It’s been a tumultuous Thanksgiving week for the North Carolina Tar Heels, who fired longtime head football coach Mack Brown.
Despite Brown’s firing, UNC (6-5, 3-4 ACC) has one last opponent to prepare for under Brown: in-state rival NC State.
North Carolina owns a massive advantage (60-39-4) in its all-time series against the Wolfpack (5-6, 2-5 ACC), but the rivalry has become one-sided in recent years. NC State won 2021’s matchup via a late-game comeback in Raleigh, 2022’s edition in double-overtime, then in 2023 by a 39-20 mark.
A Tar Heels victory would ensure them bragging rights for years to come, as it would deny State bowl eligibility.
Regardless of what happens Saturday in Chapel Hill, we know UNC will be playing in some fresh, all-Carolina Blue uniforms against its hated rivals.
2023’s edition of UNC-NC State wasn’t much of a battle, with State jumping out to a 23-0 advantage. Afterwards, Wolfpack head coach Dave Doeren had some choice words about the Tar Heels.
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North Carolina’s season started with three straight wins, but a 70-50 home loss against James Madison started the fall-off. UNC then allowed 21 unanswered points in a road loss at Duke, over 500 yards to a now-bad Pitt team and allowed Georgia Tech to win in the final seconds.
The Tar Heels countered that 4-game losing streak with three consecutive wins: at Virginia, Florida State and against Wake Forest, the final of which clinched bowl eligibility.
North Carolina was then embarrassed at Boston College last weekend, falling behind 41-7 without scoring a single offensive touchdown, until freshman running back Davion Gause scored twice in garbage time.
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