2024 UNC football schedule – Syndication Server

UNC football adds coach to unit that needs improvement

The UNC football team will be getting some much-needed coaching help on the special teams staff. Who did the Tar Heels hire on Monday?

We’re still over five months away from the start of college football season, but on Monday, the North Carolina Tar Heels have added another staff member.

And it addresses a unit that struggled in 2023 for the Tar Heels.

Per Inside Carolina, the Tar Heels are adding Eric Mele as a special teams analyst. Mele comes from Mississippi State, where he was the special teams coordinator in the 2022 and 2023 seasons.

In terms of kickoffs and punts, North Carolina was among the ACC’s worst in 2023. They ranked 13th in kickoffs, second-worst among all programs, plus dead-last in punting.

“Put a good gameplan in, hope we can execute, and change the game in a positive fashion,” Mele said about the impact of special teams in an interview last year with 247Sports. “Get us on the board and get that momentum. Special teams is all about momentum, so if we can it in our favor that would be a good deal.”

Mele has a solid kicker to work with in Noah Burnette, who made 19 field goals and all 43 of his extra-point attempts. If Ben Kiernan is healthy for Week 0, Mele will likely spend more time coaching him than Tom Maginness.

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What bowl game is UNC projected to in very early projections?

The UNC football team isn’t projected to make the expanded, 2024 College Football Playoff. Where will the Tar Heels go, exactly?

March Madness is just under a month away – prepare to have all your streaming devices set up, workplace productivity decrease and the only thing coming out of your mouth to be, “How is my bracket doing?”

College football season doesn’t start until six months, on the other hand, but it’s never too early to start making projections.

If there’s been one issue with college football in the past, it’s that the same four teams always seem to make the College Football Playoff. You can count on Alabama, Georgia and either Ohio State or Michigan being there, then one random team.

Good news – that all comes to an end this fall, as the CFP is expanding to 12 teams.

The North Carolina Tar Heels, despite this news, are not projected to make the new CFP. They are still projected to make a bowl game, according to Action Newtork, against ACC newcomer Cal.

UNC is predicted to play in the Tony the Tiger Sun Bowl, home to the UTEP (University of Texas-El Paso) Miners. North Carolina has gone 2-3 in the Sun Bowl overall, with its most recent appearance being a 25-23 loss to Stanford in 2016.

The 2024 Tar Heels squad has a few guarantees: Omarion Hampton will return as arguably the best running back in college football, Kaimon Rucker will be a much-needed presence on an otherwise-subpar defensive unit and Noah Burnette, who shined as a reliable kicking presence when Ryan Coe went out with an injury, should be amongst the top returning kickers.

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Ranking the opponents on UNC’s 2024 football opponents

No football game is easy for the North Carolina Tar Heels. We rank the difficult of their 2024 opponents in this article.

Let’s get one thing settled before we dive into UNC’s football schedule: no game is ever easy for the Tar Heels.

We saw that midway through the 2023 campaign, when North Carolina lost an easy matchup against then-1-win UVA. UNC traveled to Atlanta the following week, facing a Georgia Tech team it also should’ve beaten, but allowed the Yellow Jackets to gain first downs on seemingly every play and score on most of their drives.

On paper, the Tar Heels have a significantly easier schedule this year. They open the season with a tough opponent, playing on the road against a solid, Big 10 program in Minnesota that’s made bowl games in five of its last seven seasons, then return to Chapel Hill and face UNC-Charlotte, NC Central and James Madison. None of those three homes games feature a Power 5 opponent, which could be detrimental when determining future rankings.

UNC in a College Football Playoff ranking? That’s cute – and we’re all Tar Heel fans over here. If North Carolina enjoys any early success in 2024, don’t be surprised to see a signature, late-season collapse.

With the schedule being out, which is very home-heavy early and road-heavy deeper into ACC play, we’re going to rank UNC’s 2024 opponents from toughest to weakest.