Historical Coaching Matchup Sets Scene for Clemson’s Visit to UNC

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — Coming off last week’s bye on the schedule, North Carolina begins its ACC league slate by playing host to Clemson on Saturday at Kenan Stadium (noon, ESPN).

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The Tar Heels (2-2) and Tigers (1-3 overall, 0-2 ACC) are facing off here in Chapel Hill for just the third time since 2002. These two programs will tangle on a football field for the 61st meeting in the series that dates to 1897. Clemson leads 40-19-1 all-time against UNC and has won nine of the last 10 matchups, including six in a row since the Tar Heels’ last series victory in 2010.

Clemson is under the direction of veteran coach Dabo Swinney, who’s in his 17th full season at the helm, after seven games as the interim coach in 2008. The Tigers have piled up a record of 181-50 and seven College Football Playoff appearances with Swinney in the top job, a run highlighted by the claiming of nine ACC titles and two national championships. Clemson is 109-26 in ACC league games under Swinney.

Clemson won last season’s ACC championship game on a 56-yard field goal at the final horn, and entered this season projected as the runaway choice to capture the 2025 conference crown. But the Tigers have suffered a surprisingly poor start, with losses to LSU, Georgia Tech and Syracuse by the third weekend in September.

Two weeks ago, Syracuse built a 24-7 lead in the first half on the way to delivering a 34-21 upset on the road at heavily favored Clemson, the first-ever victory for the Orange in Death Valley. Clemson meets UNC trying to avoid losing a third consecutive game for the first time since the 2010 season. Here are more key areas of note about the Tigers.

Clemson QB Stuck in Slow Start

Carolina supporters surely remember the first time Clemson quarterback Cade Klubnik broke out beneath the national spotlight. In the 2022 ACC championship game against Drake Maye and the Tar Heels, Klubnik replaced DJ Uiagalelei after a rough start for the Tigers. Then, the true freshman led Clemson to a 39-10 blowout victory that night, while passing for 279 yards and accounting for two touchdowns to earn Most Valuable Player honors.

This season, tabbed as the ACC’s Preseason Player of the Year, Klubnik has seen a drop in production from his superb performance in 2024. He threw for 3,639 yards and 36 touchdowns last season, and added 463 rushing yards and seven more touchdowns on the ground.

But through four games this season, Klubnik is on pace to finish with 15 fewer touchdown passes. He has thrown for six scores and has been picked off four times, which already nearly matches his interception total from last season. He’s completing a career-low 60.1 percent of his passes. Opposing defense also have held Klubnik in check on the ground. He has run for 60 yards on 34 carries this season, a considerable dip from the 33.1 rushing yards he averaged per game last season on the same number of attempts (8.5 carries per game in both 2024 and 2025).

When asked specifically about the challenges Klubnik and Clemson’s offense pose for a defense, UNC linebacker Khmori House responded confidently this week.

“Nothing,” House said Tuesday. “We’ve just got to handle our business. … They do what they do. We’re going to do what we do, and we’ve just got to play harder than them.”

Extra Prep Time for Both Teams

Saturday’s matchup comes at potentially pivotal points in the season for both Clemson and UNC, with both teams returning from bye weeks on their schedules that allowed for extra recovery and preparation time.

“A good open date for us and much needed,” Swinney told reporters on Tuesday. “We would have definitely had some guys out this past weekend if we had played. Going into it, we feel like we’re probably in as good a spot as we’ve been in a while from a health standpoint, so (we’re) excited about that.”

Clemson is 17-5 under Swinney in regular-season games immediately following open dates. For UNC, the break offered a chance to press the reset button before beginning its conference slate. The Tar Heels got back to the basics to work out some wrinkles — or even creases — that have plagued their lopsided losses suffered against TCU and Central Florida.

Belichick noted that the time off was equally important for players to rest up mentally and emotionally, especially given the team’s limited number of days off since mid-August. The bye week also coincided with UNC’s academic calendar, as midterm exams have taken place across these past two weeks.

“It’s a little bit of a reset,” Belichick said Tuesday. “The end of training camp was one time, and now we’ve had four games — all out-of-conference — with a couple on the road and a couple at home. We’ve had a multitude of experiences, and we’ve kind of recalibrated.”

Hall of Fame Coaching Collision

The matchup between Belichick and Swinney will mark only the second college football game ever featuring a head coach with multiple FBS national titles against another with multiple Super Bowl rings. The only other occurrence came in the Blockbuster Bowl at the end of the 1992 season, when Stanford’s Bill Walsh (Super Bowl titles in 1981, 1984, 1988) faced Penn State’s Joe Paterno (national championships in 1982, 1986).

Swinney and Belichick share a friendly relationship that has grown through the years as Belichick drafted Clemson products into the NFL. And after nearly 50 years of coaching in the NFL, Belichick has leaned on Swinney for guidance on navigating the college landscape — recruiting, in particular — as he adjusts to a new level of football.

“I haven’t had enough experience at this level to appreciate all those (pointers) that were very insightful for me,” Belichick said. “We’ve talked about some things outside of the meetings (for ACC coaches) and off camera and things like that. But he’s been very helpful on a couple of things I’ve asked him about in general, and I appreciate his openness.”