Roster
| 1997 North Carolina Tar Heels football team roster | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Offense
| Defense
| Special teams
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| 1997 North Carolina Tar Heels football | |
|---|---|
Gator Bowl champion | |
Gator Bowl, W 42–3 vs. Virginia Tech | |
| Conference | Atlantic Coast Conference |
| Ranking | |
| Coaches | No. 4 |
| AP | No. 6 |
| Record | 11–1 (7–1 ACC) |
| Head coach |
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| Offensive coordinator | Greg Davis (2nd season) |
| Defensive coordinator | Carl Torbush (10th season) |
| Captain | Greg Ellis, Vonnie Holliday, Jonathan Linton, Jeff Saturday, Brian Simmons |
| Home stadium | Kenan Memorial Stadium (capacity: 57,500) |
| Conf | Overall | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Team | W | L | W | L | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| No. 3 Florida State $ | 8 | – | 0 | 11 | – | 1 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| No. 6 North Carolina | 7 | – | 1 | 11 | – | 1 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Virginia | 5 | – | 3 | 7 | – | 4 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| No. 25 Georgia Tech | 5 | – | 3 | 7 | – | 5 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Clemson | 4 | – | 4 | 7 | – | 5 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| NC State | 3 | – | 5 | 6 | – | 5 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Wake Forest | 3 | – | 5 | 5 | – | 6 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Maryland | 1 | – | 7 | 2 | – | 9 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Duke | 0 | – | 8 | 2 | – | 9 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The 1997 North Carolina Tar Heels football team represented the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill during the 1997 NCAA Division I-A football season. The Tar Heels played their home games at Kenan Memorial Stadium in Chapel Hill, North Carolina and competed in the Atlantic Coast Conference. The team was coached by Mack Brown finished the season 11–1 overall, 7–1 in the conference.
At the end of the season, Brown left for the University of Texas at Austin and did not coach in the Gator Bowl victory over Virginia Tech. Carl Torbush, who was the defensive coordinator during the regular season, became the head coach when Brown left. North Carolina credits the regular season to Brown and the Gator Bowl victory to Torbush.
| Date | Time | Opponent | Rank | Site | TV | Result | Attendance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| September 6 | 12:00 p.m. | Indiana * | No. 7 | ESPN2 | W 23–6 | 57,800 | |
| September 13 | 6:00 p.m. | No. 17 Stanford * | No. 7 |
| ESPN2 | W 28–17 | 57,800 |
| September 20 | 12:00 p.m. | at Maryland | No. 6 | JPS | W 40–14 | 30,084 | |
| September 27 | 12:00 p.m. | Virginia | No. 5 |
| ABC | W 48–20 | 57,800 |
| October 4 | 8:05 p.m. | at TCU * | No. 5 | W 31–10 | 29,415 | ||
| October 11 | 12:00 p.m. | Wake Forest | No. 5 |
| JPS | W 30–12 | 57,000 |
| October 18 | 6:00 p.m. | at NC State | No. 4 | ESPN2 | W 20–7 | 51,500 | |
| October 30 | 8:00 p.m. | at Georgia Tech | No. 5 | ESPN | W 16–13 | 45,126 | |
| November 8 | 7:30 p.m. | No. 3 Florida State | No. 5 |
| ESPN | L 3–20 | 62,000 |
| November 15 | 3:30 p.m. | at Clemson | No. 8 | ABC | W 17–10 | 71,514 | |
| November 22 | 12:00 p.m. | Duke | No. 8 |
| JPS | W 50–14 | 53,500 |
| January 1, 1998 | 12:30 p.m. | vs. Virginia Tech * | No. 7 | NBC | W 42–3 | 54,116 | |
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| 1997 North Carolina Tar Heels football team roster | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Players | Coaches | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Offense
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| Special teams
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| Poll | Pre | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | Final |
| AP | 7 (4) | 7 (4) | 7 (4) | 7 (2) | 6 (1) | 5 (2) | 5 (2) | 5 (2) | 4 (2) | 4 (2) | 5 (2) | 5 (2) | 8 | 8 | 8 | 7 | 7 | 6 |
| Coaches Poll | 8 (1) | 8 (1) | 8 (1) | 8 (1) | 7 (1) | 5 (1) | 5 (1) | 5 (1) | 4 (1) | 4 (1) | 5 | 5 | 9 | 8 | 6 | 5 | 5 | 4 |
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| Player | Position | Round | Pick | NFL club | Ref |
| Greg Ellis | DE | 1 | 8 | Dallas Cowboys | [2] |
| Brian Simmons | LB | 1 | 17 | Cincinnati Bengals | [2] |
| Vonnie Holliday | DE | 1 | 19 | Green Bay Packers | [2] |
| Omar Brown | S | 4 | 103 | Atlanta Falcons | [2] |
| Kivuusama Mays | LB | 4 | 110 | Minnesota Vikings | [2] |
| Robert Williams | CB | 5 | 128 | Kansas City Chiefs | [2] |
| Jonathan Linton | FB | 5 | 131 | Buffalo Bills | [2] |
Roy Allen Williams is an American retired college basketball coach who served as the men's head coach for the North Carolina Tar Heels for 18 seasons and the Kansas Jayhawks for 15 seasons. He was inducted into the College Basketball Hall of Fame in 2006 and the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2007.
William Mack Brown is an American college football coach. He is currently in his second stint as the head football coach for the University of North Carolina, where he first coached from 1988 until departing in 1997, when he left Chapel Hill to become head coach for the University of Texas. In 2018, Brown was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame. Two days after Carolina fired Larry Fedora in November 2018, Brown was announced to return as the Tar Heels' head coach after a five-year hiatus from coaching, which he spent as an ESPN analyst.
Paul Hilton "Butch" Davis Jr. is an American football coach. He was most recently the head football coach at Florida International University. After graduating from the University of Arkansas, he became an assistant college football coach at Oklahoma State University and the University of Miami before becoming the defensive coordinator for the Dallas Cowboys of the National Football League (NFL). He was head coach of the University of Miami's Hurricanes football team from 1995 to 2000 and the NFL's Cleveland Browns from 2001 to 2004. Davis served as the head coach of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) Tar Heels football team from 2007 until the summer of 2011, when a series of National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) investigations resulted in his dismissal. He was hired by the NFL's Tampa Bay Buccaneers as an advisor in February 2012.
Jeffrey Bryant Saturday is an American former professional football player and coach in the National Football League (NFL). He played as a center in the NFL, primarily with the Indianapolis Colts. He was a six-time Pro Bowl selection, and won a Super Bowl with the Colts.
Carl William Torbush Jr. was an American American football and baseball coach. He served as the head football coach at Louisiana Tech University in 1987, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill from 1997 to 2000, and East Tennessee State University (ETSU) from 2013 to 2017, compiling a career college football record of 31–48. Outside of football, Torbush was the head baseball coach at Southeastern Louisiana University from 1977 to 1979, tallying a mark of 75–58. Torbush retired from coaching in December 2017.
John Stephen Bunting is a former head American football coach at the University of North Carolina as well as a former National Football League (NFL) player. He was inducted to the Greater Wilmington Sports Hall of Fame in 2016.
Dick Crum is a former American football player and coach. He served as head football coach at Miami University from 1974 to 1977, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (from 1978 to 1987, and Kent State University from 1988 to 1990, compiling a career college football head coaching record of 113–77–4. Crum is a 1957 graduate of Mount Union College in Alliance, Ohio and received a master's degree from Case Western Reserve University.
William Gerald Dooley was an American football player, coach, and college athletics administrator. He served as the head coach at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (1967–1977), Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (1978–1986), and Wake Forest University (1987–1992), compiling a career college football record of 162–126–5.
The North Carolina Tar Heels are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The name Tar Heel is a nickname used to refer to individuals from the state of North Carolina, the Tar Heel State. The campus at Chapel Hill is referred to as the University of North Carolina for the purposes of the National Collegiate Athletic Association. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill was chartered in 1789, and in 1795 it became the first state-supported university in the United States. Since the school fostered the oldest collegiate team in the Carolinas, the school took on the nickname Carolina, especially in athletics. The Tar Heels are also referred to as UNC or The Heels.
The North Carolina Tar Heels football team represents the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in the sport of American football or Gridiron Football. The Tar Heels play in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and are members of the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC).
The 1998 Gator Bowl was a post-season American college football bowl game between the Virginia Tech Hokies from the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University and the North Carolina Tar Heels from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The 53rd edition of the Gator Bowl, it was played at Alltel Stadium in Jacksonville, Florida, on January 1, 1998. The game was the final contest of the 1997 NCAA Division I-A football season for both teams, and ended in a 42–3 victory for North Carolina.
The 2000 North Carolina Tar Heels football team represented the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill as a member of the Atlantic Coast Conference ACC) during the 2000 NCAA Division I-A football season. Led by third-year head coach Carl Torbush, the Tar Heels played their home games at Kenan Memorial Stadium in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. North Carolina finished the season 6–5 overall and 3–5 in ACC play to tie for sixth place. Torbush was fired following the season.
The 1998 North Carolina Tar Heels football team represented the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill during the 1998 NCAA Division I-A football season. The Tar Heels played their home games at Kenan Memorial Stadium in Chapel Hill, North Carolina and competed in the Atlantic Coast Conference. The team was led by head coach Carl Torbush.
The 1999 North Carolina Tar Heels football team represented the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill during the 1999 NCAA Division I-A football season. The Tar Heels played their home games at Kenan Memorial Stadium in Chapel Hill, North Carolina and competed in the Atlantic Coast Conference. The team was led by head coach Carl Torbush.
The North Carolina–NC State football rivalry is an American college football rivalry between the North Carolina Tar Heels football team of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the NC State Wolfpack football team of North Carolina State University. Both universities are members of the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) and are permanent cross-division opponents. North Carolina leads the all-time series 68–38–6 (.634). The Wolfpack have won 5 of the last 7 and 11 of the last 16 in the series. NC State won the most recent contest, 30–27 in double overtime, on November 25, 2022. It is annually anticipated as the biggest college football game in the state of North Carolina. Only twice in the history of the rivalry has the game been contested anywhere beside Chapel Hill or Raleigh. The game has been played 60 times in Chapel Hill, 50 times in Raleigh, and twice in Charlotte, North Carolina. Played uninterrupted since 1953, the game since 1965 has alternated annually between the two respective campuses. Games in odd-numbered years are played in Raleigh at NC State, and even-numbered years in Chapel Hill at UNC.
The 2013 North Carolina Tar Heels football team represented the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill as a member of Coastal Division of the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) during the 2013 NCAA Division I FBS football season. The team was led by second-year head coach Larry Fedora and played their home games at Kenan Memorial Stadium. The Tar Heels finished the season 7–6 overall and 4–4 in ACC play to place fifth in the Coastal Division. They were invited to the Belk Bowl, where they defeated Cincinnati.
The 1946 North Carolina Tar Heels football team was an American football team that represented the University of North Carolina in the Southern Conference during the 1946 college football season. In their fourth year under head coach Carl Snavely, the Tar Heels compiled an 8–2–1 record, won the conference title, and outscored opponents by a total of 271 to 129. They ranked ninth in the final AP Poll and were invited to the school's first bowl game, the 1947 Sugar Bowl, which they lost to Georgia.
The 1971 North Carolina Tar Heels football team represented the North Carolina Tar Heels of University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill during the 1971 NCAA University Division football season. The Tar Heels were led by fifth-year head coach Bill Dooley and played their home games at Kenan Memorial Stadium. North Carolina won the Atlantic Coast Conference with a perfect conference record of 6–0. They were invited to the 1971 Gator Bowl, where they lost to Georgia.
