059: Since '88, Carolina and State
NC State is 19-16 against North Carolina since 1988.
North Carolina leads the all-time series against NC State 68-36-6. The first meeting was in 1894 between the two schools.
Since 1988, NC State has won 19 of the last 35 meetings between the two schools.
If you haven’t subscribed yet, please consider doing so below. You can see visualizations like the one above and similar posts like this one:
Why since 1988?
It was Mack Brown’s first season as head coach of North Carolina.
Brown lost his first five games against NC State as the Tar Heel head coach. He won his next five games before bolting to become the head coach of Texas in 1998.
Since then, Brown won a National Championship at Texas in 2005, retired after the 2013 season and worked at ESPN1 for five years, and returned to his post as head coach of the Tar Heels in 2019.
After losing two consecutive games in painful fashion, Brown is 7-7 against the Wolfpack as the head coach at North Carolina. Those 14 games are scattered over the last 34 years.
Between Mack Brown 1.0 and Mack Brown 2.0, five different head coaches have walked the sideline for North Carolina. Only two of those head coaches, John Bunting and Carl Torbush, have a winning record against NC State.
Dave Doeren is 6-4 against North Carolina as the head coach of NC State. In true Doeren fashion, the Wolfpack actually have a -17 point differential in those 10 games.
Prior to Doeren, Tom O’Brien won five of six games against the Tar Heels. The Doeren and O’Brien duo is a combined 11-5 overall against Carolina.
The Wolfpack was 3-11 against UNC during the Chuck Amato and Mike O’Cain years. Dick Sheridan2 handed Mack Brown all of his first five losses, and by an average margin of ~21 points too.
How > What
One of these teams will wake up next Sunday with a 8-4 record. This type of record can feel quite different based on how the team arrived to that regular season mark.
If Carolina finishes 8-4, it means it lost four out of its final six games after starting the season 6-0 and rising to a top-ten national ranking.
The hallmarks of the Mack Brown era are outstanding offense, significantly below average defense, and shaky special teams. Multiple losses as double-digit favorites while trotting out professional caliber quarterback play.
Remember how Carolina lost in Raleigh two years ago?
A six-point lead that turned into a four-point loss in the final two minutes and 35 seconds of play3. Carolina was down 7 points less than two minutes into that game after NC State blocked a punt for a touchdown.
If NC State finishes 8-4, it means it won four of its last five games after starting 4-3 overall and 1-2 in conference play.
Ugly offense, a consistent and stingy defense, and solid special teams are the hallmarks of the Dave Doeren era. The Wolfpack is three games below .500 in ACC play after nearly 11 ACC regular seasons under Doeren. He also set the school wins record earlier this season too.
How the Wolfpack wins games is not often pretty, and it seems Doeren prefers it not to be pretty.
Over the years, if you combined the Tar Heel offense with the Wolfpack defense, you would make a hell of a team.
We’re more alike than we want to admit
NC State has won 57 percent of its games since 1988.
North Carolina has won 53 percent of its games during the same time frame.
The Tar Heels last won the ACC title in 1980.
And the Wolfpack were last ACC Champions in 1979.
There is NC State shit and this is Carolina football. Two different phrases with similar meanings amongst both fan bases.
The current head coach at both schools has won more games than any other head coach at that school.
Of course, you can point to the extremes and see drastic differences.
There is some blue collar against the elitists. There are tinfoil hats and officiating bias.
But deep down you know, we’re more alike than we want to admit.
Check out fbs-logs.blessyourchart.com to see game duration data for the 2023 college football season.
You may see some infrequency with posts over the next several weeks due to life and the holidays. I’m working on trying to put together a project around college hoops and the NET, so please stay tuned.
Remember when Mack Brown left the booth in the middle of the BYU-Toldeo game to catch a flight. What a time.
Dick Sheridan passed away in July and Carl Torbush passed away in November of this year.
*Mack Brown won 5-straight then left for Texas. UNC and NC State are average football programs in different ways. Carolina has a larger standard deviation in wins per year, i.e. higher highs and lower lows.