In 1988, the first Mack Brown era at North Carolina began with a season-opener against South Carolina.
The 2019 season will begin in similar fashion with Brown launching his second tenure as head coach of the Tar Heel football team against the Gamecocks on Aug. 31 in Charlotte, the UNC Department of Athletics announced Wednesday in a full schedule release.
The Tar Heels hope this callback to the 1980s and 1990s will shed the 5-18 record of the last two seasons and bring football success back to Chapel Hill. With six home games, including a matchup against the defending NCAA National Champion Clemson, the team will have plenty of opportunity for more, and higher profile, wins. Many of those wins can come against teams UNC hasn't played in several years.
After a neutral-site opener against South Carolina, the Tar Heels begin ACC play at home against Miami, who embarrassed UNC last season by forcing six turnovers in a 37-point win.
The Tar Heels can avenge that performance against the Hurricanes, who also have a new head coach, early on in the year before heading to Winston-Salem on Sept. 12 for a Thursday night non-conference game at Wake Forest. The last time UNC played the Demon Deacons was in 2015, when the Tar Heels walked away with a 36-point victory.
The following week, North Carolina will hold a precursor to Clemson at home on Sept. 21, playing Appalachian State at home for the first time since 1940. The week after that, the Tigers will be back in Chapel Hill for the first time in nine years. That year, 2010, also marks the last win for UNC against Clemson.The Tigers will be the first consensus national champion to come to town since Tennessee in 1951.
Following the game against the team that blew out Alabama in the 2019 College Football Playoff National Championship, North Carolina will play two straight road games against Georgia Tech and Virginia Tech.
