RALEIGH, N.C. — So it turns out, as just about everyone predicted in August, that the Black Friday showdown between N.C. State and North Carolina will offer one of the local rivals a chance to play spoiler. That part, at least, went according to plan.
The Wolfpack’s chances to win the Atlantic Division remain suspended by a thin thread thanks to their own work Saturday against Syracuse — N.C. State was a little slow in starting but cruised to the finish, 41-17 — and Wake Forest’s loss at Clemson.
One of the two dominoes that still needs to fall is North Carolina.
Just as expected.
Before the season, given the hurricane of hype surrounding the Tar Heels, it certainly seemed like, if anything, it would be the other way around: The Wolfpack with a chance to spoil the Heels’ dream season. Instead, it’s North Carolina — which needed a win over Wofford on Saturday just to secure bowl eligibility — with a chance to keep N.C. State out of Charlotte.
The Wolfpack would still need Boston College to beat Wake Forest on Saturday, since N.C. State’s path to the title game is a three-way tie at 6-2, but the Demon Deacons looked newly vulnerable at Clemson and both of their losses this season have come on the road.
So Friday will be fun. To say the least.
“Senior day, play our rival, all those things,” N.C. State coach Dave Doeren said. “We don’t control obviously what happens with Wake Forest, but on our end we have a chance to put ourselves in a position where they lose and we’re in. It’s a lot to play for.”
N.C. State is 0-2 against Mack Brown Mk. II, so there would be more than enough on the line anyway. But by taking care of business against Syracuse on Saturday, immediately after Wake Forest whiffed on its first chance to clinch the division, the Wolfpack pushed the stakes even higher.
It’s a little like 2016, the last time these teams played the day after Thanksgiving. North Carolina needed a win and a Virginia Tech loss to repeat as Coastal Division champions and earn a trip to not Charlotte but Orlando. (Thanks, HB2! Remember those days? Good times.) N.C. State put an end to that with a 28-21 win in Chapel Hill, although the Hokies won the next day anyway.
This is about all you can ask of November football: two fierce rivals with almost everything on the line for one and pride on the line for the other. It’s a recipe for combustion. It should be everything Saturday wasn’t.
It took most of two quarters for the Wolfpack to get going against Syracuse, but N.C. State proceeded to make quick work of the Orange. N.C. State scored four touchdowns in the final six minutes and change of the first half and never looked back.
If the Wolfpack looked a little tentative to start — perhaps being aware of the Wake Forest result and knowing what was at stake — it finished the game like a confident team taking care of an inferior opponent. The Wolfpack got touchdowns on offense, defense and special teams — a triple play, to borrow an old page from the rivalry with UNC.
(Then-N.C. State coach Tom O’Brien in 2011: “If you take three things you can’t do in college football, you have an agent on your staff, you’re paying your players and you have academic fraud. I mean, that’s a triple play as far as the NCAA goes.” More good times.)
It was a tough day for Syracuse, which also lost to Colgate in basketball — for the first time since 1960 — a team N.C. State beat last Saturday. And it was a good day for N.C. State, which won an NCAA title in women’s cross-country, the school’s first in any sport since the Cardiac Pack in 1983.
But mostly it was a good day for the football team. Bam Knight ran back his second kickoff in as many weeks, both Thomas brothers scored — Drake on an interception return, Thayer by more conventional means — and N.C. State kept all of its hopes alive. It may have given away the initiative with last week’s loss at Wake Forest, but the Wolfpack isn’t out of it yet.
There’s just one very motivated obstacle standing in the way with nothing to play for but ruining N.C. State’s season.
Buckle up.
