Know thyself? N.C. State has some studying to do.

Before the annual renewal of the State-Carolina game this season, both head coaches handled it with class and tried to tamp down any hard feelings that were lingering from the rivalry.

Until last season, when Mack Brown returned, State had the most recent success, beating the Tar Heels three straight times and three in a row at Kenan Stadium. The Pack had built a nice program under Dave Doeren with three straight bowl teams.

State, indeed, had been more successful in North Carolina, with the poster child being Payton Wilson, a linebacker from Hillsborough who flipped his commitment from Chapel Hill to Raleigh. But let’s be real here, UNC’s collapse under Larry Fedora had something to do with it, which Brown’s encore has already fixed in recruiting.

After being picked to finish 11th in the ACC, the Pack got off to a 4-1 start, beating bottom-feeders Wake Forest, Virginia and Duke and upsetting Pitt, which went on to lose three more games. Meanwhile, the Tar Heels had climbed to No. 5 in an exaggerated national poll before the Big Ten and Pac 12 decided to start playing.

Doesn’t anyone at State check the odds? The 23rd-ranked Wolfpack was a 15-point underdog for Saturday’s game. So it released a foolishly dramatic video on Twitter claiming “it’s not about them, it’s about us”. . . a blue-collar, lunch pale program that quoted an assistant coach who was in his first season at State as saying, “This is our state and we are taking it back one play at a time.”

Well, if it’s your state, why do you have to take it back? And didn’t they have reason to believe they were going to get drubbed and NOT win a fourth straight time in Kenan? What were they thinking? Not about the Greek aphorism “Know thyself” that further warns “nothing to excess” and “surety brings ruins.”

After a 48-21 win in which Brown began clearing his bench late in the third quarter, a UNC Twitter account posted its own video with some light Laurel & Hardy music and all the great plays made in the rout.

Looks like N.C. State will have to Know Thyself even better in the years to come.

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