The Tar Heels’ 2022 regular season schedule features some classic opponents, two unique road trips and a special opening night at Kenan Stadium. Chapelboro.com’s Michael Koh takes you on a historical deep dive of the 12 teams UNC will face this season.
Florida A&M
Image via FAMU Athletics
When and where? Saturday, August 27 at 8 p.m. in Kenan Stadium.
The last time these teams played? Never! This will be the first-ever meeting between the Tar Heels and Rattlers.
Why so early? The game was originally scheduled for September 17, but was moved up to August 27 to provide more publicity for the game. That weekend is colloquially known around college football circles as “Week 0,” which serves as a de facto opening night for college football. Only a few teams play during Week 0, with the bulk of the country opening its season the following weekend. The Tar Heels and Rattlers will play one of only 12 games around the country on August 27.
What does UNC have planned for the game? UNC is billing the weekend as an “HBCU Celebration Game,” featuring “events and activities planned around the weekend to celebrate historically black colleges and universities.” Each team will have HBCU legends as honorary captains, and Florida A&M’s famous “Marching 100” band will perform at halftime.
2022 Result: UNC won, 56-24.
Appalachian State
Image via Dakota Moyer
When and where? Saturday, September 3 at 12 p.m. in Boone, N.C.
The last time these teams played? The Mountaineers won 34-31 in Kenan Stadium during the 2019 season, blocking a field goal as time expired to preserve the victory.
Biggest blowout? UNC’s only win in the series was a 56-6 walloping of the Mountaineers all the way back in 1940. R.W. “Red” Watkins coached for Appalachian State, and Raymond “Bear” Wolf for Carolina. Oh my!
The Mack Brown Bowl! So it is. The Hall of Famer coached for a single season in Boone in 1983, leading the Mountaineers to a 6-5 record. This will be the first time since leaving the ASU program that Brown will coach a game at Boone’s Kidd Brewer Stadium. Needless to say, with three consecutive national championships, a move to the FBS and a win against Michigan in the interim, the facilities have gotten a bit of an upgrade since then.
Who leads the all-time series? The brief, two-game series is tied 1-1. The teams will meet again in Kenan Stadium in 2023.
2022 Result: UNC won, 63-61.
Georgia State
Image via The News & Observer/Robert Willett
When and where? Saturday, September 10 at 12 p.m. in Atlanta.
The last time these teams played? UNC won handily, 59-17, in Kenan Stadium last season. It was the first-ever meeting between the Tar Heels and Panthers.
Atlanta Agony! The more seasoned Carolina football fans will shudder whenever the team takes a road trip down to the Peach State. Indeed, Atlanta has seen quite its fair share of UNC losses, including a humiliating showing against Georgia Tech last season. The Tar Heels have lost 11 of their last 13 games in Atlanta.
Football in a baseball park?! Carolina’s visit to Georgia State will just be one more chapter in the weird history of GSU’s Center Parc Stadium. The stadium was originally built to host the 1996 Summer Olympics, and was then renovated to become Turner Field, home of the Atlanta Braves. Once the Braves moved to Truist Park in 2017, the park formerly known as Turner Field was adapted to host the Panthers, who had recently made the move to the Sun Belt Conference and the FBS.
2022 Result: UNC won, 35-28.
Notre Dame
Image via Associated Press/Carlos Osorio
When and where? Saturday, September 24 at 3:30 p.m. in Chapel Hill.
The last time these teams played? Last season, when the No. 11 Fighting Irish defeated UNC, 44-34, in South Bend.
An Irish Goodbye: Carolina and Notre Dame are playing for the third straight season, but barring another meeting in the postseason, this will be the last game between the two opponents until 2026. The teams are also tentatively scheduled to meet in 2030 and 2036. Do you think tickets are on sale yet?
Eleventh time’s the charm? Notre Dame has won 10 straight games against Carolina going back to 1962, which doesn’t count a vacated UNC win from the 2008 season. The Tar Heels’ last and only official win in the series came in 1960, when Carolina won 12-7 in Chapel Hill.
Welcome to the faaaaaamily: UNC will be hosting Notre Dame in the Irish’s first season under rookie head coach Marcus Freeman, who took over the program after Brian Kelly’s abrupt departure for LSU last year.
2022 Result: Notre Dame won, 45-32.
Virginia Tech
Image via USA Today Sports
When and where? Saturday, October 1 at 3:30 p.m. in Chapel Hill.
The last time these teams played? Last season’s opener, when the Hokies defeated then-No. 10 Carolina 17-10 in a raucous Lane Stadium.
The slimmest of margins: Virginia Tech has won three of the last four meetings with UNC, but those three wins have come by a combined 12 points. A goal-line fumble from Michael Carter swung the 2018 game in the Hokies’ favor, while 2019 saw UNC miss a game-winning field goal and lose in six overtimes.
A long time coming: UNC is attempting to win its second straight home game against the Hokies, something it hasn’t done since 1938. Virginia Tech has dominated the series since joining the ACC, holding a 14-3 advantage. UNC had a win from 2008 vacated.
Who leads the all-time series? Virginia Tech leads the series against UNC, 25-12. The teams have tied six times.
2022 Result: UNC won, 41-10.
Miami
Image via The News & Observer/Ethan Hyman
When and where? Saturday, October 8 at 4 p.m. in Miami.
The last time these teams played? Last season in Chapel Hill, when Carolina used an interception in the final minute to stave off a Hurricanes rally and win, 45-42.
Deja vu? With a hotshot young quarterback, a fresh coaching staff and fan enthusiasm on the rise, the Hurricanes will likely bring a gaudy ranking into the regular season and are viewed as one of the favorites in the Coastal Division. Wait, haven’t UNC fans seen this before…?
The Corey Gaynor Bowl: It will be an emotional game for Gaynor, who will return to Miami for the first time since transferring to UNC in the offseason. Gaynor played for the Hurricanes for five seasons.
What?! Miami has won five national championships (UNC has none), two Heisman trophies (again, UNC has none), produced 42 more first-round picks than Carolina and 21 more consensus All-Americans. And yet, the Tar Heels lead the all-time series, 12-11. That’s not even counting two UNC wins which were vacated. Carolina has won three straight against Miami since Mack Brown’s return, and five of the last seven overall.
2022 Result: UNC won, 27-24.
Duke
Image via USA Today Sports/Jim Dedmon
When and where? Saturday, October 15 at 8 p.m. in Durham.
The last time these teams played? Last season, when UNC throttled Duke, 38-7.
A new era: For the first time since 2007, Duke will not have head coach David Cutcliffe patrolling the sidelines at Wallace Wade Stadium. Cutcliffe retired at the end of last season, and has since been replaced by former Texas A&M defensive coordinator Mike Elko. It’s Elko’s first-ever head coaching job.
BBMF (Better Blue, Mack Feels): That’s certainly true. Brown has won 11 straight games against the Blue Devils after losing his first two, including a 41-0 laugher in Chapel Hill in which Duke head coach Steve Spurrier famously took a team picture in front of the scoreboard. Spurrier left Duke after that season, so Brown never got to exact revenge on the Head Ball Coach. “I still don’t like that picture,” Brown said last year.
Who leads the all-time series? UNC holds the all-time advantage over Duke by a 62-41 margin. There have been four ties.
2022 Result: UNC won, 38-35.
Pittsburgh
Image via USA Today Sports
When and where? Saturday, October 29 at 8 p.m. in Chapel Hill.
The last time these teams played? Last season, when No. 21 Pitt took a wild, 30-23 overtime win at Heinz Field.
“Steel-ing” a win? Anyone who has spoken with Mack Brown since the end of last season knows the Hall of Famer is still bothered by last season’s loss to the Panthers. In fact, Brown listed it among the four most bothersome losses of his 40-year career during a radio appearance last December. Carolina appeared in great position to notch a comeback win, rallying from an early 23-7 hole to trail 23-20 in the final minutes. The Tar Heels had the ball on Pitt’s 2-yard line with 1:13 remaining, but a series of mistakes forced them to kick a field goal on 4th-and-3 instead of scoring a touchdown. “I should’ve gone for the 4th-and-3 at the end,” a rain-soaked Brown said after the game.
Buckle up: It seems whenever the Tar Heels and Panthers play, the game comes down to the wire. The last 10 meetings between the two teams have been decided by seven points or fewer. The last two games, both Pittsburgh wins, went to overtime. The Panthers’ two-game winning streak follows up a six-game UNC winning streak. The Tar Heels won those six games by a combined 26 points.
Who leads the all-time series? Despite the two most recent losses, Carolina still leads the series with the Panthers, 10-5.
2022 Result: UNC won, 42-24.
Virginia
Image via USA Today Sports
When and where? Saturday, November 5 at 12 p.m. in Charlottesville, VA.
The last time these teams played? Last season in a sold-out Kenan Stadium, when UNC took a 59-39 victory.
Reversing the trend: UNC’s win last season broke a four-game Cavalier winning streak in the series. In fact, UNC athletics as a whole had one of their more successful seasons against Virginia in recent memory in 2021-22. The men’s basketball team recorded its first wins against the Cavaliers since 2017. That means a UNC student who enrolled in the fall of 2017 never saw one of the “money sport” teams win in the South’s Oldest Rivalry. For shame!
Shambles in Charlottesville: It’s hard to believe, but the Tar Heels once went 29 years without winning a road game at Virginia. Mack Brown is still winless in Charlottesville’s Scott Stadium, never winning there during his run with UNC in the 1990s and losing 44-41 on Halloween in 2020. Brown lists Carolina’s 1996 loss in Charlottesville as one of the aforementioned four losses that still bother him to this day.
Who leads the all-time series? Carolina holds a relatively slim advantage, 65-58. There have been four ties.
2022 Result: UNC won, 31-28.
Wake Forest
Image via The News & Observer/Robert Willett
When and where? Saturday, November 12 at 7:30 p.m. in Winston-Salem.
The last time these teams played? Carolina picked up its most memorable win of the 2021 season against the Demon Deacons. The Tar Heels took down previously undefeated No. 9 Wake Forest in Kenan Stadium, coming back from a 45-27 deficit to win 58-55.
Is this a conference game? Yes! Carolina and Wake Forest have recently been playing in a series outside of the ACC’s scheduling rotation, which doesn’t count as a conference game for either team. That proved critical to Wake’s Atlantic Division title last season, as its loss to UNC didn’t count against their conference record and helped the Demon Deacons beat out NC State. But this year, the game will count toward both teams’ ACC records.
Who leads the all-time series? UNC leads, 71-36. There have been two ties. The Tar Heels have beaten Wake Forest more than any other opponent in program history.
Georgia Tech
Image via Associated Press/John Bazemore
When and where? Saturday, November 19 in Chapel Hill. Kickoff time TBA.
The last time these teams played? Last season, when the Yellow Jackets crushed UNC, 45-22, in Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
It’s been a while: This season will mark Georgia Tech’s first visit to Kenan Stadium since 2018. The Yellow Jackets and Tar Heels were on track to play in Chapel Hill in 2020, but the pandemic forced UNC to build an alternate schedule for that season. Thus, Carolina will host the Jackets for the first time in four years. 2018 saw Georgia Tech take a 38-28 win over the Tar Heels, just one more setback in what was a miserable final season under head coach Larry Fedora.
Not the stat you deserve, but the stat you need: Carolina and Georgia Tech will meet on November 19. It’s the latest in the calendar year the two teams have ever met, breaking the previous record by a whopping two days.
Who leads the all-time series? Georgia Tech holds a 31-21 advantage over Carolina. There have been three ties.
NC State
Image via Associated Press/Chris Seward
When and where? Friday, November 25 at 3:30 p.m. in Chapel Hill.
The last time these teams played? The Tar Heels held a 30-21 lead with fewer than two minutes remaining, but saw it go up in smoke as NC State scored two touchdowns in 26 seconds to win, 34-30.
Unforgettable: Remember that list of four games which still bothered Mack Brown? Yep, last season’s meeting between the Tar Heels and Wolfpack is on there, too. “I didn’t know what to say to the team after NC State,” Brown said in December. “I’d never seen anything like that.” Quite the statement coming from a guy with 40 years of head coaching experience.
Mack vs. Pack: Brown’s career against NC State got off to a rather inauspicious start: his Tar Heels lost their first five games against the Wolfpack between 1988 and 1992. Three of those losses came by 17 points or more. Brown then won his next seven games against NC State, including two in his second stint in Chapel Hill. He was just a play away from making it eight in a row, but alas.
Who leads the all-time series? Despite last season’s loss, UNC still leads the all-time series with NC State, 68-37. There have been six ties.
Featured image via UNC Athletic Communications/Helen McGinnis
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