North Carolina football is chasing big championships — and big history — over next 3 weeks

WINSTON-SALEM — North Carolina football achieved one of its major season goals Saturday in edging in-state rival Wake Forest, 36-34, at Truist Stadium. But that win has now put several other significant accomplishments within its grasp.

The defense pitched a shutout in the final quarter and produced a pivotal interception that set up Noah Burnette's winning field goal with 2:12 to play as UNC clinched the Atlantic Coast Conference Coastal Division title. The No. 15 Tar Heels (9-1, 6-0 ACC) have regular-season home games remaining against Georgia Tech and N.C. State but already have clinched a spot in the ACC Championship game on Dec. 3 in Charlotte, where they'll oppose Atlantic Division winner Clemson at Bank of America Stadium.

But amid Saturday's post-game celebration, which included posing for pictures with the Coastal Division trophy, UNC's players and coaches were not ready to rest on their laurels.

"It was good to have the (Coastal Division) trophy in my hands, but I want the ACC one in my hands next,'' junior receiver Josh Downs said after a brilliant night in which he caught 11 passes for 154 yards and three touchdowns against the Demon Deacons. Downs has collected 46 catches for 548 yards and six touchdowns in the last four games for North Carolina.

"We have a big future ahead of us," he said. "This is just the beginning. We've got N.C. State, Georgia Tech and Clemson ... I can finally say it. We've got Clemson in a few weeks.''

Therein lies the first of several history-making program achievements that are now within reach for UNC.

The school hasn't won an ACC championship since 1980 when Lawrence Taylor was still roaming the sidelines at Kenan Stadium. The Tar Heels have only appeared in the ACC title game once since it was established in 2005, losing to Clemson, 45-37, in 2015 . NCAA sanctions kept UNC from playing for the 2012 championship, and seven runner-up finishes before the ACC went to division play in 2005 have added up to a 40-year gap between league championships for the Tar Heels.

Playing for the ACC championship in Charlotte will be special for UNC quarterback Drake Maye, who is one of several Tar Heels who played high school football in the Queen City.

"It's an awesome feeling heading back to Charlotte,'' Maye said. "I've dreamed of playing in Bank of America (Stadium), but never have other than a seven-on-seven tournament there (in high school). But that's what we wanted and that's what we've been playing for.''

In addition to a shot at the ACC championship, the Tar Heels are within reach of becoming just the seventh team in school history to win 10 or more games in a season as well as matching or surpassing the single-season mark for wins. Four previous UNC squads (1972, 1980, 1997 and 2015) won 11 games in a season. Throw in the final two regular-season games, the ACC championship and a postseason game, and the Tar Heels could conceivably win 13 games for the first time.

By defeating Georgia Tech and NC State, UNC could also finish unbeaten in the ACC play for just the fifth time.

Only five times in North Carolina football history have the Tar Heels finished the season ranked among the top 10 in the final Associated Press Top 25 poll. UNC was 15th in last week's poll, but with losses by Oregon, Ole Miss and UCLA on Saturday it could move up several spots. By running the table, the Tar Heels could come close to matching their best finish in the AP poll, which was a No. 6 ranking at the end of the 1997 season.

"This team's really accomplished some amazing things and still have some things left,'' UNC coach Mack Brown said. "I've talked to them for a couple of weeks about not talking about the Coastal, I didn't want to back in. I didn't want somebody to have to lose, I didn't want them looking at somebody losing - I wanted us to win, and the guys did that. So (ACC associate commissioner) Michael Strickland gave them the Coastal trophy in the locker room and that's a happy bunch of young people right now. Now we've got to go back home and get better, we can get better in so many ways. Time after time after time, we can fix things and we've got to continue to do that."

This article originally appeared on The Fayetteville Observer: UNC football chasing big championships, big history over next 3 weeks