It all comes down to this. Back in Charlotte at Bank of America Stadium, the same place where it picked up its first—and only—loss of the season, the No. 10 UNC football team now finds itself playing for the ACC Championship and a chance at the College Football Playoff.
The only obstacle?
The undefeated Clemson Tigers—America’s top ranked team.
Deshaun Watson lit up the Tar Heels for 435 yards and six touchdowns last season. (Getty Images/Tyler Smith)
This season has already been one of the most successful in UNC’s school history, with an 11-game win streak following the opening loss to South Carolina propelling the team to an 11-1 record.
Under head coach Larry Fedora, the Tar Heels now have a chance to bring home an ACC Championship for the first time since 1980—when Fedora was a senior in high school and a man named Lawrence Taylor was roaming around UNC’s defensive backfield.
With all that on the line, the coach is nowhere near satisfied just yet.
“When it’s all over with, maybe I can sit back, smoke a cigar, and think back on it,” Fedora said during his weekly press conference. “But for right now, we’re fixing to play the number one team in the country. We don’t have time to kick our shoes off and throw our feet up. We’ve got a lot of work to do.”
Clemson comes into Saturday at 12-0 behind its charismatic head coach, Dabo Swinney, and its Heisman candidate at quarterback, sophomore Deshaun Watson—the only player in the ACC to throw for more than 3,000 yards and rush for more than 700.
But the Tigers aren’t just an offensive powerhouse.
Their defense ranks seventh in the nation in yards allowed, and is one of eight schools to surrender less than 300 per game.
“This is the best offense we have faced this year, no doubt about it,” Fedora said. “And this is the best defense we’ve faced this year. I mean, this is the best football team we have faced.
“They’re the number one team in the country, and they’ve been that way for how many weeks? Ten weeks. Long time right?”
UNC’s defense faces the toughest test it’s had all season. (Smith Cameron Photography)
The Tar Heels will need to find a way to slow Watson down when they are on defense, which is much easier said than done. In Watson’s first career start last year as a true freshman, he torched UNC for 435 yards and six touchdowns.
Senior linebacker Jeff Schoettmer remembers that game vividly, but says he believes his group will be up to the challenge on Saturday.
“They’re definitely an explosive offense, but we’re a new defense as well,” he said. “[Watson] was a freshman [in last year’s game], but he was poised beyond his years. He’s very mature for his age, and he is a great player. That’s why he’s up for the Heisman.
“So we’re gonna have to play a great game on defense to shut him down.”
If that does indeed happen, then the Tar Heels will still need to continue to get the explosive production from their offense that they’ve gotten all season.
Every long touchdown and highlight reel play is another point in the College Football Playoff Committee’s notebook. It may seem silly, but the week one loss in Charlotte to South Carolina—a team that finished 3-8—could potentially leave the Tar Heels on the outside looking in, even with a victory.
That talk has gone on long enough where UNC’s senior quarterback, Marquise Williams, has gotten tired of hearing about it.
“They had us ranked like fifth going into this year in the Coastal [Division] anyway,” he said. “That’s fine. We like this. We love when people don’t want to talk about us.
“Only thing I can say is just keep winning and eventually they’ll have to write something good about [us].”
In a game expected by many to be a bloodbath of sorts, Williams again sees an opportunity to etch his name even deeper into Tar Heel lore. Playoffs or not, the chance exists to do something that hasn’t been seen in Chapel Hill for nearly four decades.
Marquise Williams will need to continue his outstanding production offensively in order to beat Clemson. (Smith Cameron Photography)
It’s moments like that which last forever.
“We want to be a team remembered for something,” Williams said. “We want to leave our legacy. We want to make history.
“That was our thing as seniors. Before the season, we sat down with each other and we wrote down our own goals as seniors—what we wanted to do this year to make it special for us.
“This is what [we’re] gonna remember when [we’re] older,” he continued. “I’ll remember playing in the ACC Championship when I’m 50. Maybe 70.
“[Either way], I’ll remember that.”
Broadcast Information:
WCHL will carry the ACC Championship game live on 97.9 FM and 1360 AM. Kickoff is set for 8 p.m. It will also be televised on ABC.
Game Notes:
- According to Google Maps, it’s two hours and eight minutes to drive from Chapel Hill to Bank of America Stadium. From Clemson to Bank of America Stadium, it takes two hours and 10 minutes.
- Carolina leads the ACC, and is sixth in the nation in pass breakups, with 59–to go along with 15 interceptions. However, senior safety Sam Smiley will miss the rest of the year after surgery to repair his left Achilles’ tendon.
- Marquise Williams needs just 206 total yards to become the fifth player in ACC history to amass 10,000 for a career.
- Williams’ 90 career touchdowns are also good enough for fourth in conference history, behind only Tajh Boyd (Clemson), Philip Rivers (NC State), and Russell Wilson (NC State).
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