By Frank HeathÂ
The upcoming contest between UNC and NC State at Finley Stadium is going to be, quite simply, the “epitome of what football is about.†After the Tar Heels found a way to prevail last Saturday against Maryland, the table is immediately set for a brawl between two schools that (a) are close neighbors and hate each other, (b) both cling to post-season aspirations that hinge on winning this game and (c) want badly to establish that their new coach is building the better program.
State is the combatant with the home-field advantage and the more apparent momentum, having won its three most recent games following a horrendous 1-5 start. But Carolina has shown in five of its seven outings that it can play tough with some of the best teams in the country.
The Tar Heels also have some of the most dangerous all-purpose weapons in the conference in Hakeem Nicks, Brandon Tate and Greg Little, along with a steady quarterback in T.J. Yates, and the Carolina defense — especially along the line — has been improving week by week.
Scanning common opponents, State squeaked out a win over Virginia at home, while UNC lost to the Wahoos by two points in Charlottesville. Both teams have beaten Miami, although the Pack’s win may be the more impressive, having come on the Hurricanes’ home field; and State also beat ECU, which nudged Carolina in Greenville.
What does this game mean to UNC? For starters, it is an opportunity to push off the inevitable onset of basketball season, which always begins diverting fans’ attention and enthusiasm from the gridiron around this time of year. But Carolina fans, so long as there remains the hint of a chance at post-season participation, will continue to follow a sport and do their due diligence in terms of supporting the team. Hence, if the 3-6 Heels want to maintain the broad support of the UNC fan base for the final two games against Georgia Tech and Duke, they must find a way to handle NC State Saturday.
The game should also serve as an interesting barometer to gauge the Tar Heels’ progress as a program under first-year head coach Butch Davis. State coach Tom O’Brien also is in his first year heading the program there, and much speculation before the season surrounded which coach would do the best job re-energizing his school’s football team and fans. During the first half of the 2007 season, it looked as though Davis clearly had the advantage in this department, but O’Brien’s team has recovered from a heavy dose of early adversity, and he may now actually be in the lead. State suffered several key injuries and endured some stinky (think, Amato-hangover) play during a 1-5 start, but the Pack has looked like a whole different team in winning its last three games.
Even without all of these tangible motivators, the game between these two schools is always going to be one of the biggest of the year for both sides, simply because a lot of the players on both teams know each other and the combatants are all aware of how important the rivalry is to their many fans throughout the state and beyond.
For Carolina, the rivalry match falls smack in the middle of a five-game mini-season that pits the Tar Heels against foes from the “old ACC†( i.e., pre-Florida State) and also at the center of a three-game stretch against opponents that appear nearly evenly matched with this young UNC squad, so Saturday’s outcome could say a lot about this team’s “want-it†quotient. The action begins at noon.