NC/ACC Week One College Football Preview:
ECU-#13 Alabama, Tulane-Duke, Maine-App State
Among Intriguing Games Involving In-State Teams
(DG’s Weekly CFB YouTube Show = Below)
By David Glenn
North Carolina Sports Network
(last updated Sept. 2, 2026)
The 2026 college football season continues Thursday through Monday with a compelling Week One schedule that runs all the way through the extended Labor Day weekend.
The most prominent games nationally offer a back-to-back-to-back (Saturday-Sunday-Monday) prime-time menu that includes a single Top 25-vs.-Top 25 contest and two head-to-head clashes between Atlantic Coast Conference and Southeastern Conference contenders: Clemson at #11 LSU (Sat., 7:30 p.m., ABC), #24 Louisville versus #9 Ole Miss in Nashville (Sun., 7:30 p.m., ABC) and #19 SMU at Florida State (Mon., 7:30 p.m., ESPN).
Meanwhile, from the wide-ranging schedule (please see at bottom) involving teams from the Bold North State, below are more details from this week’s “Three To See” in-state selections, plus brief notes on a wide variety of additional Week One matchups.
NC/ACC “Three To See,” Game One
East Carolina (0-0) at #13 Alabama (0-0), Sat., noon (ABC)
This is obviously a very special opportunity for East Carolina, because Alabama has been the most successful college football program in America in the 21st century, with those six national championships from 2009 through 2020 under the now-retired coach Nick Saban, and with Bryant-Denny Stadium being one of the half-dozen or so most famous on-campus venues the sport has to offer.
For any ECU fans who may be taking the road trip, Bryant-Denny Stadium seats more than 100,000 fans, there are bronze statues of Bear Bryant and the Tide’s other legendary coaches on the brick walkway next to the stadium, and you will hear “Roll Tide” absolutely everywhere you go, all weekend long, in and around Tuscaloosa.
The Crimson Tide are now in their third season under coach Kalen DeBoer, the former Fresno State and Washington coach, who finished 9-4 in 2024 and 11-4 — with a trip to the expanded College Football Playoff — in 2025. DeBoer’s opening two-year stretch in Tuscaloosa is actually the worst that program has seen since before the Tide hired Saban, but DeBoer did get a seven-year contract extension after going 7-1 in the SEC and advancing to the CFP quarterfinals last season.
The main reasons Alabama isn’t ranked in the preseason top 10 this year are that the Tide didn’t run the ball well last year, and now they have to break in a new starting quarterback, with Ty Simpson in the National Football League and already looking really good with the Los Angeles Rams at that level.
The new Alabama QB is Keelon Russell. He was a consensus five-star high school recruit — he’s from Texas, and he actually committed to SMU before obviously switching to the Tide during the recruiting process — but Russell is only a second-year college player, and he didn’t get many snaps as Simpson’s backup last year.
Russell definitely is considered a future NFL prospect, but he’s only 19 years old, and the ECU game will be his first college start. One of Russell’s top targets is NC State wide receiver transfer Noah Rogers, although Rogers is dealing with a preseason knee injury that may keep him out of this game.
In the imaginary world where East Carolina somehow kept all of its top players from last year’s 9-4 team, the Pirates might have been able to compete with Alabama, even on the road.
However, as outlined in our detailed ECU preview, among the Pirates’ 12 starters with remaining eligibility, nine (75 percent) hit the transfer portal and are now competing at Georgia, South Carolina, Florida, Vanderbilt, Illinois, SMU, Florida State and NC State.
The new quarterbacks for the Pirates are soon-to-be 25-year-old, seventh-year senior Mitch Griffis, a Texas Tech transfer who was Wake Forest’s starter back in 2023, and Miami transfer Emory Williams, a 6-foot-5, 222-pounder who was the Hurricanes’ backup for the past three seasons.
ECU head coach Blake Harrell also is breaking in two new coordinators, after John David Baker left to take the OC job at Ole Miss and Josh Aldridge took the DC job at South Florida.
The new guys are OC Jordan Davis, who led an explosive North Texas offense a year ago, and DC Jordon Hankins, who led the defenses on Memphis teams that won 30 games over the past three seasons.
The Pirates (a 28-point underdog) have only one starter back on offense and two on defense, so it certainly could be a very long day in Tuscaloosa, but it will be fun to see who steps up as the team’s next generation of stars, from the incoming transfer portal or otherwise.
NC/ACC “Three To See,” Game Two
Tulane (0-0) at Duke (0-0), Sat., 3:30 p.m. (ACCN)
It’s easy to forget, because Duke won its first ACC football championship since 1989 last December, but the Blue Devils’ journey on the way to that amazing accomplishment was a very rocky road at times.
The Devils lost all three of their FBS-level nonconference games — getting crushed at home by Illinois, then losing much closer road games to UConn and, yes, Tulane in New Orleans — and their record was only a mediocre 5-5 in mid-November.
Duke’s final record of 9-5, of course, included that huge revenge win over Virginia in overtime in the ACC championship game, plus a high-scoring Sun Bowl victory over Arizona State.
This sounds crazy to say out loud, but there are only three coaches who have led a North Carolina-based program to an ACC football title in the past 45 years, and their names are Steve Spurrier (1989 Duke), Jim Grobe (2006 Wake Forest) and now Manny Diaz (2025 Duke). That’s pretty good company for the 52-year-old Diaz, to say the least.
While it’s true that Duke lost a lot of talent to both the NFL and the outgoing transfer portal after last season — remember that All-ACC quarterback Darian Mensah and All-ACC wide receiver Cooper Barkate are both representing the Miami Hurricanes this year — it’s also accurate to say that Tulane has had an even more thorough, top-to-bottom overhaul since the Green Wave’s head-to-head victory over the Blue Devils a year ago.
Head coach Jon Sumrall is now the new guy at Florida, and he took much of his staff with him, although he insisted that he would not initiate contact with any Tulane players about joining him with the Gators, and in the end only his punter and kicker followed him from New Orleans to Gainesville.
Tulane’s new head coach, Will Hall, was the Green Wave’s passing-game coordinator last year. In his previous head coaching gigs, he did well in the Division Two ranks, but more recently he got fired after just three and a half seasons at Southern Miss.
Tulane’s new quarterback, Zeon Chriss-Gremillion, is a fifth-year senior with previous stops — and occasional starts — at Louisiana and Houston. He’s a dual-threat guy, a much better runner than passer by reputation, so everyone knows Diaz will have a fine-tuned defensive plan tailored to that scouting report.
Personnel-wise, Duke must replace its entire defensive line and three starters on the offensive line, so those areas definitely will be worth watching on Saturday afternoon at Wallace Wade Stadium.
The Blue Devils (a seven-point favorite) have two studs returning on offense, with sophomore Nate Sheppard at running back and fifth-year senior Jeremiah Hasley at tight end, but they’ll be breaking in a new quarterback, and there’s nobody on this year’s roster who looks anything like Mensah, who has a chance to become a first-round NFL draft pick.
The start against Tulane will go to 23-year-old sixth-year senior Walker Eget, a San Jose State transfer who needed an NCAA waiver just to be eligible for the Devils this season. Eget is a 6-foot-3, 235-pound pocket passer with 30 career touchdown passes, but he had only a 6-12 record in his 18 career starts at San Jose State.
On defense, the Devils’ only proven returnee in the front seven is senior linebacker Luke Mergott. so Diaz desperately needs to find his next generation of pass-rushers, run-stuffers and playmakers on that side of the ball, starting Saturday in Durham against the Green Wave.
NC/ACC “Three To See,” Game Three
Maine (1-0) at Appalachian State (0-0), Sat., 3:30 p.m. (ESPN+)
This game is worth mentioning mainly because Appalachian State offers one of the more intriguing football storylines in our state this year, and this game against Maine presents an opportunity for the Mountaineers to make a statement against a solid FCS opponent — especially on the offensive side of the ball — in front of the usual sold-out crowd amongst the oaks, maples and pines in the lovely mountains of the Bold North State.
The second-year App State head coach, Dowell Loggains, is a 45-year-old man who has a well-earned reputation as an offensive guru. Even as a relatively young guy, he’s already been the offensive coordinator for four different NFL franchises, and — as a coordinator at the college level — he worked wonders at South Carolina with quarterbacks Spencer Rattler and LaNorris Sellers.
However, last year, in Loggains’ head coaching debut, his offense finished just 10th in the 14-team Sun Belt Conference in scoring offense, at only 24 points per game, as the Mountaineers struggled to a 5-8 record and the quarterback play in Boone was extremely inconsistent, to put it nicely.
The new quarterback at App State is 22-year-old Purdue transfer Malachi Singleton, who was a celebrated prep All-American dual-threat QB back in 2022 as a high school senior in Georgia, but he’s a guy who struggled to get much playing time over the past three seasons — two at Arkansas, one with the Boilermakers.
As the second-year head coach at a very proud program that won four straight Sun Belt Conference championships under Scott Satterfield and Eli Drinkwitz from 2016-19, Loggains knows that his long-term directive is to put App State back where it’s been for most of the past 40 years — and that’s competing for championships, whether that was national titles back in the Mountaineers’ FCS days or those Sun Belt titles more recently at the FBS level.
Meanwhile, as a fourth-year college player, Singleton knows that he’s running out of time to live up to his high school hype.
App State fans have to hope that this will be a magical union between offensive guru and quarterback catalyst, because the Mountaineers have 73 newcomers this season — 40 major college transfers, 30 high school signees and three junior-college transfers — giving them one of the highest player-turnover ratios in the entire country this year.
NOTE: For the national edition of our Week One college football preview, including analysis on the highest-profile games, please click HERE.
NC Football Bowl Subdivision (Seven Teams)
(Games Saturday Unless Otherwise Indicated)
Akron (0-0) at Wake Forest (0-0), 7 p.m. (ACCN) — Thursday
East Carolina (0-0) at #13 Alabama (0-0), noon (ABC)
Tulane (0-0) at Duke (0-0), 3:30 p.m. (ACCN)
The Citadel (0-1) at Charlotte (0-0), 3:30 p.m. (ESPN+)
Maine (1-0) at Appalachian State (0-0), 3:30 p.m. (ESPN+)
Open Week: NC State (0-1), UNC (1-0)
Atlantic Coast Conference (17 Teams)
Akron (0-0) at Wake Forest (0-0), 7 p.m. (ACCN) — Thursday
Colorado (0-0) at Georgia Tech (0-0), 8 p.m. (ESPN) — Thursday
#7 Miami (0-0) at Stanford (1-0), 9 p.m. (ESPN) — Friday
New Hampshire (0-1) at Syracuse (0-0), noon (ACCN)
Miami-Ohio (0-0) at Pitt (0-0), 12:30 p.m. (The CW)
Boston College (0-0) at Cincinnati (0-0), 3:30 p.m. (FOX)
Tulane (0-0) at Duke (0-0), 3:30 p.m. (ACCN)
Clemson (0-0) at #11 LSU (0-0), 7:30 p.m. (ABC)
VMI (0-1) at Virginia Tech (0-0), 7:30 p.m. (ACCN)
UCLA (0-0) at Cal (0-0), 10:30 p.m. (ESPN)
#24 Louisville (0-0) vs. #9 Ole Miss (0-0), Nashville, 7:30 p.m. (ABC) — Sunday
#19 SMU (0-0) at Florida State (1-0), 7:30 p.m. (ESPN) — Monday
Open Week: NC State (0-1), UNC (1-0), Virginia (1-0)
NC Football Championship Subdivision (Seven Teams)
North Carolina A&T (0-1) at Georgia State (0-0), 7 p.m. (ESPN+) — Friday
Gardner-Webb (0-1) at Wofford (1-0), 1:30 p.m. (ESPN+)
Western Carolina (1-0) at Campbell (1-0), 3:30 p.m. (FloCollege)
Elon (1-0) at Davidson (0-1), 6 p.m. (ESPN+)
Elizabeth City State (0-1) at NC Central (0-1), 6 p.m. (MEAC)
NC Division Two (13 Teams)
West Alabama (1-0) at #21 Lenoir-Rhyne (1-0), 3 p.m. (FloCollege)
Elizabeth City State (0-1) at NC Central (0-1), 6 p.m. (MEAC)
UNC Pembroke (1-0) at Fayetteville State (1-0), 6 p.m. (FSUSN)
Chowan (0-1) at UVa-Wise (0-1), 6 p.m. (FloCollege)
North Greenville (0-0) at Catawba (1-0), 6 p.m. (FloCollege)
Livingstone (0-1) at Virginia Union (0-1), 6 p.m. (CIAA)
Shaw (0-1) at Barton (0-1), 7 p.m. (CCDN)
Wingate (0-1) at Delta State (0-1), 7 p.m. (FloCollege)
Mars Hill (0-0) at Winston-Salem State (0-1), 8 p.m. (CIAA)
Albany State (0-1) vs. Johnson C Smith (0-1), Canton, 4 p.m. (NFLN) — Sunday
NC Division Three (Five Teams)
Shenandoah (0-0) at Methodist (0-0), 6 p.m. (FloCollege) — Friday
Guilford (0-0) at Greensboro (0-0), 6 p.m. (FloCollege)
North Carolina Wesleyan (0-0) at Averett (0-0), 6 p.m. (FloCollege)
Open Week: Brevard (0-0)
