Former UNC head coach Mack Brown was fond of saying after a loss, “Don’t let one game beat you twice.”
Today, Brown may be long gone from Chapel Hill, but that sentiment remains. After its gut-wrenching loss to Duke last Saturday, Carolina goes from one rivalry to another with a visit to NC State this weekend. Raleigh’s Carter-Finley Stadium has been a house of horrors lately for UNC, and the Wolfpack no doubt smell blood in the water around the 4-7 Tar Heels.
Receiver Jordan Shipp, who called the Duke matchup a “personal” one last week, said now the focus has shifted, and that he and the Tar Heels can’t afford to wallow in their misery.
“My biggest thing, I just want to beat State,” said Shipp. “That’s where my mind is now. We’ve gotta put [the Duke game] behind us. They beat us, they got the [Victory] Bell. Cool. Gotta move on to the next. We can dwell on it after we play State. That’s where my mind is.”
Shipp and the Tar Heels were very clearly fired up to host the Blue Devils Saturday, as there were multiple instances of pushing and shoving after the whistle. Many of those resulted in some of the 12 penalties called on Carolina. It was reminiscent of the Wolfpack’s visit to Kenan Stadium last year, which devolved into a postgame fight while NC State was celebrating its win.
Regardless of how damaging UNC’s dozen penalties were over the course of the Duke game, though, Shipp said that chippyness between the two rivals wasn’t surprising. He also predicted a similar atmosphere against the Wolfpack.
“I expected it,” Shipp said. “I expected there to be a fight after the game, to be honest with you. There was a back-and-forth, a grabbing session on the first kickoff. I expected something to happen after the game. You expect that with rivals. We expect the same thing next week. We expect those guys to be just as chippy. And we’re gonna bring that same energy as well. We’re gonna match it, and bring more.”
To call the UNC-NC State football series “chippy” is something of an understatement. Just during the Wolfpack’s four-game winning streak in the series, there have been flag plantings and an infamous hot mic moment in which NC State head coach Dave Doeren used a certain four-letter word to refer to the Tar Heels. With UNC bringing Bill Belichick and all his baggage into the Carter-Finley snake pit, there will likely be just a bit more juice flowing through Raleigh next Saturday night.
And while Belichick provided the sound bite of the offseason with his “Beat Duke” childhood story, the first-year head coach said he still was cognizant of just what the UNC-NC State game means.
“I’m not real smart,” Belichick said, the podium practically dripping with sarcasm, “but I learned that pretty quickly. I understand the rivalry.”
UNC will essentially be playing for pride after Duke all but eliminated the Tar Heels from bowl contention in Kenan. Whether that pride will translate into touchdowns or personal foul penalties may well determine if the Tar Heels can do away with their Wolfpack woes.
Featured image via Associated Press/Chris Seward
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