There are less than three weeks to go until UNC opens its 2025 season against TCU in Kenan Stadium. The game has been sold out for weeks, and ESPN will broadcast it live to a national audience. Dignitaries such as former Alabama head coach Nick Saban will be on-hand for a special pregame show live from the Kenan sidelines.
With the substantial investment from the university into head coach Bill Belichick and the football program, the TCU game is set to be one of the most important in team history. But it’s far from the first time the Tar Heels have stepped into the spotlight in Week 1.
Here’s a look at some other notable opening games from UNC football lore:
2021: Virginia Tech 17, UNC 10
Virginia Tech’s Raheem Blackshear (5) runs while pursued by North Carolina’s Ja’Qurious Conley (0) and Eugene Asante (7) during the first half of an NCAA college football game Friday, September 3, 2021, in Blacksburg, Va. (Image via Associated Press/Matt Gentry)
As hard as it is to believe now, the 2021 Tar Heels carried a preseason No. 10 ranking into their opening-night game at Virginia Tech. Expectations were sky-high for a team which reached the Orange Bowl the previous season and returned star quarterback Sam Howell. But in front of a raucous Lane Stadium crowd – the first full-capacity crowd since COVID regulations were lifted – UNC wilted. Carolina scored only one touchdown and Howell threw three interceptions, including one with 37 seconds left which sealed the Hokie victory. It was just the start of a free fall for the highly-ranked Tar Heels, who finished the year 6-7.
2019: UNC 24, South Carolina 20
UNC’s Beau Corrales (15) hauls in a touchdown pass from Sam Howell during the Tar Heels’ game against South Carolina in Charlotte in 2019. (Image via UNC Athletic Communications/Jeffrey A. Camarati)
The first game of head coach Mack Brown’s second stint in Chapel Hill was a thriller. Taking on South Carolina at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, the Tar Heels rallied from an 11-point deficit in the fourth quarter on the strength of a pair of touchdown passes from true freshman quarterback Sam Howell. The UNC defense held the Gamecocks scoreless for the entire fourth quarter, nabbing two interceptions in the final minutes to ice the win. It was UNC’s first win against a non-ACC, power-conference foe since 2016.
2016: Georgia 33, UNC 24
UNC’s T.J. Logan (8) runs against Georgia in 2016. (Image via UNC Athletic Communications)
The Tar Heels faced Georgia in the Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta to begin the 2016 season. In retrospect, it was an intersection of two programs headed in opposite directions: UNC head coach Larry Fedora was entering the twilight of his Carolina tenure, while Georgia’s Kirby Smart was coaching his first game in charge of the Bulldogs. UNC led 24-14 in the second half, but the Dawgs rattled off 19 unanswered points to win going away.
2010: LSU 30, UNC 24
LSU’s Patrick Peterson (7) returns a punt for a touchdown against UNC in 2010. (Image via LSU Athletics)
As in 2016, UNC traveled to the Georgia Dome for a showcase kickoff game to begin the 2010 season. The Tar Heels and LSU both entered the evening ranked, though UNC was dealing with the off-the-field story to end all off-the-field stories: multiple Tar Heel starters would not play in the game due to an NCAA investigation into potential violations within the football program. Despite all that, UNC nearly pulled off the unthinkable, rallying from a 20-point deficit in the fourth quarter to within six in the final seconds. The Tar Heels faced a fourth-and-goal from the Tigers’ six-yard line, but quarterback T.J. Yates’ pass fell incomplete as time expired.
1998: Miami (Ohio) 13, UNC 10
Miami kicker John Scott (7) celebrates his team’s upset win at Kenan Stadium in 1998. (Image via Miami Athletics)
The post-Mack Brown era began with a whimper for the Tar Heels. Following Brown’s departure for Texas at the end of the 1997 regular season (UNC played its bowl game without Brown), Carolina nonetheless carried a preseason No. 12 ranking into its opening game against Miami (Ohio) in 1998. But after starting quarterback Oscar Davenport left after just four plays with an injury, UNC’s offense fell apart, going scoreless for the entire second half. The RedHawks tied the game late in the fourth quarter, then got the ball back and kicked a game-winning field goal with one second remaining. UNC would fall out of the rankings immediately, while Miami finished the year 10-1 overall.
1996: UNC 45, Clemson 0
UNC’s L.C. Stevens (5) scores a touchdown against Clemson at Kenan Stadium in 1996. (Image via 247 Sports)
Lee Pace writes this in his book “Football in a Forest,” which chronicles the history of Kenan Stadium: “For two decades forward from the early 1970s, no school inflicted more misery, frustration and physical and emotional wreckage to the Tar Heels than the Clemson Tigers.” Entering the 1996 season opener, Clemson had won 13 of the last 15 meetings with UNC, with six of those wins coming by at least 15 points. But the 1996 game in Chapel Hill would be a different story. The Tar Heels led 10-0 after the first half and then blew the doors off in the second. A punishing defense held Clemson to just 91 total yards of offense – 1.8 yards per snap – and didn’t let the Tigers cross midfield in the entire second half. The 45-0 trouncing kicked off an awesome two years of UNC football, during which time the Tar Heels amassed a 21-3 overall record.
1993: UNC 31, USC 9
The Disneyland Pigskin Classic invited the 20th-ranked Tar Heels out to Anaheim Stadium to begin the 1993 season against No. 18 USC. While UNC would be traveling across the country, the Trojans would be enjoying home cooking at “The Big A,” located just about 30 miles from the USC campus. It didn’t matter. The Tar Heels, playing as nine-point underdogs, used an option offensive attack to bamboozle the Trojan defense and romp to an easy victory, kicking off a 1993 season which would see UNC ranked every week. The Tar Heels finished 10-3, completing their first 10-win season since 1981.
1982: Pittsburgh 7, UNC 6
Dan Marino vs. the Tar Heels? Yes, it really happened. On the heels of a 10-2 season in 1981 and just two years removed from an ACC title in 1980, UNC entered the 1982 season as national title hopefuls. Standing in their way in Week 1 would be the top-ranked Pitt Panthers, led by the future Hall of Famer Marino at quarterback. But the UNC defense did more than enough against Marino, picking him off four times and holding the Panthers scoreless in the first half. Unfortunately for the Tar Heels, star running back Kelvin Bryant and the offense never found their footing in Pittsburgh’s Three Rivers Stadium. After UNC carried a 3-0 lead into halftime, Marino finally got the Panthers on the board with a third-quarter touchdown pass, and Carolina couldn’t rally. As it turned out, neither team matched the preseason hype: UNC ended the year 8-4, while Pitt lost three of its last five games to finish 9-3.
1948: UNC 34, Texas 7
UNC players carry head coach Carl Snavely off the Kenan Stadium field after beating Texas. (Image via UNC Library)
Without this emphatic victory against Texas in 1948, UNC would still be among the unhappy few programs in major college football who have not risen to No. 1 overall in the AP Poll. The Tar Heels buried the Longhorns early, leading 21-0 in the first quarter, then putting the game away with a pair of touchdowns in the fourth. Program legend Charlie “Choo Choo” Justice accounted for four total touchdowns (two passing, two rushing) in the win. “To this day,” writes UNC archivist Stephen Fletcher, “there are many old Tar Heels (like me) who say this was UNC’s greatest Kenan Stadium win.”
After victories at Georgia and Wake Forest the following weeks, UNC was voted No. 1 for the first and only time on October 11, 1948. Though UNC won its next game against NC State, the Tar Heels fell to No. 3 in the next poll and never got back to No. 1. Carolina finished the season 9-1-1 overall, the only blemishes being a 7-7 tie against William & Mary and a 14-6 loss to No. 5 Oklahoma in the Sugar Bowl.
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