The pressure cooker is on for both teams Friday night.

The day after Thanksgiving is called Black Friday because it is the official start of the Christmas shopping season. But, come midnight, it will be particularly dark for the loser of the State-Carolina game.

By the numbers and on paper, the Wolfpack is justifiably a 7-point favorite. State is 8-3 and ranked 24th and carries in a nine-game winning streak at Carter Finley Stadium.

The Pack has overcome serious injuries early this season to build a two-deep that has graduate students and red-shirt upperclassmen, plus freshmen and sophomores that are going to keep it strong in future years, with the second-best defense in the ACC behind Clemson.

State also has more NFL prospects along its interior line than do the Tar Heels this season.

But Carolina busses over there with a two-game winning streak in the series since Mack Brown has been back and seven in a row if you count the last five years of Brown’s first tenure in Chapel Hill. So, this is a game that State should win, is favored to win, but HAS to win.

The Tar Heels have the pressure of ending an uneven and disappointing season on a positive note, knock State out of any chance to reach the ACC championship game and maintain Brown’s dominance of in-state ACC teams (23-1 in last 24 games). Carolina can also bump up its chances for a bigger bowl but whose already-thin secondary will be without injured safety Ja’Qurious Conley.

Brown likens State quarterback Devin Leary to Pitt’s Kenny Pickett and says he has six big-and-tall receivers and two great running backs, one of them the ACC’s top kickoff returner in Zonovan Knight, who has taken two back for touchdowns (one for 100 yards). So, Carolina’s soccer-style kicker Jonathan Kim better have his right leg warmed up.

UNC’s Sam Howell sat out the Wofford game as a precaution and will be 100 percent to go after whatever other school and ACC records are still within his grasp in this spectacular end to the regular season for the old rivals in their 111th meeting. BTW, UNC leads the series 68-36-6.

If you like to look at trends, the Wolfpack’s are pointing up and the Tar Heels are more on a flatline. Stakes could be higher but the stage no be bigger with ESPN expecting massive ratings in primetime.

I’ll be back later in the week with my surprise prediction.

 

Photo via Robert Willett/The News & Observer.

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