NC State 28, UNC 27 (Updated at 9:45am)

With 16 scholarship players out and two more defensive starters hurt during the game, the Wolfpack looked like longer shots than the oddsmakers’ mere touchdown.WSJ.com

The Houston Texans' Mario Williams shows his Wolfpack pride in a 'Tweet' on Saturday afternoon

The Houston Texans' Mario Williams shows his Wolfpack pride in a 'Tweet' on Saturday afternoon

ESPN2’s Todd McShay and Robert Smith had nice things to say about the Wolfpack and the win in their post-game comments…and, I appreciate them focusing on the winners today as opposed to the losers.

 

Our Message Forums some great commentary and the post game comments started flowing on page 9 of this thread.

Heather Dinich called this a great win for us.

NC State coach Tom O’Brien threw both of his hands in the air in celebration. He even added a fist pump and a smile.

That’s more emotion than O’Brien typically shows in an entire season, and it was a longtime coming.

After a disasterous, injury-laden season that was made even worse this past week by the news that NC State offensive coordinator Dana Bible was diagnosed with leukemia, NC State finally had something to celebrate with its 28-27 win over rival North Carolina. For the third straight year, the Pack got the upper hand in this rivalry. UNC lost its chance at a better bowl game, but NC State gained pride, bragging rights, and a sense of accomplishment in their final game of the regular season.

 

This is a good article from Brett Friedlander in Wilmington.

That’s the way it usually goes for State against the dreaded Tar Heels these days. No matter how bad the situation might look at the start, everything always seems to work out at the end.

In this case, a disappointing season full of injuries, lopsided losses and unfilled expectations ended in the best way possible as the Wolfpack rallied from an early 10-point deficit to beat UNC for the third straight year.

“I don’t know who scheduled this game last,” State coach Tom O’Brien said, referring to his initial opposition to moving the traditional rivalry to the end of the season. “But I’m kind of happy about it now.”

Happiness isn’t something that has abounded around the Wolfpack program for the past six months.

The downward slide began last summer when star linebacker Nate Irving apparently fell asleep behind the wheel and nearly killed himself in a one-car accident on Interstate 40. It continued with a deflating opening- night loss to South Carolina and a string of injuries that left more than a dozen players on the sideline with season-ending injuries.

Then came the defensive meltdown that led to six losses in seven games and ended whatever hopes State (5-7) had of making its second straight bowl trip.

But all that was forgotten Saturday, at least until the party on Hillsborough Street finally begins to wind down Sunday morning.

Love the melt down amongst Carolina’s fans.

heelatious23 who has been around long enough to have 4264 posts:

Absolutely true. Butch can talk all this national program BS he wants, but if he can’t take care of those sorry bastards in Rawlee, then 8-4 is the best we will ever do. Thanks for nothing Butch.

Another poster said:

What a perfect ending to an absolultely miserable, pathetic and embarrasing performance by the Heels. I can’t wait to hear how BD explains this in his post game. He should just say we were terrible, I coached a terrible game, John Shoop is fired and I’m going to do everything in my power to fix the schedule so we never have to play State again because they own us and as long as I’m coaching I will never be able to beat TOB because he has the best program in the state and proves it every year. PS I’m sorry to all the Tar Heel fans for the embarrasment I have caused you and when we get back to Chapel Hill everybody is going to run wind sprints until they need to be hospitalized including our coaching staff!!

KingofTarHeels05:

I am going to love to hear what Butch Davis says about this game, as we were winning up until the 4th quarter. We had bad play on defense compared to how they were all season long. TJ was lights out in the first half but it is pretty fitting he throws a pick to end the game. I literally was saying, anything but throw a pick, anything but throw a pick. This loss hurts more than any of the others this year. TOB owns Butch Davis, and another year we have to hear about it.

Another poster with over 1,500 posts said:

UNC fans deserve 2+M worth of answers. This was embarrassing to watch. Don’t call Yates any direct names…on my other sign-on, the mod police banned me for calling Yates a name that began with an M, ending with an N and has five letters.

Others of interest…

If somebody comes after Butch, let his *** go! What a waste

Coach, you better figure out this freaking game! And if you can’t get a better QB than Yates, then you will never do anything at UNC. 8-4 sucks.

If things don’t change then you’ll be saying this same thing for the next five years. This team needs some changes to the staff plain and simple.

Holy crap! on Twitpic (Click for clearer image)

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'09 Football

67 Responses to NC State 28, UNC 27 (Updated at 9:45am)

  1. statered 11/28/2009 at 4:15 PM #

    Great win. Now fire Archer and start prepping for next year.

  2. Packster 11/28/2009 at 4:24 PM #

    Great win today. This game doesn’t mean everything for a season but losing today would’ve just rubbed salt in the wounds of this season.

  3. LarryWorsley 11/28/2009 at 4:32 PM #

    Fantastic win – always great to beat Carolina! Thank goodness for Russell Wilson and the heart displayed by our defense.

    Hopefully next season we can find someone that can punt! Surely there is a walk-on on campus that can do better!

  4. PackerInRussia 11/28/2009 at 4:38 PM #

    I would not say that I only care about beating Carolina. However, if I were told that State would only win two conference games all year and I had to pick them, Carolina would definitely be one of them.
    I’m sure this has been talked about before and probably mentioned in the in-game thread (I spent most of my time just trying to get an audio feed from justintv so that I could somewhat keep up, so I didn’t keep up with the thread), but they mentioned that O’Brien has dismissed 27 players since he arrived because they didn’t agree with his philosophy of winning on the field, classroom, and I forget the third front. That’s a lot of players.

  5. Alpha Wolf 11/28/2009 at 4:40 PM #

    I will be the first to admit that I thought we had an ice cream cone’s chance in Hell of winning today, but even if *I* gave up the team never did.

    For all of us who have bitched and moaned about this team, keep that in mind — they never, ever, ever gave up!

  6. Pack Mentality 11/28/2009 at 4:50 PM #

    Toney Baker is the man! Great play, and the D stopped them when we needed to. I wonder how the whine & cheese will take the loss this time, will it be, “we don’t really care about football” or “you’re not really our rivals?” Either way my response is: “Well we do care about football and you are our rivals and we just beat you 3 times in a row. And Chief Davis can take his 0-3 record against his non-rival and shove it up his navy blue wearing ass!”

  7. stejen 11/28/2009 at 4:50 PM #

    The problem with firing Archer now is that TOB is probably going to have to hire an new offensive co-ordinator. I hope not but leukemia at that age is not good news.
    I do wonder, though, State’s volleyball team beat UNC and won the first ACC victory of the year. The mens soccer team go to the NCAA’s (and beat UNC in the tournament to do so) and the womens soccer team, while not a good year actually won a few games in the ACC for the first time in two years.

    SFN: We deleted the dumb parts of your comments because of our quality initiative here. Thanks!

  8. PapaJohn 11/28/2009 at 5:06 PM #

    I have to confess. My least favorite thing in the world is painting, I chose to paint rather than watch the game – thinking that I would enjoy the painting more than the butt kicking. Imagine my shock when I turned on the radio for the post game commentary.

    Post game comments – TOB said they had to go into the stands to get the game ball for Coach Bible. He also said they have to find the fan that gave it back, so they can give him one too.

    Great stuff – these guys had an awful year and can hang up their cleats with a good taste in their mouths. And all of those underclassmen that we had to force into duty will come back next year ahead of schedule in their development.

    A really good day in ‘Rawlee’ as our baby blue friend called it.

    PS – Thanks SFN for stealing those posts. I laughed out loud reading them. Just made the win a little more enjoyable.

  9. wolfpacker 11/28/2009 at 5:23 PM #

    Definitely glad the Wolfpack WON!

    But…

    Archer still has to go. I still can’t figure out how the guy got the job in the first place.

    The average opponent scored 30+ points against him at Kentucky. The best his defense was ranked in the country was somewhere in the neighborhood of 77?

    Who on earth would want this guy as their defensive coordinator? It has proven to be a disastrous decision.

    I am amazed that we have a losing season and it’s all better because we beat the tarholes…

    I am certain happy about the win, but those are pathetic expectations!

  10. StateFans 11/28/2009 at 5:29 PM #

    Of course Archer has to go.

  11. Alpha Wolf 11/28/2009 at 5:36 PM #

    Enjoy today. There aren’t enough of them.

    Signed,
    Old NC State Fan.

  12. Sweet jumper 11/28/2009 at 6:04 PM #

    I said it on the game thread, and I will say it again:
    We suck, but we still beat UNX!
    Our defense is really porous. Yates, the lowest rated passer in the ACC threw over the top all day. Luckily Butch MF Davis did not call a long pass on every play. Russell Wilson is a great QB who always gives us a chance, even with our inept defense. Toney Baker is a man. TOB needs to get back the fire in his belly and rebuild his staff, especially defensive coordinator and special teams coach due to poor performance and probably offensive coordinator due to illness. We also need a new punter and a new kick-off man.
    Football’s over, time for basketball–Go Pack!

  13. Pack Mentality 11/28/2009 at 6:16 PM #

    The best thing about today is that no matter how bad we may suck at basketball or at football next year, these bragging rights last for a year.

  14. Alpha Wolf 11/28/2009 at 6:37 PM #

    I have to confess. My least favorite thing in the world is painting, I chose to paint rather than watch the game – thinking that I would enjoy the painting more than the butt kicking. Imagine my shock when I turned on the radio for the post game commentary.

    Word.

    I brewed two batches of beer today – a strong Wolfpack Red Irish Ale, a bit of a tailgating tradition.

    After that was done, I brewed a Blue Moon / Hooedgarden Wit beer – aka Wolfpack White.

    While I did this (started at 7:30 this morning and just finished) I listened to the game on the radio. I thought at first that the Pack would be lucky to avoid a reversal of 41-10…but in the second half, I was whooping and hollering in the driveway as State managed to get the lead and keep it.

    Wish I could say I was at the game, given what happened. The good part of it, however is that I now have 13 gallons of some very memorable brew.

  15. Wulfpack 11/28/2009 at 6:41 PM #

    Let’s just focus on the win today. Plenty of time to discuss coaches and personnel. Enjoy it, boys! The Pack made me very proud today. It was a bad season, no doubt. But they never gave up. Thanks for the memories.

  16. harrisek 11/28/2009 at 6:50 PM #

    It’s good to see that we can do something right. Go Wolfpack! Hang in there Coach Bible!

  17. jhmd2000 11/28/2009 at 6:57 PM #

    Alpha,

    You missed a heck of a ball game. Two very different halves. Your Wolfpack stood tall when it matttered, and I regret to say the Heels wilted in clutch time.

    Save some of that beer for me. I only have 3/4’s of a case of my own, and I fear that may not get the bitter taste of today out of my mouth.

    -2k

    P.S. Get well wishes to Coach Bible.

  18. RabidWolf 11/28/2009 at 7:09 PM #

    Does anybody know why some assistant coach was all in TOB’s face after Spencer’s TD catch in the 3rd? The team just scored….WTF is there to be pissed about?

  19. rtpack24 11/28/2009 at 7:33 PM #

    I was at the game today and I must say once again the coaches mismanaged the clock before half time and plenty of other things went wrong however our players never quit and they played hard every play of the game. It is days like today that make you proud!!!

  20. Alpha Wolf 11/28/2009 at 7:34 PM #

    2000, damned classy of you to come over…and yeah, I will save some of the brews for you. We’ll have a couple or three after we play 18 out on the course.

    Your Heels are going to be fine in their bowl game and next year. Despite our record, we’re a team that is slowly building towards doing something special. Carolina is too, and I hope that they keep our game in rivalry week, because it has more meaning as the last game of the season.

  21. StateFans 11/28/2009 at 7:46 PM #

    I think it was Jerry Petercuskie and Coach O’Brien going at it. Wow. The television cameras got it all. It was after our TD…only thing that I can think of is that Coach O’Brien for some reason wanted to go for two points and Petercuskie sent in the kicking team. Don’t know why/what the truth was.

  22. Alpha Wolf 11/28/2009 at 7:50 PM #

    ^ If so, Petercuskie might be in some hot water. It ain’t like his special teams are…special or anything.

  23. LRM 11/28/2009 at 7:58 PM #

    Had one of my best friends and his wife (both Carolina grads) at the tailgate and it was quite enjoyable (for me) having them ride home with me after the game (luckily they didn’t sit with me haha).

    The Trinity Lot was littered with pale blue this morning and that’s what makes this rivalry work. Winning every year makes it fun!

  24. wolfpackattack89 11/28/2009 at 8:02 PM #

    Crappy season. But, it feels great beating UNC for a third year in a row. I’ve witnessed all three and hope I can close out my undergrad career at NC State with a sweep of them next year. Oh, and our punter is awful. Our defense did play better but the holes in the secondary and the room that their receivers had was just unbelievable. We made Yates look like Drew Brees. But who really cares! We own them!

  25. Marvin 11/28/2009 at 8:12 PM #

    I was driving home to Richmond on I-85 listening to the game. For a while I had to listen to Woody Durham, which was wretched, but after the game was over it was a whole lotta fun listening to the Tarheel Sports Network. Deems May blamed the refs from Durham to the state line. He makes Woody sound like a bona fide sports journalist! So it seems like a good time to link to this great post y’all did on Mista Deems last year:

    http://www.statefansnation.com/index.php/archives/2008/11/24/winner-of-novembers-cranial-rectitus-award-deems-may/

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