Dec. 12, 2000

Chapel Hill, N.C. ----- The Atlantic Coast Conference released the 2001 football schedule on Tuesday and the Tar Heels face one of their most challenging schedules in recent years highlighted by home games versus Southern Methodist, Florida State, East Carolina, Virginia, Wake Forest and Duke. The Tar Heels travel to Maryland, Texas, NC State, Clemson and Georgia Tech. Seven of the 11 teams on UNC's schedule are in bowl games this season.

"It certainly is a challenging schedule, but I look forward to facing and conquering many challenges in my first year at Carolina," said Head Coach John Bunting. "We have a terrific home schedule and some tough tests on the road. The ACC is always one of the top conferences in the country and that will again be the case in 2001. It should be an exciting year for our fans."

Carolina opens the year with consecutive road games at Maryland on Sept. 1 and at Texas on Sept. 8. It will be just the fourth time in school history and first time since 1992 at Wake Forest that the Tar Heels have started the season with a conference road game. (1967 and 1969 at NC State are the others). Carolina's game at Texas will be the first against the Longhorns since a 35-31 loss in the Sun Bowl on December 30, 1994. The Tar Heels are 3-4 all-time versus Texas and have not played in Austin since 1951.

Carolina opens its home slate with back-to-back contests versus Southern Methodist on Sept. 15 and Florida State on Sept. 22. The Tar Heels are 1-0 against SMU with a 28-24 road win in 1994.

East Carolina comes to Chapel Hill for the ninth time overall and the first time since 1981. Carolina is 6-1-1 against the Pirates, including a 56-0 victory in the most recent 1981 meeting. All eight previous meetings have been played in Kenan Stadium.

2001 Football Schedule

Sat.  Sept. 1  TBA Maryland            College Park, Md.
Sat.  Sept. 8  TBA Texas               Austin, Texas
Sat.  Sept. 15 TBA Southern Methodist  Chapel Hill
Sat.  Sept. 22 TBA Florida State       Chapel Hill
Sat.  Sept. 29 TBA NC State            Raleigh, N.C.
Sat.  Oct. 6   TBA East Carolina       Chapel Hill
Sat.  Oct. 13  TBA Virginia            Chapel Hill
Sat.  Oct. 20  TBA Clemson             Clemson, S.C.
Thur. Nov. 1   TBA Georgia Tech        Atlanta, Ga.
Sat.  Nov. 10  TBA Wake Forest         Chapel Hill
Sat.  Nov. 17  TBA Duke                Chapel Hill