1980 North Carolina Tar Heels football team

The 1980 North Carolina Tar Heels football team represented the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in the 1980 NCAA Division I-A football season.

1980 North Carolina Tar Heels football
ACC champion
Astro-Bluebonnet Bowl champion
ConferenceAtlantic Coast Conference
Ranking
CoachesNo. 9
APNo. 10
1980 record11–1 (6–0 ACC)
Head coach
1980 Atlantic Coast Conference football standings
Conf  Overall
TeamW L T  W L T
No. 10 North Carolina $ 6 –0 –0  11 –1 –0
Maryland 5 –1 –0  8 –4 –0
NC State 3 –3 –0  6 –5 –0
Clemson 2 –4 –0  6 –5 –0
Wake Forest 2 –4 –0  5 –6 –0
Virginia 2 –4 –0  4 –7 –0
Duke 1 –5 –0  2 –9 –0
  • $ – Conference champion
Rankings from AP Poll

Regular season

Lawrence Taylor had 16 sacks in his final year for the Tar Heels,[1] and set numerous defensive records. His awards included All-America and Atlantic Coast Conference Player of the Year honors in 1980. The team finished with an 11-1 record; only the second time in program history where they were able to win 11 games.

Schedule
DateTimeOpponentRankSiteTVResultAttendance
September 6Furman*No. 14
W 35–13
September 13at Texas Tech*No. 15
W 9–337,797
September 27No. 19 MarylandNo. 14
  • Kenan Memorial Stadium
  • Chapel Hill, NC
W 17–3
October 4Georgia Tech*No. 10
  • Kenan Memorial Stadium
  • Chapel Hill, NC
W 33–0
October 11at Wake ForestNo. 8
W 27–937,411
October 18NC StateNo. 8
  • Kenan Memorial Stadium
  • Chapel Hill, NC (rivalry)
W 28–8
October 25East Carolina*No. 7
  • Kenan Memorial Stadium
  • Chapel Hill, NC
W 31–348,100
November 11:30 p.m.at No. 16 Oklahoma*No. 6
ESPNL 7–4175,738
November 8at ClemsonNo. 14
W 24–1962,288
November 15VirginiaNo. 15
W 26–3
November 22DukeNo. 15
W 44–21
December 317:00 p.m.vs. TexasNo. 13
MizlouW 16–736,669
  • *Non-conference game
  • Rankings from AP Poll released prior to the game
  • All times are in Central time

Roster
1980 North Carolina Tar Heels football team roster
Players Coaches
Offense
Pos.#NameClass
RB 1 Travis Freeman Sr
FB 1 Billy "Freight Train" Johnson Sr
QB 10 Rod Elkins So
WR 19 Jon Richardson Jr
WR 41 Wayne Tucker Sr
RB 20 Amos Lawrence Sr
C 51 Rick Donnalley Sr
T 54 Dave Drechsler So
G 78 Ron Wooten Sr
WR 85 Mike McCormick Sr
 Defense
Pos.#NameClass
NG 34 Paul Davis Sr
DT 76 Donnell Thompson Sr
OLB 84 Mike Wilcher So
OLB 93 Calvin Daniels Jr
OLB 98 Lawrence Taylor Sr
LB 29 Darrell Nicholson Jr
FS 5 Steve Streater Sr
SS 28 Bill Jackson Jr
DB unk Larry Winters So
 Special teams
Pos.#NameClass
P 5 Steve Streater Sr
Head coach
Coordinators/assistant coaches

Denny Marcin, Larry Marmie, Cleve Bryant

Legend
  • (C) Team captain
  • (S) Suspended
  • (I) Ineligible
  • Injured
  • Redshirt

Roster

Rankings
Main article: 1980 NCAA Division I-A football rankings
Ranking movements
Legend: ██ Increase in ranking. ██ Decrease in ranking.
NR = Not ranked. RV = Received votes. т = Tied with team above or below. ( ) = First place votes.
Week
Poll Pre 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 Final 
AP 14 15 13 14 10 8 8 7 6 14 15 15 13 12 13 10 
Coaches 17 13 13 15 11 8 8 7 6 14 15 13 11 11 11 9

Game summaries

Maryland
See also: 1980 Maryland Terrapins football team


[2]

at Oklahoma
See also: 1980 Oklahoma Sooners football team


[3]

Duke
See also: 1980 Duke Blue Devils football team and Victory Bell (North Carolina–Duke)


vs. Texas (Astro-Bluebonnet Bowl)
North Carolina vs. Texas
1 234Total
• Tar Heels 6 730 16
Longhorns 0 700 7
Main article: 1980 Astro-Bluebonnet Bowl
See also: 1980 Texas Longhorns football team


[4]

1981 NFL Draft
Main article: 1981 NFL Draft

The following players were drafted into professional football following the season.

PlayerPositionRoundPickFranchise
Lawrence TaylorLinebacker12New York Giants
Donnell ThompsonDefensive tackle118Baltimore Colts
Rick DonnalleyCenter373Pittsburgh Steelers
Amos LawrenceRunning back4103San Diego Chargers
Ron WootenGuard6157New England Patriots
Harry StanbackDefensive tackle6164Atlanta Falcons

[5]

Awards and honors

References
  1. Whitley, David. L.T. was reckless, magnificent, espn.com, accessed January 29, 2007.
  2. "UNC Deals Maryland 1st Defeat, 17-3". The Washington Post. September 28, 1980. Retrieved December 1, 2019.
  3. "Hey, Not Everyone Can Be Perfect". Sports Illustrated. November 10, 1980. Retrieved November 13, 2019.
  4. "N. CAROLINA DEFEATS TEXAS, 16-7". The New York Times. January 1, 1981. Retrieved November 13, 2019.
  5. https://www.pro-football-reference.com/draft/1981.htm
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