The Tar Heels 2024 schedule was completed on Wednesday evening when the ACC revealed the conference schedule for the upcoming. Here is a breakdown of the road that the Tar Heels will face in their first season post-Drake Maye.
August 29th: @ Minnesota
The Tar Heels will complete their home-and-home with the Golden Gophers to begin the season. This will be the program’s first ever trip to Minneapolis following the first ever meeting that went their way last year. P.J. Fleck’s squad will be looking to bounce back from a 5-7 season a year ago and they’ll be feeling good about the fact they get to start with a primetime game at home on the opening Thursday night. The Tar Heels will have many questions to answer, as will Minnesota, meaning this one could be sloppy.
September 7th: Charlotte
This will be the first-ever meeting between the two programs since Charlotte began their football program in 2013. The Niners are coming off a rough first season in the American Conference where they were just 3-9 overall and 2-6 in conference. Just like last year, the team will have a bunch of new faces when they kick off the season against James Madison the week prior after another successful portal trip. Even with that, this is still one of the Tar Heels easier games on the schedule.
September 14th: NC Central
This will also be the first meeting all-time between the Tar Heels and Eagles when they face each other in Kenan Stadium in Week 3. The Eagles have won at least nine games in each of the past two years and qualified for the FCS playoffs this past season. As good as the Eagles have been the last two years, this is a game that the Tar Heels should be able to win relatively easily.
September 21st: James Madison
For the first time since 2016, the Tar Heels will meet James Madison and this one will be much different than the previous matchups. The Dukes are now an FBS team and are coming off an amazing 2023 season where they finished 11-2 and made a push for an NY6 appearance as the Group of 5 representative. The good news for the Tar Heels is that there has been a lot of turnover, including head coach Curt Cignetti, who is now at Indiana, but this is a team that still has the potential to be one of the better teams in the Sun Belt this coming season. The Tar Heels cannot take this game lightly of they could get caught here.
September 28th: @ Duke
The Blue Devils are another team that is undergoing a lot of changes this offseason after head coach Mike Elko’s departure led to a mini exodus. Manny Diaz takes over the team and was able to bring a big name in Maalik Murphy out of the transfer portal to take over the starting quarterback job, meaning things might not be as bad as one thought. The Tar Heels have won five straight in this series and should have a good shot to keep that going, especially with how early they catch the Blue Devils on the schedule.
October 5th: Pittsburgh
The Tar Heels have played three of the last four games against the Panthers in Pittsburgh, so it will be good to be able to host them at home this time. The Panthers are coming off a very disappointing 2023 season where they finished 3-9, leading to wholesale changes to the offensive staff. The team got their newest transfer quarterback in Alabama transfer Eli Holstein whom they hope can make them competitive right away, but this is a roster that lost a lot of talent this offseason. This is one that the Tar Heels should be able to take care of at home.
October 12th: Georgia Tech
The Tar Heels have lost three straight to the Yellow Jackets, including a gut-wrenching one in Kenan Stadium in 2022 that completely unraveled that season. The Tar Heels will hope to end that losing streak this season but will have to go through the best team that the Yellow Jackets have had in years to do it. The team does have a good amount of departures to deal with, but the majority of those are on the defensive side of the football meaning the team will boast one of the best offenses in the conference this season. The Tar Heels need this one badly just to get this dark shadow out from over them, but this will be one of the tougher home games of the season.
October 19th: BYE WEEK
This is one of the later byes that the Tar Heels have had in the last couple of years, but it comes at a great time as they prepare to go on the road for two straight.
October 26th: @ Virginia
This is another opponent that most teams in the conference will likely breeze by pretty easily, but the Tar Heels can not. There should be plenty of motivation for the Tar Heels in this one after the Cavaliers walked into Kenan Stadium this past year and pulled an upset that began another collapse in the second half of the season. The Cavaliers did a really good job in the portal this offseason and expect to be competitive, but it’s hard to imagine them finishing in the top half of the league. Still, this game will be a toss-up for the Tar Heels no matter what the records are because of how much this rivalry means to Virginia.
November 2nd: @ Florida State
Much like this past season, the Tar Heels will face a difficult schedule down the stretch and this is the probably most difficult of that stretch. The Seminoles are expected to once again be one of, if not the best, teams in the ACC this season after bringing in D.J. Uiagalelei out of the transfer portal to replace Jordan Travis. There is a lot to replace on both sides of the ball around him, but there are some nice additions in the transfer portal that should allow them to do that and still be a top-15 caliber team by the time this game is played.
November 9th: BYE WEEK
The Tar Heels will have a second bye week in a four week span that should allow them to collect themselves after the trip to Tallahassee. This should also allow this Tar Heel team to be healthy and rested for the final three weeks of the season.
November 16th: Wake Forest
The Tar Heels have won three straight in this series and will hope to continue that this season. This is an offseason of change for a Demon Deacons team that went 4-8 and missed a bowl game for the first time in eight years this past season. There were a lot of departures to the transfer portal in this first transfer window, meaning Dave Clawson has his work cut out for him, but it is hard to believe he won’t be able to find some answers this season. This is another game that the Tar Heels should be able to win, but it could be more of a toss-up if the Demon Deacons can return to what they are used to being under Clawson.
November 23rd: @ Boston College
The Eagles are coming off a nice rebound season after a down 2022 and are hoping to build off of that in 2024. Leading the charge will be quarterback Thomas Castellanos, who will be one of the best in the conference this coming season. The Eagles have done an outstanding job in this first portal window and there will be a lot of production on both sides of the ball that will be returning. The Eagles are setting themselves up nicely to finish top half of the conference and make a run at eight regular season wins for the first time since 2009. This will be an incredibly tough matchup for the Tar Heels, especially when you factor in what the weather conditions could be for this game.
November 30th: NC State
The Tar Heels close out the regular season with what might be the best team in the ACC this coming season. As sickening as it is to say, the Wolfpack have one of the better rosters in the sport heading into the season after a massive haul in the transfer portal. They do have some things that they have to replace on the defensive side of the ball, but with this game being the regular season finale, that doesn’t really matter. The Tar Heels have lost three straight and should be motivated to end this losing streak to their most hated football rival, but that will be a tall task.
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