North Carolina vs. Wake Forest
107 of their 113 meetings are on file: they first met in 1888, and the earliest on file is 1908; officially, North Carolina leads 74–37–2; as played, 71–34–2 in the games on file. Over the last 10 meetings it’s North Carolina 6–4. The official count covers every meeting. Share
2027 at Wake Forest; 2028 at North Carolina. As the programs’ Wikipedia articles list them (CC BY-SA).
- Official series
- North Carolina leads 74–37–2
- North Carolina wins on file
- 71
- Wake Forest wins on file
- 34
- Ties
- 2
- Earliest on file
- 1908 first met 1888
- Longest streak
- 16 North Carolina
- Current streak
- 1 Wake Forest
- Last 10 meetings
- North Carolina 6–4
- Most recent
- 2025
The series at a glance
| ’0 | ’1 | ’2 | ’3 | ’4 | ’5 | ’6 | ’7 | ’8 | ’9 | W–L | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1900s | 2–0 | ||||||||||
| 1910s | 10–0 | ||||||||||
| 1920s | 6–4 | ||||||||||
| 1930s | 9–0–1 | ||||||||||
| 1940s | 4–5 | ||||||||||
| 1950s | 5–4–1 | ||||||||||
| 1960s | 4–6 | ||||||||||
| 1970s | 7–3 | ||||||||||
| 1980s | 6–4 | ||||||||||
| 1990s | 9–1 | ||||||||||
| 2000s | 3–4 | ||||||||||
| 2010s | 2–2 | ||||||||||
| 2020s | 4–1 |
- Average margin
- 15.9 points; 42 decided by one score (8 or fewer)
- At North Carolina
- 50–18–2 North Carolina’s record at home
- At Wake Forest
- 16–21 Wake Forest’s record at home
- Shutouts
- 34
Every meeting on file, as played. Ranks are the AP poll’s going in.
Games that tell the story
- North Carolina’s biggest win1928: North Carolina 65, Wake Forest 0by 65 points
- Wake Forest’s biggest win1951: Wake Forest 39, North Carolina 7by 32 points
- Upset1979: Wake Forest 24, North Carolina 19Wake Forest had a 21% chance, by our ratings before kickoff
- Upset2001: Wake Forest 32, North Carolina 31Wake Forest had a 22% chance, by our ratings before kickoff
- Upset1966: Wake Forest 3, North Carolina 0Wake Forest had a 25% chance, by our ratings before kickoff
Coach against coach
| Years | North Carolina | Series | Wake Forest |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1914–1915 | T.C. Trenchard | 3–0 | W.C. Smith |
| 1923–1925 | William Fetzer | 1–2 | Hank Garrity |
| 1929–1932 | Chuck Collins | 3–0–1 | F.S. Miller |
| 1937–1941 | Raymond Wolf | 3–2 | D.C. Walker |
| 1945–1950 | Carl Snavely | 3–3 | D.C. Walker |
| 1953–1955 | George Barclay | 2–1 | Tom Rogers |
| 1956–1958 | Jim Tatum | 2–0–1 | Paul Amen |
| 1960–1963 | James Hickey | 2–2 | Billy Hildebrand |
| 1964–1966 | James Hickey | 1–2 | William Tate |
| 1969–1971 | Bill Dooley | 2–1 | Cal Stoll |
| 1973–1977 | Bill Dooley | 4–1 | Chuck Mills |
| 1978–1980 | Dick Crum | 2–1 | John Mackovic |
| 1981–1986 | Dick Crum | 5–1 | Al Groh |
| 1988–1992 | Mack Brown | 3–2 | Bill Dooley |
| 1993–1997 | Mack Brown | 5–0 | Jim Caldwell |
| 1998–2000 | Carl Torbush | 2–1 | Jim Caldwell |
| 2001–2006 | John Bunting | 2–3 | Jim Grobe |
| 2019–2024 | Mack Brown | 4–1 | Dave Clawson |
Head-coach pairings with three or more meetings on file, the series read from North Carolina’s side (Trenchard 3–0 against Smith). 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
| Sam Howell North Carolina | 32 of 45, 550 yards, 6 TD, 1 INT | 2020 Passing | |
| Sam Hartman Wake Forest | 29 of 45, 429 yards, 4 TD | 2020 Passing | |
| Drake Maye North Carolina | 31 of 49, 448 yards, 3 TD | 2022 Passing | |
| Ty Chandler North Carolina | 22 carries, 213 yards, 4 TD | 2021 Rushing | |
| Omarion Hampton North Carolina | 35 carries, 244 yards, 1 TD | 2024 Rushing | |
| Josh Downs North Carolina | 11 catches, 154 yards, 3 TD | 2022 Receiving |
Biggest days: the week’s best individual games by our big-days rule, from box scores (2004 on).
From the newspapers
1911 · The times dispatch, Richmond, Va., Oct 8, 1911
1912 · The Birmingham age-herald, Alabama, Oct 13, 1912
1914 · The times dispatch, Richmond, Va., Oct 9, 1914
1920 · The Washington herald, District of Columbia, Oct 3, 1920
1921 · Evening star, Oct 3, 1921
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.
On television
| 2025 | The CW | 0.4 million viewers |
Viewers: Nielsen, as compiled by nschultz7’s ratings tracker.
Every game
Every game is listed as played on the field.