UNC Football: Tar Heels release 2019 schedule
By Zack Pearson
The 2019 UNC Football schedule has been released by the Atlantic Coast Conference as the Tar Heels will open up ACC play in early September
While it’s still basketball season on the campus of the University of North Carolina, there’s some excitement surrounding the football program as well.
Mack Brown is returning for another stint as head coach after the program announced the firing of Larry Fedora back in November. The hiring of Brown has brought some excitement to the program and he’s been able to turn a 2019 recruiting class that was ranked 90th into a Top 40 one during the Early Signing Period.
Brown still has a lot of work to do to get this program back on the right track but he’s off to a great start.
On Wednesday, the Atlantic Coast Conference released the 2019 football schedule for each team as we are just months away from kickoff. We already knew part of UNC’s schedule with the non-conference opponents set, but now we know when and where UNC will take on ACC opponents.
The Tar Heels will open up the new Mack Brown era with a showdown against South Carolina in Charlotte on August 31st in the Belk College Kickoff. The game will be played at Bank of America Stadium, home of the Carolina Panthers.
From there, UNC’s schedule gets tougher in September.
They will open up ACC play by hosting Miami on September 7th, the first time they have hosted the conference opener in Week 2 since 2003.
Following that game, they will travel down the road to take on Wake Forest in a Thursday night showdown. This will be a non-conference game for the two teams as they scheduled a home-and-home series a few years back. With ACC expansion, UNC and Wake do not play each other every season like they did in years past, so they were allowed to schedule a non-conference game against a conference opponent.
The Tar Heels end September by hosting the defending national champion Clemson Tigers at Kenan Memorial Stadium on September 28th.
UNC’s first game out of the state of North Carolina will come on October 5th when they play at Georgia Tech. That game is followed by a bye then a road game at Virginia Tech on October 19th.
The Duke Blue Devils come to Chapel Hill on October 26th. Duke has won the previous three matchups with UNC dating back to 2016.
UNC will end its season in Raleigh, taking on NC State on Nov. 30.
Check out the full schedule below:
Aug. 31 vs. South Carolina (Belk College Kickoff , Charlotte, N.C.)
Sept. 7 MIAMI
Sept. 12 at Wake Forest (Thurs.) (non-conference)
Sept. 21 APPALACHIAN STATE
Sept. 28 CLEMSON
Oct. 5 at Georgia Tech
Oct. 19 at Virginia Tech
Oct. 26 DUKE
Nov. 2 VIRGINIA
Nov. 14 at Pitt (Thurs.)
Nov. 23 MERCER
Nov. 30 at NC State
The Tar Heels will have two Thursday night games, playing both on the road at Wake Forest and Pitt. UNC’s lone two ACC wins over the past two years have come against Pitt.
For more on the UNC Football program including the Spring Game, please check back with Keeping It Heel.