CHAPEL HILL – Beginning in 1958, North Carolina visiting Clemson in football every other year was as absolute as the sun coming up.

Over a 46-year span, the Tar Heels ventured into Memorial Stadium 23 times. The Heels went there in the even years, and the Tigers visited Chapel Hill in the odd years. That changed, actually, in 1994 when Carolina hosted Clemson for a second consecutive year.

ACC expansion adding Florida State and moving to an eight-game league slate altered scheduling, but they continued rotating through 2003, when another expansion of the league brought on divisional play. Since then, UNC has been to Clemson just three times, the most recent in 2014, when the Tigers won 50-35. Saturday will be Carolina’s fourth trip to Death Valley in 21 years, as the 20th-ranked Heels and Tigers kick off at 3:30 PM.

So, forgive the team if it brushed up on getting used to hearing “Tiger Rag” blaring this week, as they will hear it over and over Saturday.

“Yeah,” UNC senior linebacker Cedric Gray replied when asked if that part of the Clemson fight song was constantly played at practice this week.

It begs the question: does it work?

“I think the fight song, just listening to the noise and different things like that, I definitely think it helps you get a little bit accustomed to it, and you’re not surprised by it…,” Gray said. “It’s to prep you to get into a mindset that we’re about to go into an environment where it’s just us versus them.”

“Tiger Rag” will be just one of many aspects to the Clemson environment to which the Tar Heels must quickly acclimate themselves. The pomp of a football game in front of 85,000 people, Howard’s Rock, running down the hill, and a resurgent Tigers team playing with the pride of the champion it has been for the last decade make this a gargantuan task for Mack Brown’s team.

The Tigers have won two consecutive games, beating Notre Dame two weeks ago and clobbering a Georgia Tech team last weekend that two weeks earlier defeated the Tar Heels. And, Clemson is 96-9 at home under head coach Dabo Swinney.

“Ninety-six and nine, it’s hard to even say it without looking at it every time,” Brown said during his weekly press conference Monday.

The Hall of Famer hopes to make Swinney, whom Brown calls a future Hall of Famer himself, 96-10. But to achieve that, the Tar Heels must shift course from recent defensive struggles, at least in the fourth quarters of their last four ACC games.

Miami, Virginia, Georgia Tech, and Duke combined for 65 points, 790 yards, and 39 first downs in what amounts to a single full game. Clemson has shown explosiveness of late, and has run the ball better, something the Heels have had trouble stopping late in the aforementioned games.

“What a great challenge for us,” Brown said. “And nobody will think we’re gonna win. Everybody will think Clemson is gonna win. That doesn’t happen around here much anyway, everybody thinks, we’re gonna win all the time. We’re very rarely an underdog, so that’s kind of fun, too.”

Playing in raucous atmosphere should be fun for the Tar Heels, too. Athletes love such stages, and opportunities to do something only a handful of Carolina teams have done: win at Clemson.

UNC’s last win there was a 38-3 romp in 2001, a team that was paced defensively by Julius Peppers. The 1997 Heels, Brown’s last team in his first Carolina stint, won 17-10 there. Legendary Lawrence Taylor made a key play late in a rare UNC win at Clemson in 1980.

Overall, the Tar Heels are 8-23 in Death Valley.

“I know the atmosphere,” said UNC quarterback Drake Maye, who was recruited by Swinney and visited for some games. “They’re a great football school, great football town, great college town. They’re gonna bring some noise and (it’s) just a great opportunity for us to go into a road environment.

“I love playing on the road. I think that’s one of my favorite things, going to a place where it’s rowdy. Looking forward to it.”

And the Heels (8-2, 4-2 ACC) know that the real Clemson will await.

The Tigers have been out of the national polls almost all season, and at one point were 4-4 overall and 2-4 in the ACC. Outside of a surprising 28-7 loss at Duke to open the season, the Tigers’ other three defeats came in overtime to unbeaten Florida State, overtime at Miami, and by a touchdown at NC State.

In that game, the Wolfpack returned an interception for a touchdown and used another to set up a nine-yard scoring drive. State managed just 202 total yards that day. Gray says Clemson is still Clemson.

“I think we’re all used to Clemson being an undefeated, 10-win type of team,” he said. “Obviously, they lost a few games this year. But if you look at the film, they’re still very talented. They’re still a very solid team and they’ve played a lot of teams close to this year.”

And they will pump “Tiger Rag” into the air as loud as can be and more often than most visiting teams and fans care for. It will be loud, Swinney will be supremely fired up and race down the hill to get his guys going, and the Heels will have a massive challenge on their hands.