North Carolina will have a little more on its mind on Saturday in Raleigh than just finishing the regular season with a five-game winning streak.
"Payback, I think, is a little bit etched in everybody's mind," said safety Deunta Williams of the Tar Heels.
UNC will visit N.C. State and what will be on Williams' mind, and the mind of almost every returning player from last season's team, will be the 41-10 beating N.C. State administered in 2008 in Chapel Hill.
"It hurt a lot," Williams said. "We had to get rid of it quick because there were other games to go out and play, but I think everybody still remembers what happened."
The loss was the most lopsided for Coach Butch Davis in his three seasons at UNC. Davis said he would not use the score to motivate his team, and wants his players ready only because the game is the last of the regular season and is against a top rival.
"I just have never really ever gotten into previous years and past scores and past games and stuff," Davis said. "I think our kids are aware of that.
"The thing that we will do with our players is you've got to look at that game. And you've got to say, `Hey, look, these are the things we didn't do very well that led to that particular outcome.' You've got to use it more as a teaching tool than a motivational tool."
A second aspect of the loss involves Coach Tom O'Brien of N.C. State. The win at Kenan Stadium gave N.C. State a sweep of East Carolina, Duke, Wake Forest and UNC, all its in-state competition last season.
O'Brien, following in the tradition of other coaches whose teams have defeated all local competition, said that N.C. State had the top program in the state after beating UNC to complete the sweep.
Davis also said that O'Brien's proclamation will not be used as motivation, either for him or for the team.
"Those kinds of things, I think, certainly are resolved every single season," Davis said. "Every season is an entity unto itself."
The UNC players will likely take a different approach to O'Brien's claim. Williams, linebacker Bruce Carter and quarterback T.J. Yates all said that O'Brien's words would supply at least some incentive.
"Especially for a big game like this, we always have some stuff up on the board in the locker room and the weight room to kind of give us a little extra motivation," Yates said. "That'll definitely add a little fuel to the fire for us."
Yesterday in Raleigh, at his weekly press conference, O'Brien said that he had no regrets about making the proclamation.
"No, we were the state champions," O'Brien said, breaking into a slight smile. "It was matter of fact."
Yates also has a personal stake in Saturday's game. He returned against N.C. State after a seven-week absence because of a fractured ankle, save for a handful of plays two weeks earlier at the end of a win against Georgia Tech.
Yates, as Davis, is winless in two games against N.C. State, a shortcoming that he said does annoy him. "I need to get a win under my belt against them," Yates said. "It kind of hurts me every time we play them, we come out with a loss. You've got to get a win."
Williams said that as of yesterday no signs are present in the UNC locker room bearing the score of last season's game as a daily reminder this week before going to practice.
"Not yet," he said.
Will the situation stay that way for the rest of the week?
"You never know," Williams said.
bcole@wsjournal.com.
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