A new era awaits the UNC football team in 2024. Gone are the NFL talents of Drake Maye and Sam Howell, and the trio of Max Johnson, Conner Harrell and Jacolby Criswell will fight for the right to replace them. None are currently projected to be NFL draft picks. Still, opportunity awaits this fall: the Tar Heels have one of the easiest schedules in the ACC (based on 2023 results) and play seven games in Kenan Stadium.
Here’s a look at who Carolina will face this season:
Game 1 – Minnesota
Image via Minnesota Athletics/Brad Rempel
When and where? Thursday, August 29 at 8 p.m. Eastern time in Minneapolis.
The last time these teams played? Carolina welcomed Minnesota to Kenan Stadium last September and promptly thrashed the Golden Gophers, 31-13. Receiver Nate McCollum caught 15 passes for 165 yards and a touchdown in the win.
A rare sight: It isn’t often that UNC travels far for its opening game of the season. In fact, the Tar Heels haven’t opened the season with a road non-conference game since 2018, when Carolina traveled to Berkeley to take on then-Pac-12 opponent Cal. UNC lost 24-17 in what turned out to be its final season opener under head coach Larry Fedora. Before that, one has to go back to 2013, when Carolina visited No. 6 South Carolina and lost 27-10. The last time UNC opened the season with a win in a non-conference road game? The year was 1985, when head coach Dick Crum and the Tar Heels earned a 21-19 win at Navy.
Who leads the all-time series? The 2023 meeting, won by Carolina, was the first-ever game between the Tar Heels and Gophers in football.
2024 Result: UNC won, 19-17.
Game 2 – Charlotte
Image via FreezeFrame/Sam Roberts
When and where? Saturday, September 7 at 3:30 p.m. in Kenan Stadium
The last time these teams played? This is the first-ever meeting between UNC and Charlotte in football.
Second time’s the charm: Though this will be the Tar Heels’ first game against the 49ers, the two teams have attempted to play in the past. Charlotte was scheduled to visit Chapel Hill during the 2020 season, but that game was scuttled due to COVID protocols within the Charlotte program.
About time! Charlotte is the newest FBS team in the state of North Carolina, having moved up to college football’s highest subdivision in 2015. As such, the 49ers are the only FBS program in the state to not have played the Tar Heels at least once in program history. That will end on September 7.
2024 Result: UNC won, 38-20.
Game 3 – North Carolina Central
Image via NC Central Athletics
When and where? Saturday, September 14 at 6 p.m. in Kenan Stadium
The last time these teams played? This is the first-ever meeting between UNC and North Carolina Central in football.
Sharing the spotlight: North Carolina Central will be the third HBCU to make a visit to Kenan Stadium in the last decade, after North Carolina A&T did so in 2015 and Florida A&M paid a visit in 2022. “There’s been so much talk and attention toward HBCUs the last couple of years,” Mack Brown said before hosting the Rattlers. “The attention is much better. So I thought it would be great to have this game on national TV.”
Not an automatic win, but… Nobody would call Carolina football consistent, but the Tar Heels have historically been able to assert their will against FCS programs. UNC hasn’t dropped an FCS game in Mack Brown’s second tenure as head coach and hasn’t done so at all since 1999, when Furman trounced Carolina 28-3.
2024 Result: UNC won, 45-10.
Game 4 – James Madison
Image via James Madison Athletics
When and where? Saturday, September 21 at 12 p.m. in Kenan Stadium.
The last time these teams played? UNC last played the Dukes in 2016, when James Madison was still an FCS program. Despite trailing after the first quarter, Carolina won 56-28 in Chapel Hill.
Striking while the iron’s hot: JMU had a historically good season in 2023: the Dukes won their first 10 games (including a road matchup at Virginia), spent time in the AP Top 25 poll and hosted ESPN’s College GameDay on campus. Incredibly, it was only the program’s second season playing FBS football. Even after losing head coach Curt Cignetti to Indiana, JMU is ready to prove its longevity as a Group of 5 menace.
The not-so-Fun Belt: Sun Belt teams like JMU have given the Tar Heels fits of late. No Carolina fan needs a reminder of how the three-game series with perennial SBC contender Appalachian State went, with all three games being decided in the final seconds. Georgia State also proved its mettle against the Tar Heels, making Carolina scratch and claw for a 35-28 win in Atlanta in 2022. The Sun Belt is routinely one of the toughest of the Group of 5 leagues, and UNC will be testing itself against one of the league’s best.
Who leads the all-time series? UNC leads 3-0, but the Tar Heels have not faced JMU since the Dukes transitioned to FBS.
2024 Result: James Madison won, 70-50.
Game 5 – Duke
Image via Associated Press/Chris Seward
When and where? Saturday, September 28 at 4 p.m. in Durham.
The last time these teams played? In Drake Maye’s final home game as a Tar Heel, Carolina outlasted Duke 47-45 in double-overtime in front of a raucous Kenan Stadium.
Keep your friends close… UNC is familiar with Duke’s first-year head coach. Manny Diaz is back in the ACC after spending two years as a defensive coordinator at Penn State, where he coached one of the nation’s top units. Diaz was the head coach at Miami for three seasons, during which time Carolina beat his Hurricanes three straight times. Diaz also served as Mack Brown’s defensive coordinator at Texas, but Brown fired him early in the 2013 season.
…but your enemies closer: Carolina has won each of the last five meetings against the Blue Devils, but three of those games have been decided in the final moments. In 2019, linebacker Chazz Surratt intercepted a pass on the goal line to thwart a potential game-winning touchdown for Duke. The 2022 and 2023 games saw Drake Maye engineer scoring drives in the clutch: Maye hit Antoine Green for a go-ahead touchdown with less than a minute left in 2022, then guided the Tar Heels to the end zone in both overtime periods in 2023.
Who leads the all-time series? Carolina leads the series, 64-41. There have been four ties.
2024 Result: Duke won, 21-20.
Game 6 – Pittsburgh
Image via Pittsburgh Athletics
When and where? Saturday, October 5 at 12 p.m. in Kenan Stadium.
The last time these teams played? UNC scored 21 second-quarter points on its way to a 41-24 road win in the Steel City. It was Carolina’s first win at Pittsburgh since 2017.
A new leaf: The Panthers are looking to rebound from an embarrassing 2023 season which saw them finish 3-9 overall and 2-6 in ACC play. In response, head coach Pat Narduzzi brought in new offensive coordinator Kade Bell from Western Carolina and signed transfer quarterback Eli Holstein from Alabama. Holstein was a highly-touted recruit out of high school: 247 Sports graded him as a four-star prospect and ranked him as the No. 8 quarterback.
Who leads the all-time series? Carolina leads the series 12-5 and has won eight of the last 10 meetings.
2024 Result: Pitt won, 34-24.
Game 7 – Georgia Tech
Image via Associated Press/John Bzemore
When and where? Saturday, October 12 at 12 p.m. in Kenan Stadium.
The last time these teams played? Georgia Tech dealt Carolina a crushing 46-42 loss in Atlanta last season, all but ending the Tar Heels’ ACC title hopes.
Feeling the sting: Georgia Tech has been the stuff of nightmares for UNC football fans, particularly those who enjoy the defensive side of the ball. The Yellow Jackets have won five of the last six meetings with Carolina and have scored at least 33 points in four of those five wins. That includes 45- and 46-point showings in UNC’s last two visits to Atlanta. To make matters worse, each of Carolina’s last three losses to the Jackets have come when the Tar Heels have been ranked and the Jackets have been unranked.
Home sweet home: The home contest with Georgia Tech will mark the last of a six-game stretch in which the Tar Heels will not have to leave the state of North Carolina, or even the Triangle — the only road game is at Duke. It’s not outlandish to say Carolina could be the betting favorite in all six of those games.
Who leads the all-time series? Georgia Tech leads 33-21, having won the last three meetings. There have been three ties.
2024 Result: Georgia Tech won, 41-34.
Game 8 – Virginia
Image via Associated Press/Chris Seward
When and where? Saturday, October 26 at 12 p.m. in Charlottesville, VA.
The last time these teams played? In one of the most stunning losses in UNC football history, the 6-0 Tar Heels fell at home to the 1-5 Cavaliers, 31-27. Carolina would proceed to drop four of its next six games.
Add it to the list: The South’s Oldest Rivalry has a long history of breaking Tar Heel hearts. Virginia has won five of the last seven games in the series, and four of those five Cavalier wins have been decided by seven points or fewer. This is to say nothing of perhaps the series’ most memorable game in 1996, when Carolina lost a 17-3 lead in the fourth quarter and fell 20-17 on a field goal in the final minute. The loss kept the Tar Heels from a major bowl appearance.
Who leads the all-time series: UNC leads 66-59. There have been four ties.
2024 Result: UNC won, 41-14.
Game 9 – Florida State
Image via Florida State Athletics/Susan Erdelyi
When and where? Saturday, November 2 at 3:30 p.m. in Tallahassee, FL.
The last time these teams played? Florida State defeated Carolina 35-25 in Kenan Stadium in 2021, the Seminoles’ second straight win after starting the season 0-4.
Brown’s boogeymen: Mack Brown has been snakebit against his alma mater. No matter how good the Hall of Famer’s Tar Heel teams were in the 1990s, the one foe they could never conquer was head coach Bobby Bowden and the powerhouse Seminoles. Bowden got the better of Brown in six straight seasons between 1992 and 1997. None of those games were decided by single digits, and the average margin of defeat for Carolina was 18 points. Since Brown’s return to Chapel Hill, FSU has won both meetings with the Tar Heels, though the margins have been more respectable: a 31-28 defeat in 2020 and the aforementioned 35-25 loss in 2021.
Who leads the all-time series? Florida State leads 17-3. Ironically enough, two of Carolina’s three wins have come in Tallahassee.
2024 Result: UNC won, 35-11.
Game 10 – Wake Forest
Image via The Daily Tar Heel/Anna Connors
When and where? Saturday, November 16 at 8 p.m. in Kenan Stadium.
The last time these teams played? Carolina survived a frenetic second half and earned a 36-34 victory in Winston-Salem in 2022, clinching an ACC Coastal Division title.
The forgotten rival: Wake Forest is a founding ACC member and one of Carolina’s oldest foes, but the Tar Heels and Demon Deacons haven’t played as often as you might think: this season’s meeting will be just the eighth since 2008. Two of those meetings carried the odd caveat of being non-conference games; the teams had agreed to play outside of the ACC’s scheduling model, and thus the contest wouldn’t count against either’s conference record.
Scheduling quirk: This game against Wake Forest will come after a bye week, the second in the span of a month for the Tar Heels (the first is the week of October 19). Carolina will play just twice between October 12’s game against Georgia Tech and this game against Wake Forest on November 16.
Who leads the all-time series? UNC leads 72-36 and has won three straight games against the Deacons. There have been two ties. Carolina’s 72 wins are the most against any opponent in program history.
2024 Result: UNC won, 31-24.
Game 11 – Boston College
Image via Boston College Athletics/Joe Sullivan
When and where? Saturday, November 23 at 12 p.m. in Chestnut Hill, MA.
The last time these teams played? Carolina held off a late Eagle rally in 2020 by intercepting a potential game-tying two-point conversion pass and returning it for two points of its own. The Tar Heels won 26-22.
The Road Not Taken: Since Boston College became an ACC member in 2005, Carolina has played in Chestnut Hill just twice, and only once when fans were in the stands; 2020’s visit came amid the COVID pandemic. Overall, the Tar Heels have only played the Eagles five times since BC joined the conference, and just once since 2014.
The Departed: Several former Tar Heels will face off against Carolina during the 2024 season, but perhaps none have as much familiarity with the program as tight end Kamari Morales. Morales transferred to Boston College after spending the previous five seasons in Chapel Hill, and he’ll look to burn his former teammates when they make the trek up to New England.
Who leads the all-time series? Carolina leads 6-2 (this number includes UNC’s two vacated wins in 2008 and 2009). The Tar Heels have won the last five meetings.
Game 12 – NC State
Image via Eli Melet
When and where? Saturday, November 30 at 3:30 p.m. in Kenan Stadium.
The last time these teams played? The Wolfpack humiliated the Tar Heels in the regular-season finale in Carter-Finley Stadium, racing out to a 33-7 lead and winning 39-20.
Culture shock: The Wolfpack have not been shy about denigrating their foes from down the road. Linebacker Payton Wilson boasted of NC State’s superior culture after last season’s game, saying “them boys in blue don’t know about it.” Wolfpack head coach Dave Doeren took a similar stance before 2022’s game, saying, “They don’t like us. We hate them. We’re blue collar, they’re elitist. Their coaches talk down to us, they talk behind our backs in recruiting, and negatively about our coaching staff.”
If you can’t beat ’em, sign ’em: Carolina nabbed two former Wolfpack players from the transfer portal this offseason: defensive back Jakeen Harris and defensive lineman Joshua Harris (no relation). Joshua Harris spent the 2023 season at Ole Miss after playing 38 games in Raleigh, while Jakeen missed most of 2023 with an injury. Said Joshua Harris of the NC State-UNC rivalry, “Over there, their main focus is to beat UNC. That’s something I’m trying to spread in [the UNC] locker room.”
Who leads the all-time series? Carolina leads 68-39, though the Wolfpack have won three straight meetings and six of the last eight. There have been six ties.
Featured image via UNC Athletic Communications/Anthony Sorbellini
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Heels won on the road for their season opener against Southern Cal in 1993. Still a long time ago under Mack 1.0, but more recent than the Dick Crum era.
Hey Nathan!
I don’t believe that game counted as a true road game for Carolina. It was part of the annual Pigskin Classic, which was hosted in Anaheim Stadium between 1990 and 1994. Multiple California teams played in it, including Stanford and Fresno State. So while USC obviously was a lot closer to home, it wasn’t technically a “home” game for them. It was classified as neutral-site. Kinda like how UNC played Georgia in a “neutral site” in the Georgia Dome in 2016!