Red Flags: 5 college football teams on upset alert in Week 1

2. North Carolina Tar Heels

Opponent: South Carolina | Time: Saturday, Sept. 2, 7:30 p.m. ET (ABC) | Spread: UNC -2.5

Get your turkey and cheese ready for Saturday night's Duke's Mayo Classic as we're getting a battle of the Carolinas with the North Carolina Tar Heels and South Carolina Gamecocks set to face off in Charlotte in one of the marquee games of Week 1. Hell, College GameDay is heading here.

UNC quarterback Drake Maye is deservedly getting hyped as the second-best quarterback in the country behind one Caleb Williams, and that is obviously leading to big expectations for the Tar Heels offensively. But when it comes to the Tar Heels, there are a litany of potential pitfalls.

That most definitely starts with the North Carolina defense, a unit that can kindly be described as a sieve last season and the hopes for improvement in the 2023 season are somewhat based in talent but are largely based on a wish and a prayer. More importantly, the Tar Heels lost leading wideout Josh Downs and tried to replace him with Kent State transfer Tez Walker -- but he's still not been granted eligibility by the NCAA for this game.

If that weren't enough, the UNC offensive line was also a major issue against higher-end athletes last season, which South Carolina, even if they are only a slightly above-average SEC team, undoubtedly boasts.

To be clear, for the entire season, I'm entirely tepid on the Gamecocks. I still don't believe in Spencer Rattler and don't think the skill positions and trenches are where they need to be to compete in the SEC. But this North Carolina team has the look of a group that could lose to anyone, especially a bowl team from the SEC. So they're clearly an upset pick candidate.