CHAPEL HILL – Nearly 52 weeks ago, not long after his team throttled North Carolina 39-20, NC State Football Coach Dave Doeren said something to his team in the locker room that got out into social media and added another layer of heat to this nasty rivalry.

“It’s been 1,460 days since those pieces of shit beat us,” he said standing before his team.

The comments weren’t ignored by UNC Coach Mack Brown, who was criticized for not jumping to defend his team via social media after Doeren spoke his mind. Instead, Brown waited for his National Signing Day press conference to address it.

“In our last ball game with a rival school after the game, the head coach of that school called our players a piece of shit,” Brown said. “And I apologize for that language, but I’ve never heard something like that before. I’m disappointed. I thought it was classless. It’s not true. Number one, we didn’t play well in the game. We didn’t coach well in the game. It’s been very well documented and I got that, but you don’t call kids a piece of shit and I’ve addressed it with our team.

“I apologized to them. These kids are one of the top academic groups in America. They got an award for AFCA’s top 13. They’ve won a coastal division. They’ve won a bunch of games. They’ve been to an Orange Bowl, been to five straight bowls. They represent us well. And from me speaking for them and their parents, they really didn’t appreciate being called a piece of shit. Never heard that before. Very, very disappointing.”

With the Tar Heels hosting the Wolfpack on Saturday, Doeren’s comments came back up Monday during Brown’s weekly press conference at the Kenan Football Center. In particular, will he use it as motivation for his team this week.

"With social media, you don't have to bring anything up anymore," Brown said. "They see it all. Dave's a good person, he's a good father, he's a good husband. He said something in a locker room that he didn't know was going to be public. He and I have talked about it. So, we're good and moving forward, this is about this year's team.”

The last time UNC beat State was 48-21 at Kenan Stadium in 2020 with just a handful of people allowed in the stadium because of Covid restrictions. That was 1,492 days ago, and since Carolina’s win in 2019, Brown’s first year back at UNC, was in Raleigh, Tar Heel fans have not witnessed a win over the Wolfpack in person since 2012, the day Gio Bernard returned a punt for a game-winning touchdown with mere seconds remaining.

It also won’t be lost on the Tar Heels this week that State is 5-6 overall and must win to qualify for a bowl game. So, there is more than enough motivation for Carolina to take care of business in addition to Doeren’s comments.

"I've coached in rivalry games for 47 years and won most of them,” Brown said Monday. “It is really important, the players know it's important, the coaches know it's important. When something's that important to your fan base, it's important to you. I've known that my whole time.

“Now, if someone wants me to say, 'I hate coach Doeren and I hate NC State.' I'm not a hater. I don't hate people, I hate to lose. So there's a fine line between that, but absolutely, this is an important game. We've always treated it as an important game."

The game kicks off at 3:30 PM and will air on the ACC Network.