2011 North Carolina Tar Heels Football: North Carolina @ NC State

Some games are important because they can punch tickets to bowl games. Other contests are important because they can nail down division or conference championships. Still other Saturday showdowns matter because they can enhance the prestige of the program or win new recruits. However, none of those statements apply to this weekend’s Research Triangle tilt between in-state rivals North Carolina and North Carolina State. When the Tar Heels go to Raleigh to tackle the Wolfpack, the significance of the occasion can be found in one simple fact: North Carolina could be staring at a decade of disappointment against its most immediate football enemy. If North Carolina can’t beat North Carolina State in 2011, the Tar Heels might face a very long wait.

This is a dark-cloud season for North Carolina and, on an even greater level, for fellow ACC school Miami. These two football programs are going to get smacked by the NCAA in the coming offseason, hit with sanctions – extremely severe in Miami’s case but still noteworthy in UNC’s situation – that will affect their competitiveness in future seasons. Miami’s program is likely to be affected for at least seven or eight years, while Carolina is going to take a hit for at least three seasons with the possibility of an even longer stretch of impoverishment. Therefore, North Carolina’s current club desperately needs to break through against N.C. State on the Pack’s home turf at Carter-Finley Stadium. Why is this the case? UNC is 0-for-Tom O’Brien. In other words, the Tar Heels haven’t yet won a single game in this series since O’Brien came to N.C. State.

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Yes, it was in 2007 when O’Brien left Boston College and made the jump to another school in the ACC’s Atlantic Division. O’Brien has largely failed on the job in Raleigh; he has still not won a division title in the ACC, including his time spent at Boston College. O’Brien’s teams always manage to stumble near the finish line; they cannot deliver the goods in high-pressure November situations. However, for all that O’Brien has failed to do at N.C. State; he has regularly been able to beat the Wolfpack’s foremost rival, the Tar Heels from Chapel Hill. O’Brien is 4-0 against UNC as State’s head coach, a fact that drives Carolina football fans crazy. Since North Carolina is about to meet the NCAA grim reaper, the Tar Heels have to break through against State this season. Otherwise, they might not regain bragging rights in the state of North Carolina until 2016 or thereabouts.

It’s safe to say that North Carolina faces more than a little pressure in this game. We’ll see if the Heels can handle the heat.

North Carolina Tar Heels @ NC State Wolfpack Football Preview