North Carolina Closes Out 2025 Aiming To Erase Recent Trend, Secure Rivalry Win

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – North Carolina’s turbulent season will likely come to an end Saturday night inside the friendly confines of Carter-Finley Stadium. And while comparing this team to something that flies may seem oxymoronic, anyone expecting a smooth landing should fasten their seatbelts.

Saturday’s rivalry game is one that in recent years has haunted Tar Heel fans – and it’s not without reason. 

Since UNC last beat NC State in 2020 — a game played in front of a practically empty Kenan Stadium — Carolina fans have endured a nine-point lead vanishing in less than two minutes, a duck-hooked 35-yard field goal in double overtime and a 75-yard game-winning drive with less than a minute on the clock. And that’s not even counting the beatdown the program’s most talented quarterback suffered the last time they made the trip east on I-40.

Having already lost the first two of its three-game in-state rival stretch, UNC now enters what is sure to be the most spirited of the three, desperate to enter the offseason on a high note. 

“I know this is a super competitive environment and game,” said Bill Belichick about his first encounter with NC State. “Night game, last regular season game, a lot of energy there.”

If you were already familiar with the state’s football politics — not just introduced to the area last December — you probably know that the likes of Marquise Williams and Hakeem Nicks wouldn’t give the same answer as Tyler Hansbrough or Kendall Marshall if asked who they disdain most. 

“I’m not real smart, but I learned that pretty quickly. I understand the rivalry,” said Belichick when asked about such a concept.

NC State isn’t just a game that has plagued North Carolina recently either. Zoom out and the Wolfpack have won seven of the past 10 contests and hold a 16-9 edge since the turn of the century.

“Obviously the past years haven’t gone our way but I think this year we’re not looking towards the past, we’re looking towards the future,” said offensive lineman Austin Blaske

Only three players on North Carolina’s 102-man roster have beaten NC State — C.J. Mims at ECU, Gavin Gibson at both ECU and Maryland, and redshirt senior long snapper Spencer Triplett at UNC.

“Playing NC State, you know that game is going to get chippy, they’ve got a whole bunch of good athletes on that team,” Gibson recounted about his recent run-ins with the Wolfpack. “You’ve got people that you played against in high school, so just knowing that we’ve got those rivalries that date back a few years, you know it’s going to get chippy.”

Sitting at 4-7 with a bowl game likely out of the question – barring a win and a favorable APR ranking – there’s not much more to play for other than pride at this point for the Tar Heels. 

“If you really love the game of football you won’t see it as that,” said Kobe Paysour, who will be playing in his last collegiate game Saturday night. “You’ll just see it as another opportunity to get better in your game, you just gotta love it.”

What, exactly, has made NC State such a problem for North Carolina remains hard to define. Maybe it’s the animosity — just ask Dave Doeren — or the hard-nosed, to-the-whistle identity that UNC has often lacked. Either way, with the Wolfpack amassing a 27–7 home record over the past five seasons, the deck is stacked against Belichick’s bunch in the finale.

“We understand that it’s going to be a big challenge – playing there, the field, the turf, the environment and all that,” Belichick acknowledged. 

But hey, you play the games for a reason, right? Quarterback CJ Bailey and an NC State offense arrive averaging 29.1 points per game and just over 250 yards through the air each week. Yet for some reason, the moment North Carolina’s defense gets written off, it resurfaces. Just ask Darian Mensah, who entered last week averaging more than 300 passing yards per game but managed only 175 against the Tar Heels. In a game many had forecasted to be a blowout, Carolina had every chance to win — but couldn’t make the plays needed to close it out. Stop me if you’ve heard that before.

Against an NC State defense that is statistically worse than Manny Diaz’s Blue Devils from last week, at least on paper, there’s a chance.

“Ultimately, we’re going to have to tackle them and block them and throw it and catch and so forth. If we don’t do that, it won’t make any difference about the rest of it,” added Belichick.