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CHAPEL HILL – Forget how North Carolina closed the regular season. It doesn’t matter anymore.

The losses at home to Georgia Tech and NC State are part of the Tar Heels’ record, and they will remain there in perpetuity. But it means nothing this week, as No. 23 UNC prepares to face No. 9 Clemson for the ACC championship game on Saturday night in Charlotte.

Were the Tar Heels instead getting ready for a thirteenth regular season game, perhaps the lingering effect of how they played in falling to an interim coach and third and fourth-string Yellow Jackets’ quarterbacks and a fourth-string Wolfpack QB could have been an issue. But it’s not.

The best thing about this week for the Heels is the door closed on the regular season last Friday. Up now, a chance to win the program’s first ACC championship in 42 years.

And for that reason, the Tar Heels saw this week as a chance to hit the reset button on their season, as after all, reaching their preseason goals remains a possibility.

“It makes us reset back to normal,” first-team All-ACC wide receiver Josh Downs said Tuesday evening. “We were 9-1, I felt like we were on a high and feeling really good about ourselves. But the last two weeks have been really humbling for the team. Both games came down to the last play, and the cards weren’t in our favor.

“We’re coming into this week working again. We’re hungry for a victory, and we know that we have a big test, knowing that if we win the ACC championship, these last two weeks… would trump that.”

It most certainly would. And while washing away losing to your arch rival at home in double-overtime won't happen, it would mean a championship and a ring, something record-setting quarterback Drake Maye wasn’t even sure the Heels would get if they win at Bank of America Stadium. But they will, upon learning so gave him a big smile.

“It’s a huge opportunity,” said Maye, who this week was named the ACC Player of the Year. “This is what the season’s about, getting to the ACC championship. Chance to play Clemson, we’re all excited. It’s a game in football you want to play in. It was our goal for this season.”

The mood all week around the Kenan Football Center is focus met with a loose disposition. There isn’t any stress on the Heels. They aren’t expected to win, but more so, are playing for something tangible, something lasting, and something for which the other 12 schools in the league are no longer vying.

UNC Coach Mack Brown wants his guys to appreciate being in this game, and t also enjoy the experience.

“Yes, I think so," Brown said, acknowleding the reset mindset. "I told them (about you can’t live off yesterday, win or lose. You’ve got to grow up, gotta mature, and you’ve got to move to the next day. ‘Don’t let anybody talk to you about bad things right now.’ This is one of the best years in school history, and there’s still a lot out there to play for.”

If Carolina disposes of Clemson, it will play in the Orange Bowl for the second time in three seasons. UNC was there in 2020, losing to Texas A&M in a game The Heels led going into the fourth quarter.

That was North Carolina’s first major bowl game in 71 years, and now it’s one win away from its second in three campaigns.

But that isn’t on the players’ minds this week, at least not the nitty gritty of it. Foremost in their thinking is to enjoy the process, to embrace the moment, and have fun, which also means winning.

“I was telling the guys, ‘That left a sour taste in our mouths, but look at the big opportunity we have in front of us, it’s a huge opportunity,’” first-team All-ACC linebacker Cedric Gray said. “ACC championship game versus a very good team like Clemson

“Winning that one would mean a lot for this program; this program hasn’t had one in a long time. So, we have a very, very big opportunity in front of us. Everybody is exciting and focused in on that.”

The past is the past for the Tar Heels, and the present is the present.