating UNC in the Fenway Bowl, and the Huskies have been competent on both offense and special teams this season.

However, the best win of their 6-3 start is either over a 5-4 Buffalo squad or at Boston College of the ACC. Reminder: Those Eagles are 1-8 this year.

Along with Notre Dame, UConn is one of only two independent programs in the FBS ranks right now, and the school’s football program basically hasn’t had a home since the Big East stopped sponsoring the sport at the FBS level.

Unlike the Fighting Irish, the Huskies have absolutely zero name recognition on the gridiron, and since making the jump from FCS to FBS in 2000, they have been ranked only rarely, and they have never finished a season in the national Top 25.

In fact, their complete lack of a football pedigree is the #1 reason they’ve never been a serious candidate for an invitation to join the ACC. They’re trying to change that, and they might post their second straight winning record under Mora this season.

Otherwise, though, football remains mostly a warmup for basketball season in Storrs, where both the men’s and women’s hoops programs have ranked among the best in the nation over the past three decades.

In-State “Three To See,” Game Two

Stanford (3-6) at North Carolina (3-5), Sat., 4:30 p.m. (The CW)

Now may be a good time to reflect on two of the running themes of “This Week In College Football,” going back to the summer months.

#1—Legendary coach Bill Belichick’s first UNC team would have below-average talent by ACC standards, and simply getting to a bowl game would be a much more realistic goal than some of the lofty nine- or 10-win predictions that were emanating from many fans and even some media back in August.

(Update: UNC is 3-5 and faces an uphill battle to get to a bowl game.)

#2—An unusual schedule would leave open the possibility that, if the 2025 Tar Heels got off to a rough start (which they certainly did), they would have at least a chance to get a lot better in October and November if they stayed together through the adversity and avoided some of the chemistry problems that often come with losing.

Unlike most college teams, Carolina had two open weeks in the three-week period that ended in mid-October, leaving maximum practice time right before the more manageable, latter portion of the Heels’ 2025 schedule

(Update: UNC has played by far its best football after that stretch.)

Sure enough, the Tar Heels have been a lot better lately — not great, but definitely and significantly better — and two of Belichick’s cornerstones, as his long-time NFL observers might have predicted, have been discipline and defense.

UNC is among the four least-penalized teams in the ACC — for all of Mack Brown’s strengths and successes during his two tenures in Chapel Hill, that sort of team discipline was rarely among them — and the Tar Heels’ defense has put together three consecutive outstanding efforts, limiting the Cal, Virginia and Syracuse offenses to an average of just 11 points per game in regulation.

UNC lost the Cal and UVa games in low-scoring affairs, mainly because of the Heels’ ongoing offensive struggles, but the team’s defense — led by edge rusher Melkart Abou-Jaoude (a Delaware transfer) and a fast, intelligent and hard-hitting group of linebackers — absolutely dominated Syracuse in its 27-10 road victory last week.

It remains to be seen if Carolina will be able to keep up with teams that have more high-powered passing attacks — Duke and NC State, the team’s final two regular-season opponents, both fit that description — but this week’s challenge against Stanford (a seven-point underdog) presents an opportunity for the Tar Heels’ improving defense to impose its will once more, in this case against a struggling Cardinal squad averaging an ACC-worst 18 points per game.

In-State “Three To See,” Game Three

#10 Mercer (7-1) at #24 Western Carolina (6-3), Sat., 2:30 p.m. (ESPN+)
(An “Old North State Tailgate & Traveling Sports Circus” Game)

This matchup is a really, really exciting one, for a lot of different reasons.

First, both teams are nationally ranked in the FCS polls, and one of them is going to win the Southern Conference football championship this year. The SoCon does not have a championship game, so the first-place finisher during the regular season is deemed its official champion and gets the league’s automatic bid to the FCS playoffs.

Western Carolina, based in Cullowhee, has never won the SoCon football crown during its 50 years as a member of that conference, and it has only one trip to the FCS playoffs in its program’s entire history, so this is truly a rare and very special opportunity for the Catamounts.

Western (5-0 SoCon) will not automatically clinch the title if it beats Mercer (6-0 SoCon) — the Catamounts still have two other league games to play — but a win Saturday over the Bears would put them in great position to, at worst, tie for the league title and, at best, win it outright, which would be just a sensational accomplishment for a traditionally downtrodden program.

The other mesmerizing aspect of this matchup is that it pits one of the best offenses in the entire FCS ranks against one of the best defenses in the entire FCS ranks, with both units reflecting the team’s head coaches — fifth-year Western Carolina leader Kerwin Bell, a long-time offensive guru, and second-year Mercer leader Mike Jacobs, a long-time defensive guru.

Mercer ranks ninth in the nation in scoring defense, at only 17 points per game. Western’s offense, led by dual-threat quarterback Taron Dickens, has averaged 41 points per game during its six-game winning streak, with Dickens averaging an FCS-best 367 passing yards per game, with 26 touchdown passes and only one interception.

Jacobs, by the way, led Mercer to its first-ever SoCon title just last season. Now Bell is trying to do the same for the Catamounts.

In-State “Three To See,” Bonus Games

NC State (5-4) is off this week, in the aftermath of the Wolfpack’s huge victory over previously undefeated Georgia Tech, and the Wake Forest-Virginia matchup is discussed in our post on this week’s top national games, so there are only two other FBS games involving at least one in-state team. … On Thursday night, 4-4 Appalachian State gets to enjoy a national television spotlight as the Mountaineers host their long-time rival Georgia Southern (3-5) in Boone (7:30 p.m., ESPN2). Each school won multiple national championships while competing against each other in the FCS ranks, and now they have been FBS rivals — in the Sun Belt Conference — for more than a decade. Both programs have fallen into the middle of the Sun Belt pack in recent years, but the Mountaineers have won 11 of the last 17 games in this rivalry, and they’re a six-point favorite at Kidd Brewer Stadium this year, under first-year head coach Dowell Loggains. … Meanwhile, this is only the third year that Charlotte and East Carolina — two of our state’s seven FBS programs — are both members of the American Conference, and it has been a major sore spot for Pirate Nation that the 49ers — who have existed as an FBS program for only 13 years — have won both of the head-to-head matchups against the Pirates, in 2023 and 2024. This year, thanks mainly to a consistently strong defense and a prolific passing game, 5-3 ECU is a massive 28-point favorite over the 1-7 49ers at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium in Greenville (3 p.m., ESPN+), and it would be shocking to see anything other than a dominant victory for the Purple and Gold. … At the FCS level, beyond the Mercer-Western Carolina game discussed above, the most noteworthy matchup is Elon hosting #10 Rhode Island in a Coastal Athletic Association contest (2 p.m., FloCollege). The Rams were CAA co-champions last season, and they’re 5-0 in conference play this year, so this is both a difficult game and a huge opportunity for coach Tony Trisciani and the Phoenix. … Finally, in the Division Two ranks, if #18 Johnson C Smith (8-1) beats 5-4 Livingstone in Charlotte this Saturday (1 p.m.), the Golden Bulls will punch their ticket to the CIAA championship game, which will be held at Durham County Stadium on Nov. 15.

NC Football Bowl Subdivision (Seven Teams)
(Games Saturday Unless Otherwise Indicated)

Georgia Southern (3-5) at Appalachian State (4-4), 7:30 p.m. (ESPN2) — Thursday
Charlotte (1-7) at East Carolina (5-3), 3 p.m. (ESPN+)
Duke (5-3) at UConn (6-3), 3:30 p.m. (CBSSN)
Stanford (3-6) at North Carolina (3-5), 4:30 p.m. (The CW)
Wake Forest (5-3) at #12 Virginia (8-1), 7 p.m. (ESPN)

Open Week: NC State (5-4)

Atlantic Coast Conference (17 Teams)

SMU (6-3) at Boston College (1-8), noon (ACCN)
Syracuse (3-6) at #18 Miami (6-2), 3:30 p.m. (ESPN)
Duke (5-3) at UConn (6-3), 3:30 p.m. (CBSSN)
Stanford (3-6) at North Carolina (3-5), 4:30 p.m. (The CW)
Wake Forest (5-3) at #12 Virginia (8-1), 7 p.m. (ESPN)
California (5-4) at #14 Louisville (7-1), 7 p.m. (ESPN2)
Florida State (4-4) at Clemson (3-5), 7 p.m. (ACCN)

Open Week: #16 Georgia Tech (8-1), NC State (5-4), Pittsburgh (7-2), Virginia Tech (3-6)