CHAPEL HILL
The last time North Carolina began a season with the kind of victory it will seek against South Carolina on Thursday night in Charlotte, some members of its freshmen class hadn't yet been born. Others were in diapers.
The Tar Heels began the 1997 season with a victory against Indiana – not all that memorable of an accomplishment given the Hoosiers' place in college football history. Still, that's the last time UNC started a season with a victory against an opponent from a so-called Power 5 conference.
Even UNC's oldest players would have been too young to remember much, if anything, about the 1997 season.