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Pack, Heels in rare finale
Neither team will lack motivation
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Published: November 28, 2009
N.C. State and North Carolina each want a strong finish to the regular season today, but only one will succeed.
The long, bitter rivals will meet in a season finale for only the third time at noon at Carter-Finley Stadium in Raleigh. Neither team needs to be prodded to be ready for the other, and each will have enough motivation for three games.
N.C. State took a tough loss last week, 38-10 at Virginia Tech, but as linebacker Bobby Floyd was walking off the field, helmet and pads still on, he heard Wolfpack fans in the stands already encouraging the team to beat UNC.
"It's just kind of a testament to how much this game means to Wolfpack fans," Floyd said. "When you live in Raleigh, you're going to run into a Tar Heel every day. When we get a big win, it means a lot to them for the bragging rights."
N.C. State (4-7, 1-6) has lost six of its last seven, and today's game will be the last college game for 17 seniors.
But the biggest motivating factor for N.C. State could be offensive coordinator Dana Bible, who is at UNC Hospitals in Chapel Hill undergoing treatment for leukemia.
"I'm sure that this is just going to be the kind of thing that will motivate us," Floyd said. "Guys are going to want to play harder for him. A lot of guys are close to him."
UNC (8-3, 4-3 ACC) has a four-game winning streak and became bowl eligible two games ago. One more win will give UNC nine for the first time since 1997.
N.C. State has won the last two games in the rivalry, including 41-10 last season in Chapel Hill. Quarterback T.J. Yates said that no one in the UNC program has forgotten the result, Coach Butch Davis' most one-sided loss in three seasons at UNC.
"We want to finish the regular season off on this winning streak," Yates said. "We want to get to nine wins going into the bowl game, but we can't look ahead to what bowl we're going to be in because this week is just as important as a bowl game.
"We know they're going to come out and give us their best shot, no matter what the records. This game is both of our Super Bowls pretty much, because it's a rivalry game. This is their last game of the season no matter what, so they're going to pull out all stops and play the hardest they have all year."
N.C. State's defense has struggled all season and has allowed 319 points in the last eight games. Jay Civetti, the Tufts University offensive coordinator and a former N.C. State graduate assistant, has been hired under NCAA emergency rules to help the offense in Bible's absence.
O'Brien said that he and all the offensive coaches will fill the coordinator's role. UNC's defense has forced 14 turnovers in the last four games and has nine interceptions in the last two. O'Brien said that the UNC defense has NFL talent.
Quarterback Russell Wilson of N.C. State has split time this week worrying about Bible's health and preparing for the game but is confident that the offense will be sharp.
"Nothing changes at all (in preparation)," Wilson said. "We all have the same mentality, the same focus, the same meeting times that we always have. Nothing's really going to change for us, except for a little more prayer in our closet."
The crucial match-up could be at the line of scrimmage when N.C. State has the ball. Its offensive line has been weakened by injuries and has been a trouble spot all season. N.C. State had four turnovers at Virginia Tech last week, three of them fumbles.
The Tar Heels lead the nation with a school-record 508 return yards on interceptions, and the defense has scored four touchdowns in the last two games.
"We've got to be calm and relaxed and play our game," Wilson said. "We've got to execute the offense. We're not a turnover-type team. We've got to fix that immediately."
Davis usually says that UNC has to worry only about how it plays but that for this game, it also has to be concerned with Wilson, a player he considers as dangerous as Clemson's C.J. Spiller and or defensive end Willie Young of State, who disrupted UNC's offense last season.
Safety Deunta Williams of UNC has carried the disappointment of last season's loss for a year.
"I love playing over there," Williams said. "It's a nice environment, a nice friendly environment. It was real hostile (on UNC's last visit in 2007), but you've got to love those situations. It's y'all against the world."
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