Heels Looking to Buck the Trend Versus Jackets In ATL
CHAPEL HILL – North Carolina visits Georgia Tech on Saturday night looking to do something few Tar Heels teams have done in Atlanta in a long time: win.
UNC has lost 10 of its last 12 games to the Yellow Jackets in Atlanta, with 11 of the games played on campus at Bobby Dodd Stadium, and the other at Mercedes-Benz Stadium two years ago.
This stretch happens to mark the period beginning after Carolina Coach Mack Brown left Chapel Hill the first time at the end of the 1997 season. His last Tar Heels club won at Tech 16-13.
“Georgia Tech is a game that has been tough for us,” Brown said this week. “We've lost two out of three since I've been here. We did win at Bobby Dodd Stadium our first year here, but Atlanta hasn't been good to the Tar Heels.”
Carolina was 9-1 a year ago, ranked No. 13 in the nation, and suddenly getting plenty of attention when it blew a 17-0 lead at home to the Yellow Jackets, falling 21-17.
Yet, the game pitting 17th-ranked UNC at Georgia Tech on Saturday night is more the focus, with the Tar Heels’ long period of futility there an underlying theme.
“We’ve lost 10 of 12,” Brown said. “Hear me now, we’ve lost 10 of the last 12 games in Atlanta to Georgia Tech. So. everybody thinks we’ve got Miami’s number (five straight wins) because we’ve beaten them five times in a row. Well, Georgia Tech’s had North Carolina’s number, and before I got here, in Atlanta.”
UNC is 1-1 at Tech since Brown returned, and it hopes to reach 2-1, as the Heels are still in position of reaching the ACC championship game, but that task would be made significantly more difficult with another loss at Tech.
The Heels are 6-1 overall and 3-1 in the ACC, the Yellow Jackets are 3-4 and 2-2. But they do own wins at Wake Forest and Miami, so they have played well in spurts this season.
As for that Carolina-at-Tech history, below are a series of statistics noting the mostly the last 24 years. This offers more insight not just into UNC’s issues versus GT in Atlanta, but versus the Jackets overall:
*UNC has lost 10 of its last 12 games at Georgia Tech
*UNC has lost four of the last five meetings: Two in Atlanta and two in Chapel Hill. In fact, Carolina has not beaten the Yellow Jackets inside Kenan Stadium since 2016.
*UNC has split its last four trips to Georgia Tech, winning in 2015 and 2019, losing in 2017 and 2021.
*Dating back to 1985, Carolina is 5-14 versus Georgia Tech in Atlanta
*Since Brown left UNC, beginning with the 1998 seasons, the Tar Heels are 6-18 versus the Yellow Jackets home and away.
*In Brown’s 10-year first stint at Carolina, the Tar Heels were 6-3-1 versus Tech, with the tie coming in 1990, which was the only blemish on Tech’s record that season. The Jackets won a share of the national title that year as well.
*Brown’s Tar Heels went 3-2 versus Tech in Atlanta, and in his second stint, UNC is 1-1. So, under Brown, UNC is 4-3 versus Georgia Tech in Atlanta, the rest of Carolina’s coaches in that span are 1-9.
*In UNC’s 38-31 win over Tech at Bobby Dodd Stadium in 2015, the Tar Heels trained 21-0 before roaring back for what remains the largest deficit in a victory overcome ever in Carolina program history.
*In UNC’s 10 losses over the last 12 games versus Georgia Tech in Atlanta, the average score has been Jackets 31.9, Heels 19.9.
*The average score in Carolina’s two wins in that same 12-game span has been UNC 38, GT 26.5.
*The highest scoring game in the 24-year span in which UNC is 6-18 versus Tech was a 68-50 Tar Heels victory in Chapel Hill in 2012. It remains the highest scoring ACC game ever played.
*The lowest scoring game in the 24-year span in which UNC is 6-18 versus Tech was a 7-0 GT win in Chapel Hill in 2006.