UNC’s 2021 football schedule is out. Here’s who the Tar Heels play.
The ACC revealed the full schedule for arguably the most-anticipated football season in North Carolina history along with the rest of the league’s schools Thursday on the ACC Network’s “Packer and Durham” show.
The Tar Heels are looking to improve off their 8-4 record and the school’s first-ever Orange Bowl appearance. They open at Coastal Division foe Virginia Tech, where they have only won once since 2010.
Here’s what we know about UNC’s schedule:
UNC’s four nonconference games include two that counted in ACC league play last season. The Heels travel to South Bend, Indiana, on Oct. 30 to take on Notre Dame, which lost to Alabama in the College Football Playoff semifinals last season.
UNC will also play Wake Forest at home on Sept. 25, but the outcome will not count in league standings. The game was arranged because division play has made the in-state rivalry game take place once every seven years. Carolina played in Winston-Salem in 2019 in a non-conference game. The only reason the team’s played last season, a 59-53 shootout won by UNC, was after the ACC revamped its schedule due to the pandemic.
Carolina will also play host to Group of 5 opponent Georgia State and have a late-season game against Football Championship Subdivision foe Wofford.
Get your popcorn ready
The Fighting Irish will again be a top-15 team when the season starts and enough eyes will be viewing the game nationally that a win in South Bend could be the kind of game that could launch Sam Howell’s Heisman Trophy campaign and define the Heels’ season. Carolina was tied with Notre Dame in the fourth quarter before losing 31-17 last season.
The road to the Coastal Division title goes through...
Miami could be the best conference foe the Heels face in the regular season. The Hurricanes were projected as a top 25 team before quarterback D’Eriq King tore an anterior cruciate ligament in his knee during their Cheez-It Bowl loss to Oklahoma State.
The Canes will get two weeks to prepare for the Heels because their Thursday night game against Virginia on Sept. 30 is followed with an open week on Oct. 9.
Carolina’s 62-26 win over Miami last season was what helped position it for the Orange Bowl berth. A win over the Canes next season could ultimately lead to a berth in the ACC Championship game.
Toughest stretch
Carolina was supposed to play Notre Dame and Miami in consecutive games last season, but because of postponed games for COVID, its game with the Canes got moved back a week. UNC squeezed in a matchup with Western Carolina, which replaced its canceled game with Charlotte.
This season the Heels, the Heels get Miami first and will have an open date before taking on the Irish. It could again end up being games against top 10 opponents.
Potential for a head-scratching loss
Carolina’s loss at Florida State last season was the one game it looked back on with the most regret. The Heels were ranked No. 5 at the time and the Seminoles were in the middle of their season-long backpedal. The upset the Heels have to avoid next season is right down I-40 East.
It wouldn’t be surprising if N.C. State has Howell’s words after last season’s 48-24 win hanging somewhere in its weight room, like in a highly-visible location so the Wolfpack players could see it every day they work out.
Howell, responding to a N.C. State hype video, said, “that’s more just to give them some false confidence before the game,” and “we know what a ram is to a wolf, I think we saw it out there today. It could have been a lot worse than it was.”
The Pack have dropped the last two games to UNC by an average of 27.5 points. They will be plenty motivated to knock the Heels off in Raleigh.
North Carolina‘s 2021 football schedule
Sept. 2/3 -- at Virginia Tech
Sept. 11 -- vs. Georgia State
Sept. 18 -- vs. Virginia
Sept. 25 -- at Georgia Tech
Oct. 2 -- vs. Duke
Oct. 9 -- vs. Florida State
Oct. 16 -- vs. Miami
Oct. 30 -- at Notre Dame
Nov. 6 -- vs. Wake Forest*
Nov. 11 -- at Pitt
Nov. 20 -- vs. Wofford
Nov. 26 -- at N.C. State
* -- non-conference game
This story was originally published January 28, 2021 at 7:25 AM with the headline "UNC’s 2021 football schedule is out. Here’s who the Tar Heels play.."