Our series ranking the 20 best UNC football teams of all time continues today. Once this series concludes, we will rank the best UNC basketball teams of all time. This concludes our series:

Record: 11-1 (6-1 ACC)

Bowl: Gator Bowl, beat Virginia Tech 42-3

Ranking: 4

Coach: Mack Brown

All-Americans: Dre' Bly (DB); Greg Ellis (DE); K Mays (LB); Brian Simmons (LB)

First-Team All-ACC: Dre’ Bly DB; Greg Ellis FE; Vonnie Holliday DL; Robert Williams DB; Kivuusama Mays LB; Jeff Saturday C.

Honors: Greg Ellis, finalist Lombardi Award; K Mays, finalist Butkus Award; Brian Simmons, semifinalist Butkus Award; Dre' Bly, finalist Nagurski Award, finalist Thorpe Award

What's To Know: The '97 Heels were perhaps the most talented team is school history. Loaded on defense with plenty on offense, this team was one game away from playing for the national championship. But a 20-3 home loss to Florida State in the biggest game on what the national media dubbed "Judgment Day" that season in college football doomed the Heels' hopes. That was also the only time UNC has hosted ESPN GameDay in football.

And, like has been the case so often in Carolina's football history, the loss to FSU was emblematic of what has so often happened when UNC has climbed onto the sport's biggest stage. But that shouldn't take away from just how good this club was.

Overall, only two teams scored more than 14 points against the Heels, but they held a respectable quartet of nonconference opponents - Indiana, Stanford, TCU and Virginia Tech – to 36 total points. The best win was a 48-20 decision over Virginia. The Tar Heels trailed 20-3 before exploding for 45 unanswered points. That game, incidentally, was the one in which referee Jim Knight suffered a heart attack on the field in the second quarter. He was revived on the field and later would return to officiating.

The next best win was a 42-3 demolition of the Hokies in the Gator Bowl, which occurred six years before Tech joined the ACC. That game also came nearly a month after Mack Brown left for the Texas job, so Carl Torbush, Brown's defensive coordinator at UNC, was the head coach and ran the team from the press box.

Here are some names for fans to recall: Oscar Davenport; Chris Keldorf; Jonathan Linton; Na Brown; L.C. Stevens; Alge Crumpler; Jeff Saturday; Dre' Bly; Greg Ellis; K Mays; Brian Simmons; Omar Brown; Robert Williams; and Vonnie Holliday to name some.

Some people may advance the '96 as better, but it lost twice, including the implosion at Virginia. This team, which was ranked among the top 8 all season and as high as No. 4, knew what to do and simply went out each week - but once - and took care of business, remaining in the top-10 all season.

1st Rnd: Greg Ellis, DE, Cowboys

1st Rnd: Brian Simmons, LB, Bengals

1st Rnd: Vonnie Holliday, DT, Packers

4th Rnd: Omar Brown, DB, Falcons

4th Rnd: Kivuusama Mays, LB, Vikings

5th Rnd: Robert Williams, DB, Chiefs

5th Rnd: Jonathan Linton, RB, Bills

1997 Results