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CHAPEL HILL – Should North Carolina and NC State play for something tangible other than just bragging rights?
The Tar Heels and Duke play annually for the Victory Bell, which adds to the spice in that football rivalry.
College football is marked in so many ways by its rivalries, traditions, and the history that connects them, even though in the money driven modern era many of those are being pushed aside. For the foreseeable future, Carolina and Duke will face off each fall on the gridiron, as will UNC and State.
So, with the Heels and Wolfpack set to battle Saturday night at Carter-Finley Stadium, the topic came up this week at the Kenan Football Center: Should Carolina and State play for some kind of trophy?
“That would a cool little addition,” UNC senior linebacker Cedric Gray said. “I definitely think it would make the rivalry a little bit more interesting.”
Tar Heels wide receiver J.J. Jones just wants to score one more point than the Pack, but isn’t opposed to a trophy going to the winner.
“A barbeque trophy or something,” he said.
Various ideas for what they could play for were tossed around. It doesn’t have to be something so obvious, either. Consider some of the other trophies that mark some long-standing college football rivalries:
Iowa and Minnesota play for the Floyd of Rosedale (a pig); Ole Miss and Mississippi State battle for the Golden Egg; Wyoming and Colorado State play for the Bronze boot; Michigan and Minnesota vie for the Little Brown Jug; Washington and Washington State compete for the Apple Cup; Pual Bunyan’s Axe goes to the winner between Minnesota and Wisconsin, and so on.
Being creative is key here, but also finding something that makes sense. Carolina’s leader in tackles for loss has an interesting idea.
“I don’t know, maybe trade a ram for a wolf or something like that,” Kaimon Rucker said, referring to the schools’ mascots. “When we win, we walk the wolf out on our end, and if, a big if, if they win, they can walk the ram out. It’s kind of trade for a trade.”
Or, the teams could simply play for pride. It’s been that way for more than a century, so why change now? At least that’s what UNC quarterback Drake Maye thinks.
“I think there’s so much pride and trash talk, and fans hate each other, it’s almost better as nothing than what can really kind of hold,” he said. “That rivalry, just between the tensions flaring, just the kind of hatred between each other I think is enough, personally, between us and State.”
In the end, the Tar Heels just want to win, regardless if they play for a specific trophy or not.
State has won the last two meetings in dramatic fashion, and it has gnawed at the Heels for 12 months. So, trophy or not, the Carolina says it’s ready.
“This is for bragging rights, this is for who runs the Triangle area,” Gray said. “So, I’m ready for the challenge.”
Though, battling for the brass BBQ slab or Oak Tree Branch or maybe even the Silver Triangle, would simply add to the growing lore of this series.
