UNC Football: Tar Heels heading to Charlotte for bowl game

The UNC Football program is staying in the state and will be playing close to home for their final game of the 2021 college football season.

After going 6-6 overall, the Tar Heels are heading to Charlotte to play in the Duke’s Mayo Bowl against South Carolina. The game was announced on Sunday afternoon as part of a full slate of bowl games with the regular season coming to an end.

This will be UNC’s fifth appearance in the bowl game as they enter with a record of 1-3 and their only win coming in 2013 against Cincinnati. Prior to that, UNC dropped games to Boston College, West Virginia and Pitt.

While there were high expectations for the Tar Heels coming into this season and hopes of returning to a New Year’s Six bowl, that quickly vanished. The Tar Heels dropped their season opener at Virginia Tech and then lost games to Georgia Tech and Florida State weeks later.

But there is a positive as they did become bowl eligible in a lost season as things could have become worse. Wins over Duke, Virginia, and Miami in conference play plus a big win over Wake Forest helped them get bowl eligible.

This will also be the second time in the new Mack Brown era that the Tar Heels will face the Gamecocks. UNC opened up the 2019 season in Charlotte against South Carolina and pulled off the upset to kick off the new era.

South Carolina enters the game with an identical 6-6 overall record and went 3-5 in the SEC this season.

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