No Matter When It's Played, State-UNC Has Juice
CHAPEL HILL – Extra motivation for an archrival?
Nah. Mack Brown isn’t having it.
“If you have to motivate your team to play, we probably have some problems,” Brown said during his weekly press conference Monday at the Kenan Football Center.
The savvy North Carolina coach isn’t about to dive into the treacherous waters where bulletin board material swarm shark-like looking for prey. He’s too wise for that.
But there is some truth to what he’s saying, especially for his Tar Heels who head 26 miles east Saturday to take on N.C. State (4-7, 1-6 ACC) in what will be a frenzied atmosphere at Carter-Finley Stadium.
It’s UNC and State. Heated, yes, but this is a rivalry that needs a bit more steam. That will only happen, however, if the Tar Heels start winning some of these games. The Wolfpack has won three straight, four of the last five and nine of the last 12.
“Roy (Williams) calls them ‘State College’ because he’s beaten them so much,” Brown said, noting UNC’s basketball dominance over the Wolfpack. “We haven’t beaten them, it’s hard for me to do any of that but have respect because they’ve beaten us.”
The Tar Heels need to change that course. At stake, aside from the traditional hate-filled stuff, is a sixth victory on the season, and as a result, a spot in a bowl game. Any bowl game will do for a program that has missed out on postseason fun the last two seasons.
State, on the other hand, is playing for pride and to keep the Tar Heels from adding another layer to the Mack-is-back motif going on in Chapel Hill. Both bases want pretty much the same thing Saturday.
“Bragging rights are really, really important to people, and that’s what makes a rival game so special," Brown said.
So is the extra curricular goings-on.
In last year's game, a fight broke out right after State scored the game-winning touchdown in overtime. Other skirmishes have found a home before, during and after previous UNC-State games. It's a rivalry and it happens.
What’s interesting, however, is this matchup now concludes the regular season for both schools. They’ve met in the finale for the last five years, but before that stretch State and Carolina ended seasons together just twice.
The 1998 game was played in Charlotte and went into overtime, with the Tar Heels prevailing 37-34. The 1995 game, in which Brown was UNC’s head coach at the time, tookplace the day after Thanksgiving and was in Raleigh. UNC took that one, 30-28.
So, there’s nothing all that traditional about the Tar Heels and Wolfpack meeting at the end of November. Duke, in fact, was the final game for the Heels in nine of Brown’s 10 seasons in Chapel Hill the first time around.
“I grew up with Duke being the last game here,” Brown said. “That was 10 years, so that’s what I thought. Since the Carolina-Duke basketball game is such a huge rivalry nationally, I always thought that game should be there. We have two rivals and that’s been documented for years.
“Wake Forest used to be in that group but, now that they’re on the other side of the conference and you don’t play them very often, it didn’t feel like it and our players didn’t play like it. I feel like the two rival games are State and Duke and it doesn’t matter where you put them, they’re still very important.”
As for which game should close the season, Brown wasn’t going there Monday.
No need to. As he said, there’s plenty enough on the table to get both sides ready to go for this one, and he’s not about to give the Pack anything else.