Carolina will make the short trip to the Queen City to visit the Charlotte 49ers Saturday at 7 p.m. Though it’s far from the first game UNC has ever played in the city of Charlotte, it will be the first time the Tar Heels have ever played on the campus of UNC-Charlotte (the university brands itself as just “Charlotte” in athletics).
It’s the second meeting in as many years for the two schools. The 49ers visited Kenan Stadium last September, and the Tar Heels came away with a 38-20 win. Charlotte opened the 2025 season with a 34-11 loss to Appalachian State last weekend.
Here’s more on Charlotte’s young program:
Head coach: Tim Albin. Albin is in his first year with the 49ers after a successful tenure with Ohio University in the Mid-American Conference. Albin took over for longtime head coach Frank Solich in 2021, then led the Bobcats to three consecutive 10-win seasons in 2022, 2023 and 2024. The Bobcats’ 10-4 campaign in 2022 was their first 10-win season since 2011 and just their second since 1968. Albin will look to have the same measure of success with a Charlotte program which has never won more than seven games in a single season.
The 2025 season is Tim Albin’s first as head coach of Charlotte. (Image via Charlotte Athletics)
What’s the history? The 2024 meeting between the Tar Heels and 49ers at Kenan Stadium was the first in the history of the two schools. They were scheduled to meet during the 2020 season, but Charlotte had to pull out of the game due to COVID protocols within its program.
One more off the list: UNC’s visit to Charlotte’s Jerry Richardson Stadium will fill in the last empty bubble on a Tar Heel football fan’s travel list: the venue is the only FBS stadium in the state of North Carolina yet to be visited by the program. That will change Saturday night.
Close quarters: Charlotte is a young program, having only begun FCS play in 2013 and graduating to the FBS level in 2015. Its facilities reflect that youth. Jerry Richardson Stadium is not just the smallest stadium the Tar Heels will play in during the 2025 season – it’s one of the smallest of any program at the FBS level. The listed capacity of 15,314 makes Richardson Stadium the fourth smallest out of 136 venues across the country. One of the three smaller stadiums is Northwestern’s, which is playing in a temporary setup in its soccer and lacrosse facility while a new, larger stadium is being built. So among full-time football facilities, Charlotte’s is the third smallest. The stadium is in the early stages of a $70 million expansion which will increase capacity to more than 18,000 spectators, but that project is not expected to be finished until 2027.
A reunion of sorts: Carolina will see a familiar face at quarterback for the 49ers. Conner Harrell transferred to Charlotte this past offseason after spending much of his UNC career as a backup. Harrell only started three games, but one of them came against Charlotte last season. Harrell finished that game with two touchdown passes and another touchdown run, but his days as QB1 in Chapel Hill were numbered. He was benched early in the next week’s game in favor of Jacolby Criswell and never saw significant playing time after that.
What are the odds? UNC is a 14-point favorite in the game.
Featured image via Associated Press/Nell Redmond
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