North Carolina vs. Virginia Tech
North Carolina and Virginia Tech have 41 meetings on file, the first in 1902; officially, Virginia Tech leads 25–11–4; as played, 25–12–4 in the games on file. Over the last 10 meetings it’s Virginia Tech 7–3. The NCAA vacated North Carolina’s win (2009); it doesn’t count officially. This page counts every game as it was played. Share
2027 at North Carolina; 2029 at Virginia Tech; 2030 at North Carolina. As the programs’ Wikipedia articles list them (CC BY-SA).
- Official series
- Virginia Tech leads 25–11–4
- North Carolina wins on file
- 12
- Virginia Tech wins on file
- 25
- Ties
- 4
- Earliest on file
- 1902
- Longest streak
- 5 Virginia Tech
- Current streak
- 1 North Carolina
- Last 10 meetings
- Virginia Tech 7–3
- Most recent
- 2022
The series at a glance
| ’0 | ’1 | ’2 | ’3 | ’4 | ’5 | ’6 | ’7 | ’8 | ’9 | W–L | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1900s | 1–5–2 | ||||||||||
| 1910s | 0–5–1 | ||||||||||
| 1920s | 1–1 | ||||||||||
| 1930s | 3–0 | ||||||||||
| 1940s | 1–0–1 | ||||||||||
| 1990s | 1–0 | ||||||||||
| 2000s | 1–5 | ||||||||||
| 2010s | 2–8 | ||||||||||
| 2020s | 2–1 |
- Both ranked
- 2 meetings: North Carolina 1, Virginia Tech 1
- Average margin
- 13.3 points; 15 decided by one score (8 or fewer)
- At North Carolina
- 6–11–4 North Carolina’s record at home
- At Virginia Tech
- 14–5 Virginia Tech’s record at home
- Neutral sites
- 1–0 North Carolina first
- Shutouts
- 8
Every meeting on file, as played. Ranks are the AP poll’s going in.
Games that tell the story
- North Carolina’s biggest win1997: North Carolina 42, Virginia Tech 3by 39 points
- Virginia Tech’s biggest win2017: Virginia Tech 59, North Carolina 7by 52 points
- Upset2009: North Carolina 20, Virginia Tech 17North Carolina had a 22% chance, by our ratings before kickoff
- Upset1945: North Carolina 14, Virginia Tech 0North Carolina had a 32% chance, by our ratings before kickoff
- Upset2016: Virginia Tech 34, North Carolina 3Virginia Tech had a 34% chance, by our ratings before kickoff
- Ranked showdown2020: North Carolina 56, Virginia Tech 45No. 19 Virginia Tech at No. 8 North Carolina
- Ranked showdown2016: Virginia Tech 34, North Carolina 3No. 25 Virginia Tech at No. 17 North Carolina
Coach against coach
| Years | North Carolina | Series | Virginia Tech |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2004–2006 | John Bunting | 0–3 | Frank Beamer |
| 2007–2010 | Butch Davis | 1–3 | Frank Beamer |
| 2012–2015 | Larry Fedora | 2–2 | Frank Beamer |
| 2016–2018 | Larry Fedora | 0–3 | Justin Fuente |
| 2019–2021 | Mack Brown | 1–2 | Justin Fuente |
Head-coach pairings with three or more meetings on file, the series read from North Carolina’s side (Bunting 0–3 against Beamer). A season split between coaches goes to the one credited with the game.
Both programs through the years
Our Elo rating at the end of each season, a measure of how strong a team was, not a forecast; 1500 is an average FBS team.
Stars of the series
Biggest days
| Giovani Bernard North Carolina | 23 carries, 262 yards, 1 TD | 2012 Rushing | |
| Mike Imoh Virginia Tech | 31 carries, 236 yards, 2 TD | 2004 Rushing | |
| Michael Carter North Carolina | 17 carries, 214 yards, 2 TD | 2020 Rushing |
Named most valuable
| Nick Sorensen Virginia Tech | 1997 |
Biggest days: the week’s best individual games by our big-days rule, from box scores (2004 on). Most valuable: as the games’ Wikipedia articles name them (CC BY-SA).
From the newspapers
1908 · Daily Kennebec journal, Nov 9, 1908
1946 · The Wilmington morning star, North Carolina, Oct 1, 1946
Public-domain newspapers from the Library of Congress’s Chronicling America, found through the American Stories dataset (Dell and Harvard, CC BY 4.0). The earliest meetings with a story on file; each game’s page has the full text.
Every game
Every game is listed as played on the field; a win the NCAA later vacated is marked “vacated”; the official series above counts them the NCAA’s way.