NC/SC College Football FBS Team Recaps

Another year of college football is in the books and the Carolinas fared pretty well. 

In total, five teams from the two states played in a bowl game. 

Here is a look back at each Division I team in North and South Carolina and how it fared: 

Had it not been for a primetime Halloween loss to rival Georgia Southern, the Mountaineers arguably could have been the team to represent the Group of Five (G5) conferences to play in the Cotton Bowl.

Instead, they capped off the best season in school history with their fourth-straight Sun Belt titles and a second-straight New Orleans Bowl victory with a 31-17 win over UAB. 

The Mountaineers beat not one, but two Power Five (P5) teams this season with wins over North Carolina and South Carolina, making it their first P5 victory since its historic upset over Michigan in 2007. 

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First-year head coach Eliah Drinkwitz left town before the team's bowl game for the same position at Missouri, but not before leading App State to become the first North Carolina FBS team ever to win 12 or more games in a season.

The  Mountaineers also became just the 11th G5 team since the Sun Belt was formed in 2001 to win 13 or more games.

The Charlotte 49ers put themselves on the map this season. 

Under first-year head coach Will Healy, the 49ers not only played in their first-ever bowl game, but they became a national storyline thanks to the team's "Club-Lit" videos from their locker room that were posted on social media following victories. 

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After starting the season 2-5, Healy's 49ers won five straight games and saw their offense break young school records for passing touchdowns, rushing yards and defensive sacks. 

Unfortunately, Charlotte couldn't keep up with Buffalo in the Bahamas Bowl and lost 31-9. 

The story of this season was that Healy has Charlotte on the rise and things should only continue to trend upwards.  

The Tigers 29-game winning streak finally came to an end in the National Championship against LSU. 

Clemson was ranked at or near the top of the polls all season, but many didn’t take them seriously due to having a schedule that ranked 35th toughest at the end of the regular season. By comparison, the next weakest schedule by a Top 10 team was Oklahoma at 19. All the other top contenders had schedules ranked at the top. 

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Even so, Clemson quieted a lot of doubters by finding themselves back in the title game after beating No. 2 Ohio State in the semifinals.

The Tigers only real struggle before LSU was against UNC in September, where they just narrowly won 21-20. 

Quarterback Trevor Lawrence started the season slow before finishing strong, but there were definitely some sophomore struggles after a much-hyped freshman season, where he led Clemson to a national title. 

With key losses to the defensive side of the ball, Clemson’s offense behind Lawrence and running back Travis Ettiene, who was the ACC’s Player of the Year, was supposed to make up for defensive struggles.

Instead, the offense only ranked 71st in points scored, while the defense was the team’s strong factor. 

Lawrence had arguably his worst game as a Tiger versus LSU with a 38.1 quarterback rating.

Many expect Clemson at the very least to be back in the semifinals next year. 

It looked as if the Chanticleers would qualify for their first bowl game since joining the FBS in 2017, but a three-game losing streak late in the season ultimately wrapped up their second-consecutive 5-7 season. 

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Seven of Coastal’s 12 games were determined by eight points or less, including a three-overtime loss to conference rival Georgia Southern that would have given the Chants a record six wins as a Division I team. 

The biggest highlight of the year was the second game as Coastal defeated Kansas 12-7 to pick up its first win ever over a P5 team. 

There will be a lot of departures with 10 seniors set to leave, and even though there has been some potential, life in the FBS has been a tough adjustment for Coastal.  

In what was expected to be a rebuilding year for David Cutcliffe's Blue Devils, Duke fell one game short of qualifying for a bowl game. 

Duke fell apart after a solid 4-2 start to the season, losing five of its final six games.

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Most notably, the Blue Devils blew late leads to Pittsburgh and rival UNC during conference play, which could have gotten them to six wins and another bowl-eligible season. 

Instead, they watched the bowl games at home for just the second time in eight years. The Cutcliffe and Company are looking to return to a bowl game next year when they'll return seven starters on offense and six on defense. 

However, Duke will have its third quarterback in three seasons due to the graduation of Quentin Harris. 

Another disappointing season for the Pirates showed at least some promise under first-year head coach Mike Houston. 

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After finishing three-straight seasons with three wins each, ECU only won one more game this year, but showed promise by losing by only a combined 11 points to ranked conference opponents Cincinnati and SMU. 

Additionally, the Pirates played well against Central Florida to prove that they can compete with the top teams in the American Conference. 

The Wolfpack were expected to go through a rebuilding year after losing starting quarterback Ryan Finley, but things looked worse than a lot of people thought would happen. 

There were calls for Dave Doeren to be fired as NC State struggled to even stay close in conference games that led to an ACC worst 1-7 record in a league that is regarded as the worst of the P5 conferences

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Moreover, Doren has only two winning seasons in ACC play in seven years.

Doeren fired the defensive coordinator Dave Huxtable following the season after the Wolfpack allowed 30.1 points and 398.9 yards per game. 

Doeren isn't expected to go anywhere because of his contract and NC State has to rebuild quickly or things could stay messy in Raleigh.  

It was another down year for Will Muschamp's Gamecocks. 

Their lone bright spot was a shocking 20-17 overtime win at then-No. 3 Georgia.

Overall, Muschamp made a quarterback change from Jake Bentley to freshman Ryan Hilinski after Bentley was injured in Week 1, and Hilinski performed like any freshman would: very inconsistent. 

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The Gamecocks’ erratic play on offense and defense caused them to lose close games to a lot of beatable teams, and as a result, Muschamp finished with his worst record since he guided Florida to a 4-8 season in 2013.

South Carolina did land some top recruits, though, so Muschamp will be given another chance to turn things around. But the leash is short. 

Should it be said? Yes. 

The Mack Is Back. 

Mack Brown, who returned for his second stint as head coach of the Tar Heels, led UNC to its first bowl win in six years. 

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There’s no question about whether Brown was a good coach after leading Texas to a national title in 2009 and North Carolina to some of its best seasons in school history, but there were concerns about whether he was too old or could adapt to today’s college game. 

Turns out, those concerns were for naught. The record could have been so much better considering the Tar Heels’ six losses were by a combined 25 points. They were in every game, including a narrow one-point loss to Clemson, which ended with UNC going for a two-point conversion instead of kicking the extra point to send the game into overtime. 

Freshman quarterback Sam Howell had a better season than many anticipated and the Tar Heels future went from extremely bleak to one of the brightest in the ACC Coastal Division. 

The season culminated with a 55-13 demolition of Temple in the Military Bowl to set up a bright hope for next year.  

The Demon Deacons had a strong start to a solid season that saw them ranked in the polls a few weeks, before late-season losses to Virginia Tech, Clemson and Syracuse. 

Injuries hurt Wake Forest as the year went on, including a season-ending shoulder injury to breakout receiver Sage Surratt. 

Even so, there were still a lot of bright spots. 

Quarterback Jamie Newman, who announced he is transferring, had a strong year, throwing for 2,868 yards, 26 touchdowns and just 11 touchdowns. 

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Head coach Dave Clawson’s Deacs came just a touchdown away from defeating Michigan State in the Pinstripe Bowl to end the season.

Wake Forest also beat all teams in Tobacco Road rivalry, defeating NC State, UNC and Duke. 

Clawson has brought a consistency to the program that has now given them four-straight winning seasons.