CHAPEL HILL - There was a prevailing message emanating from the Kenan Football Center on Monday afternoon, and it had to do with the Ramblin' Wreck from Georgia Tech:

That O-fer streak everyone keeps talking about doesn't mean anything.

In other words, UNC hasn't won at Georgia Tech since 1997, a span of eight games, but the message from the Tar Heels is none of that matters. This is a new season with a new team, and this is also a new opportunity.

"It's not something we talk about as a team and won't be something that I address with them because the 2015 team hasn't ever lost in Atlanta," UNC coach Larry Fedora said. "We're a different football team."

And it's not coming from just the coach. There might be a reason two of the team's most veteran, media savvy, and articulate players were presented to the media for Monday's weekly press conference advancing the next opponent given the nature of this game and the somewhat-recent history attached to it.

Senior offensive guard Landon Turner and senior linebacker Jeff Schoettmer have been down this road before and they certainly knew what to say about this game. After all, it's the third one the program will play at The Flats since each arrived on campus as football Heels.

"I don't really think about it," Turner said. "The past is the past, this season is different, each season is always different… Different players, different approaches.

"You can't really get hung up on the past when you're preparing for the future as far as results. You can look back and see what worked and didn't work, but I don't think it should go any further than that."

Carolina last won at Bobby Dodd Stadium in 1997, a 16-13 decision on a Thursday night that improved the Tar Heels' record to 8-0, thrust them to the No. 4 spot in the national rankings, and set up the most important football game ever played in Chapel Hill. That "Judgement Day," as ESPN proclaimed, didn't go so well for the Heels, as they fell to Florida State.

And since, UNC hasn't won at Georgia Tech, though the Heels have usually been competitive down there. Only two of the defeats have come by more than a touchdown, and those weren't colossal disasters either: 41-24 in 2003 and 24-7 in 2009.

The average score during the 8-game streak: Georgia Tech 30.1, UNC 21.3. Carolina has been competitive, it just hasn't gotten over the hump.

But in the grand scheme of things, that doesn't matter this week.

The Tar Heels have been incrementally preparing for the Yellow Jackets' unique triple option offense since camp opened in August. Mostly film, discussion, and showing some stuff in person has been as far as the staff has gone through this past week, using the last few Sundays to get a little of it on the practice field.

That didn't change this past weekend, thus full Georgia Tech prep begins Tuesday.

"It was still a Sunday for us because there's no way we as coaches would have been prepared to do everything we need to do for a full practice after playing on Saturday," Fedora said.

They did tilt the wheel in the Jackets' direction more than usual, though.

"We probably were a little bit more extensive with not as many corrections on defense and going ahead and getting right in to Georgia Tech," Fedora said.

And in the end, all that matters is this one game. These Tar Heels will be in the moment and have no plans on carrying the burden of the last 18 years on their collective shoulders, as Schoettmer explained.

"This is a huge game in the sense that this is our first ACC game and we're trying to get our first ACC win in our race to win the Coastal Division."