RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) -Deunta Williams knew someone was bound to mention North Carolina’s embarrassing loss to rival North Carolina State last year. So the Tar Heels safety was quick with a joke when asked whether anyone had hung signs in the locker room reading “41-10.”
“What’s that?” he quipped.
No one in Chapel Hill really needs a refresher heading into Saturday’s matchup. That 31-point home loss last November ended with the blue-clad home fans skipping the final humbling minutes and leaving the visiting fans in red to celebrate in a mostly empty Kenan Stadium. It also ended with N.C. State coach Tom O’Brien memorably pronouncing that “we’re the best football program in the state, without question” after the Wolfpack had swept the other four instate Football Bowl Subdivision teams.
A year later, however, the 23rd-ranked Tar Heels (8-3, 4-3 Atlantic Coast Conference) are playing their best football to close the regular season while N.C. State (4-7, 1-6) is an injury-riddled mess. And while revenge is often an overrated motivation, that loss still lingers more than most for the Tar Heels.
“It hurt,” 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 and how it happened and wants to make sure it doesn’t repeat.”
North Carolina has won four straight games, including at Virginia Tech and a home upset of Miami, to become bowl eligible for the second straight season. Last weekend, the Tar Heels won at Boston College 31-13 with a familiar formula: tough defense, adequate offense.
North Carolina scored a pair of first-quarter defensive touchdowns and forced six turnovers against the Eagles, its second straight game with two defensive scores. It also has 10 takeaways in the past two games.
Beating the Wolfpack would give the Tar Heels their highest win total since Mack Brown’s last team won 11 games in 1997.
“We know if we beat them it’ll give us the better chance to get to a better bowl,” quarterback T.J. Yates said. “But if anybody looks ahead past this game, it’s going to be a big mistake. The only thing that matters right now is beating State because we can’t control anything else that’s going on.”
e ACC’s better offenses behind all-conference quarterback Russell Wilson. But that unit will face a North Carolina defense that ranks in the top 12 nationally in four categories and still remembers the way Wilson frustrated them in last year’s meeting.
N.C. State’s biggest problem has been defense, or lack thereof. The Wolfpack has allowed opponents to score at least 30 points in seven straight games – including four with at least 40 – though North Carolina’s offense has been just as ineffective at times.
“If we have any chance at all, our defense is going to have to keep up in the football game,” O’Brien said. “Hopefully they’ll take the challenge.”
N.C. State has the added motivation of playing without offensive coordinator Dana Bible, who recently was diagnosed with leukemia. O’Brien said the team will call plays by committee and has brought back Jay Civetti, a former graduate assistant and the offensive coordinator at Division III Tufts, to help this week.
“Not only are we playing for the seniors now,” offensive lineman Julian Williams said, “but for (Bible) and his family.”
North Carolina fans are motivated to see some success against their biggest football rival, which hired O’Brien about a month after the Tar Heels lured Butch Davis to Chapel Hill in late 2006. O’Brien has won both meetings, starting with the Wolfpack using a red-zone stand in the final seconds to hold on at home in 2007.
Davis said last season’s outcome is relevant only to remind the Tar Heels of what not to do come kickoff.
“I just have never really ever gotten into previous years and past scores and past games,” he said. “I think our kids are aware of that. The thing we will do with our players is you’ve got to look at that game and say, ‘These are the things we didn’t do very well that led to that particular outcome.’ We’ve got to use it more as a teaching tool rather than a motivational tool.”
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