2012 North Carolina Tar Heels football team

The 2012 North Carolina Tar Heels football team represented the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in the 2012 college football season. The team was led by first year head coach Larry Fedora and played their home games at Kenan Memorial Stadium. They were members of the Atlantic Coast Conference in the Coastal Division.

Sanctions from Scandal
On March 12, 2012, the university was notified of penalties issued by the NCAA Committee on Infractions for violations discovered in the 2010 season. They will be banned from all postseason play in 2012, which includes any bowls and the ACC Championship Game. In addition to the postseason ban, UNC will also have to eliminate 5 scholarships per season for the next 3 seasons beginning with the recruiting class of 2013, and will be on probation for the next 3 years.

Recruiting
National Signing Day was on February 1, 2012 and was the first chance for high school seniors to officially declare which university or college they will be attending for their college career. North Carolina had 23 high school seniors sign a National Letter of Intent to play football with them. Terrance Knox and Shakeel Rashad both graduated from high school early and enrolled at UNC in January 2012.

Coaching staff
New football coach Larry Fedora officially took over as the head coach at UNC on January 1, 2012. He signed a 7 year contract worth more than $1.7 million annually. He takes over a team that is banned from a bowl game for the 2012-13 season.

Schedule
Do not play: Boston College, Florida State, and Clemson.

Elon Phoenix
North Carolina started a new era under head coach Larry Fedora with the first shutout since beating Duke 38-0 to finish the 1999 season. The last time UNC scored 62 points was in the 1995 season against Ohio, which is only 3 points shy of the school record. Giovani Bernard scored 3 touchdowns (one rushing, one receiving, and one punt return), all before sitting out the entire second half of the game. Carolina also completed passes to 14 different receivers, including one reception by quarterback Bryn Renner. The Tar Heels also set a school and ACC record with 260 punt return yards during the game.