Finished: It was a celebration for State

In college football's long march from summer to next year, some teams are starters and some teams are finishers.

N.C. State is a finisher. Anyone could see that yesterday afternoon as Wolfpack fans stood in front of mostly peripheral seats and relished the sweet froth of a 41-10 romp past rival North Carolina 7-4 (3-4 ACC).

The Wolfpack managed only two wins in the first eight games. Injuries depleted a thin lineup, sidelining quarterback Russell Wilson and linebacker Nate Irving, among others.

Coach Tom O'Brien's team sprinted out of its one-week break and proceeded to defeat the other three lifetime members of the state's Big Four, raising the record to 5-6 (3-4 ACC).

"I think it was a great effort on our part, especially to beat a team like North Carolina, who has all those great athletes running around out there so well-coached and everything," O'Brien said.

O'Brien, forever understated, doesn't speak sarcastically. Of course, if Wolfpack fans celebrating in-state dominance and the continued pursuit of bowl eligibility wanted to think sarcastically in UNC's backyard, that was their constitutional right.

The end-game scoreboard supported their visceral conclusion.

By then, streams of Carolina folks had already fled the scene, leaving behind the contradictory images of sunlight reflecting off aluminum seats and Kenan Stadium's high-powered lights shining in broad daylight.

That was a benign conflict, at least compared to the internal contradictions of an experienced coach abruptly starting a quarterback, T.J. Yates, who had spent the season's midsection on the shelf while recovering from a broken ankle. Coach Butch Davis benched Cameron Sexton, who saved the season at Miami and directed the offense for a team still nationally ranked despite a 17-15 stumble at Maryland.

The switch malfunctioned. Sophomore Yates operated on fast-forward, his timing regularly skipping a beat and his passes often landing beyond his receivers' hands. Yates, 10 of 22 for 116 yards with one interception, blamed himself for the sputtering offense. He said that he hadn't practiced especially well but trusted the coaches' decision.

"I was a little worried, which didn't help anything, and then coming back a little rusty," Yates said. "I haven't been out there in a while, so it was definitely said (that) I better get a feel for it again."

Davis didn't turn to Sexton until midway through fourth quarter, after State extended the blowout-bound lead to 34-10. That easily could be construed as an insult, although Sexton didn't seem to take it that way.

"Doesn't matter to me," Sexton said. "I just play when they tell me to play. I don't care if we're down 6,000 to nothing, I want to play. Period. End of story."

Sexton, the once-forgotten quarterback who never quit, resurrected his career after Yates went down in the second game and Mike Paulus flopped in relief.

Sexton became a local hero, a testament to stubborn resilience. He didn't morph into Superman, just into a somewhat reliable junior who had earned his teammates' confidence and had kept turnovers to a minimum. Thrust into the Wolfpack stampede, Sexton got trampled. He suffered interceptions on his first two series, the second enabling State to score a final touchdown.

Coaches told the quarterbacks about the change Wednesday morning but didn't announce anything until shortly before the kickoff. Afterward, Sexton insisted that he wasn't mad.

"I'm in this thing for whatever's best for the team," Sexton said. "I'm not being politically correct with you. I want to win first. Of course I'm upset about not starting because I'm a competitor. I want to be out there playing, and I want to be out there with my teammates.

I'm going to do what the coaches tell me to do, but I want to win. If I'm not playing, I want my teammates to win. I love those guys. They've been there for me.... I wanted T.J. to play well, because he's been there for me. I really mean that. I'm upset I didn't start, of course. I don't want to lie, that I would be OK with that. Nobody wants to sit on the bench.... "

Yates made a cameo appearance near the end of the Georgia Tech game, primarily to get another taste of live action. Davis and the offensive coaches made the switch based on Yates' 2007 starts and early performances this season.

"The starting quarterback probably is always going to be judged on a body of work -- how have they done? -- not just in 2½ days of practice," Davis said.

The body of work didn't carry over to the State game. Davis said that he stuck with Yates on the whim that he would overcome any jitters and return to old form. That never happened, which made the risky decision of dumping his starter look questionable. Yet, the coach who makes $2.1 million a year wouldn't question anything.

"I mean, you can't look in the rear-view mirror and say I wish.... " he said. "How do you know?"

Carolina didn't lose merely because it changed quarterbacks. Tailback Shaun Draughn fumbled on the first two series. Receivers dropped balls. Defensive backs got lost while passes wobbled in the cold wind. Linemen missed tackles and blocks. In Yates' words, everything went wrong.

"Every quarterback is going to be a victim of how the other 10 guys play," Davis said. "So, that's why before you just jump off the ledge and say, ‘Let's go nail both of them to the cross and crucify them,' let's go see how they actually played."

He will do what coaches do. He will look at the tape, which means he will look in the rear-view mirror before choosing the starter against Duke.

This process of undermining the confidence of both quarterbacks probably sounds confusing because it is, except for 41-10. Everyone understands 41-10.

■ Lenox Rawlings can be reached at lrawlings@wsjournal.com.