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UNC football stumbles into bowl season. Heels will face Oregon in the Holiday Bowl

North Carolina coach Mack Brown glances at the scoreboard after Clemson’s Will Shipley scored to give the Tigers’ a 39-10 lead in the third quarter in the ACC Championship game on Saturday, December 3, 2022 at Bank of American Stadium in Charlotte, N.C. (Robert Willett/rwillett@newsobserver.com)

North Carolina’s loss to Clemson in the ACC Championship on Saturday ruined its shot at its second-ever trip to Miami for an Orange Bowl bid, but the Tar Heels will still be playing in warm weather.

The Tar Heels have accepted an invitation to play Oregon from the Pac-12 in the Holiday Bowl on Dec. 28 in San Diego. This comes a year after a controversial, last-minute decision by UCLA not to play in that game last year after N.C. State had already traveled to southern California.

Oregon finished at No. 15 in the College Football Playoff rankings. UNC is unranked.

The Heels (9-4) will try to end a season of promise on a positive note. Since they clinched the ACC’s Coastal Division with a dramatic 36-34 win at Wake Forest on Nov. 12, they’ve dropped three straight games.

That matches the longest losing streak in coach Mack Brown’s second tenure in Chapel Hill. In his first season in 2019, UNC lost to Wake Forest, Appalachian State and Clemson after starting that season 2-0.

The losses to Georgia Tech, N.C. State and Clemson all had a common thread: Carolina had trouble converting red zone drives into touchdowns. UNC scored a touchdown on its first drive against the Tigers, then had four more possessions reach inside the 20 to only produce three points. Quarterback Drake Maye was being touted as a potential Heisman Trophy candidate a month ago. But the last three losses have played him out of the conversation.

That’s why a bowl win would be a good way to jump start next season for the Heels.

Carolina will be seeking that elusive 10th win, which it has only achieved eight other times in program history. The last time UNC reached double figures in the win column was after going 11-3 in 2015, which was also the only other time it won the division and played in the league’s championship game.

Mack Brown, who is already the all-time winningest coach in program history, is also going for his 100th win in 14 seasons as the Tar Heels head coach.

To do so, Carolina is going to have to snap a two game bowl losing streak. The Heels lost to South Carolina last season in the Duke’s Mayo Bowl and lost to Texas A&M 41-27 in the Orange Bowl to conclude the 2020 season.