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:
No. 15: 1971
Record: 9-3 (6-0)
Bowl: Gator Bowl, lost 7-3 to Georgia
Ranking: 18
Coach: Bill Dooley
All-Americans: None
First-Team All-ACC: Lewis Jolley, HB, Paul Miller, QB, Ron Rusnak, OG, Bob Thornton, C, Jerry Sain, OT, Bill Brafford, DE, Bud Grissom, DT, John Bunting, LB, Ken Craven, KS
Honors: Bill Dooley, ACC Coach of the Year
What's To Know: Bill Dooley's first ACC championship team, this was the result seriously hard work and culture changing in Chapel Hill as well as deep within the program. Tough and physical, the Heels perfectly reflected the Old Trench Fighter by playing defense and running the ball physically and right at opponents. Carolina ran the ball 57 times a game averaging 4.3 yards per attempt that season. Smash mouth, big time.
An interesting schedule took them to Illinois in week two (after opening at Richmond), where the Heels notched a 27-0 victory. Carolina sent a message by claiming a pair of shutout road wins to open the season. It then crushed Maryland and won big at N.C. State before losing at home to Tulane, 37-29. The next week was a trip to Notre Dame when Dooley convinced his wounded team they could win. A competitive game ended as a 16-0 loss to the No. 7 Fighting Irish. After that, the Heels cruised, closing with a 38-0 win at Duke before a narrow loss to Georgia in the Gator Bowl.
Dooley changing the program’s and school’s culture, and also somewhat doing the same within the ACC, makes him one of the more important figures in the league’s history, though he remains too unheralded outide of the Old North State. He made football more important at UNC and in the league, and the result was greater resources applied toward the sport around the league.
1972 NFL Draft
3rd Rnd: Lewis Jolley, RB, Oilers (now the Texans)
10th Rnd: John Bunting, LB, Eagles
