With only bragging rights on the line, NC State is ready for plenty of bragging
Isaiah Moore handed the giant Wolfpack flag to Ben Finley, probably the last player who anyone would have expected to be part of the celebration, let alone go running down the field with the flag. But there Finley went, from fourth-string quarterback to rivalry hero, running away from the N.C. State fans in the northeast corner of Kenan Stadium and into the maw of the stunned North Carolina fans.
As the ecstatic N.C. State players meandered about the field, it wasn’t long before Devin Carter had that giant flag in his hands, standing on the 50-yard line, and planted it directly in the center of the interlocking N and C at midfield. On this night, that ground belonged to N.C. State.
“That was just amazing,” Carter said, “to go out like that.”
When there are only bragging rights on the line, there tends to be a lot of bragging. And was there ever in Chapel Hill as Friday afternoon bled inexorably into night, a football game that wouldn’t end in part because neither team could stomach the yearlong consequences of losing.
Photos: NC State upsets UNC in double OT in college football rivalry action
N.C. State somehow outlasted North Carolina in two overtimes, giving up two touchdowns on the final play of regulation — only the second counted — and then escaping with a 30-27 win on a missed 35-yard field goal. A Wolfpack season that seemed to have veered the wrong direction over the past two weeks ended in wild celebration.
“This will make a lot of things feel better,” N.C. State coach Dave Doeren said. “It’s a 365-day you-know-what sandwich that the other school gets to eat. And we didn’t want to eat it.”
You’d never know, dropped into Kenan Stadium after wearing earplugs and a blindfold for three months, which of these teams was headed to the ACC title game, which quarterback was once a Heisman Trophy candidate, which team had watched a promising season dissolve into frustration.
Rivalry games, even with nothing tangible on the line, have a way of doing that. This one especially does.
Which is partly how Finley, who had been toiling away on the scout team, was zinging the ball around like his older brother once had against the Tar Heels. Ryan was 3-0 against UNC in his N.C. State career. Ben lost the pandemic game here in 2020, after Devin Leary was injured (the first time), but got his vengeance Friday.
“I didn’t try to get into UNC,” Finley said, “but according to Drake, I couldn’t have.”
Maye’s comments from earlier this season disparaging N.C. State’s academics were clearly not forgotten, but he was also unaccountably pedestrian until the fourth quarter, when he was 14-for-23 and led the Tar Heels down the field in the final seconds with N.C. State up a touchdown. He found John Copenhaver cutting across the end zone on what looked like the final play, but that was ruled incomplete on review. As N.C. State started to celebrate, it turned out there were still two seconds on the clock.
That was enough time for Maye to find Antoine Green under the goalposts to force overtime, where both teams were inches away from touchdowns but it came down to a kicking contest. Christopher Dunn made two. Noah Burnette made his first, but not his second, and as the ball spun wide left, the Wolfpack tore off the sidelines and into history.
Whatever this season was supposed to be and wasn’t, N.C. State will always have this win against the team that had the kind of year the Wolfpack expected to have. The Tar Heels lost nothing of tangible value — already eliminated from CFP contention, they’ll play for the Triangle’s first ACC championship in decades in Charlotte in eight days regardless — but the mental scope of this loss, coming on the heels of the inexplicable home loss to Georgia Tech, is immense.
“We’ve come down to a play or two in every game,” UNC coach Mack Brown said. “So we’ve made them in all the others except Notre Dame; they whipped us good. And every other game’s come down to the last play, and we’ve made the plays before. And we haven’t made the plays the last two weeks.”
Not only that: With wins against East Carolina, Wake Forest and now North Carolina, the Wolfpack has a better claim than the Tar Heels to the mythical state championship popularized by Brown in his first go-round. That will not go unmentioned, especially if the Tar Heels pull an upset of Clemson.
After his television interviews, after hugging players on the field, Doeren made his way toward the fans in the corner. As he approached, he tore off his pullover to reveal the “Light it Red” T-shirt underneath, with an image of N.C. State’s Memorial Belltower, brandishing his fists in the air. The fans went wild.
North Carolina’s own bell tower, only a few hundred yards away, was dark.
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