CHAPEL HILL – It isn’t exactly a chicken-or-the-egg thing, but an interesting question looms this week over the North Carolina-Appalachian State game slated for Saturday in Boone:

Does UNC posses an advantage having already played a game giving it a chance to iron out its wrinkles, or is App State holding an edge knowing how the Tar Heels look on film while remaining a bit of a mystery to their visitors?

Week One in college football commences Thursday night in spots around the country, and for the Mountaineers, it ignites at noon at Kidd Brewer Stadium when UNC makes its first evert appearance on The Rock. But for Carolina, its "week one" took place a week early.

UNC Coach Mack Brown said Monday he wanted the Tar Heels’ game versus Florida A&M moved to late August to help his young team prepare for consecutive road games beginning Labor Day weekend. Carolina visits Georgia State on September 10.

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So, the Heels and Rattlers battled at Kenan Stadium this past Saturday, and in doing so they’re now on film. Every nook and cranny of their 56-24 victory is there for all App eyes to study. But it also gave Carolina a chance to see where it needs work. Unlike in the NFL, there are no preseason games in college football, making for interesting and often mess-filled surprising openers.

So, who has the advantage here, UNC or App State?

“I think it’s a two-way street,” UNC senior safety Gio Biggers said Tuesday evening inside the Kenan Football Center. “They’re fresh, they haven’t played a game so they don’t know what they haven’t done so well, and then we’ve played a game so they’ve seen some things on us that we have done well and haven’t done well.

“Like (Secondary) Coach (Charlton) Warren was telling us today, ‘Our resume is what we put on film this past weekend.’”

The Mountaineers saw plenty of positives from the Tar Heels, but also some areas of concern for Brown’s team. This isn’t exactly a topic lost on anyone in Chapel Hill, either. Great for Carolina, not so great for Carolina? The general consensus could be it's a wash.

“That’s a good question. Mack kind of talked about it, (and) I think it is in some ways an advantage, and in some ways a disadvantage,” UNC graduate defensive lineman Ray Vohasek said. “The disadvantage would be they see what we do on film a little bit, because some guys they have are gone that we’re watching film on. We don’t get to full breakdown of who they are.

“I think it’s a good thing, though, because we got the jitters out, we got to get out there and we got to see what we need to work on. We got exposed in some areas, and we really needed to buckle down on those and fix them.”

Not up for debate is the value in UNC getting a game under its belt with new defensive coordinator Gene Chizik making his calls and back into the groove. He hadn’t coached for five years, so this was a healthy test run before the contest Saturday in what is being billed as the biggest game ever at App State.

It wasn’t just the calls by Chizik and organizational execution with his staff, the players needed their Chizik experinces, too. Keep in mind, previous coordinator Jay Bateman was on the sidelines during games, Chizik prefers sitting in the box upstairs.

“Just seeing what his gameday mindset was, what he brought,” Vohasek said about Chizik. “From an emotional standpoint, what he expected from us, how he wanted us to be calm in battle and him getting the calls in, and just what his game plan was. His halftime adjustments, how he went through a game.

“So that was definitely important for the defense.”

Maybe a tip toward the Tar Heels rolled off the tongue of redshirt freshman quarterback Drake Maye, who alluded to a UNC loss at home to App State in 2019, in addition to the notion it’s better having played a game heading into this weekend’s hornet’s nest than not.

“We got that week zero game in and got prepared for this week,” Maye said. “Going into week one at App without a game under our belt would have been a little more difficult. Obviously, this is a big game for the program. I think we owe them one for a couple of years back.”

More than being fueled by some form of payback, the Tar Heels know a lot more about themselves now having played a game. App knows them, too. The greater advantage goes to which team?

Saturday may tell that tale.