WRAL Sports Fan

North Carolina State University

N.C. State hammers Carolina in Kenan Stadium

By Dane Huffman

Nov 22, 2008

For all the talk of North Carolina’s rise in football, the Tar Heels can’t cross one critical hurdle – N.C. State.

The Wolfpack, whose season looked dead just a few weeks ago, continued its late-season surge with a convincing 41-10 win in Kenan Stadium. It marked the second straight year State coach Tom O’Brien has beaten Butch Davis, but the Wolfpack didn’t need overtime this day.

It was a game defined by quarterback play, as Russell Wilson, who finished the afternoon with 279 passing yards and a pair of touchdowns, was brilliant for State and T.J. Yates struggled to get the UNC offense moving in his return to the starting role.

But this game was deeper than that. State was more poised, more prepared and played as if the game were more important on a cold, bright day that drew a sharp line between the programs. The outcome could have been more lopsided had the Pack’s receivers grabbed several Wilson throws that bounced off their hands.

The win completed State’s sweep of in-state schools as the Pack beat UNC, Duke, Wake Forest and East Carolina for the first time in one season since 1986.

“What it speaks to is we’re the best football program in the state, without question,” O’Brien said with a touch of defiance in his voice. “There’s no other way to put it.”

That State relished this opportunity was obvious. Wolfpack senior tight end Anthony Hill said that deep down, the Carolina players know the game is more important to State than UNC.

“They can see it in our eyes,” he said. “We want it more than they do.”

True or not, N.C. State played like that on Saturday as it dashed UNC’s hopes of a berth in the ACC championship game.

The outcome highlighted that better days are ahead for NCSU. What if Wilson hadn’t suffered that concussion about South Carolina? What if the Wolfpack’s list of injuries hadn’t been so devastating? And how bright is the Wolfpack’s future, with Wilson and current redshirt Mike Glennon at quarterback and another year of O’Brien’s recruits in the fold?


O’Brien’s remake of the Wolfpack program has yielded a team that is smarter, tougher – and more than capable of challenging its Triangle rival. State shut down Carolina’s running game, dared the Heels to throw and used a balanced attack of its own, paced by Wilson’s arm, to ring up State’s biggest win over UNC since a 40-6 decision in Raleigh in 1989.

O’Brien loved the way State played a smart, physical game, allowing no turnovers and forcing six. The performance was the culmination of a Wolfpack season that saw an offseason retooling of the offensive and defensive schemes slowed by a number of injuries, especially to Wilson and linebacker Nate Irving.

But now, State is one game from bowl consideration, at 5-6 overall and with a home game with Miami remaining. Carolina, 7-4, will drop down the bowl pecking order and concludes the regular season Saturday at Duke.

The ACC champion goes to the Orange Bowl. The Chick-fil-A – which had two representatives at the game - has the second pick, the Gator Bowl the third and the Champs Sports Bowl in Orlando, Fla., the fourth. The Chick-fil-A was the only bowl with representatives in the press box, and one Chick-fil-A rep said he was all set to go on the radio with Woody Durham after the game – if the Tar Heels won.

Instead, the bowl rep got an early start on his trip back to Atlanta.

After the top four bowls, the ACC then works with the bowls in Nashville, Charlotte and San Francisco to determine the next three slots.

The eighth ACC team goes to Boise and a ninth would land in the new EagleBank Bowl in Washington and face Navy on Dec. 20.

Could that be a spot for N.C. State, coached by former Midshipman O’Brien?

Could be. On Saturday, the Wolfpack continued to right its ship – and cause trouble for Carolina – in an outcome that was both surprising and decisive.

By the game’s end, the stadium was largely empty of Carolina fans and Wolfpack fans crowded to the fences to lean over and slap hands with the N.C. State players.

“It felt so good just to see the light blue pouring out of the stands at the end and the red cheering N.C. State,” linebacker Irving said.