The season ends with the annual rivalry game between NC State and UNC. Who will win? The Wolfpacker editors Matt Carter and Jacey Zembal offer their predictions on how the game will turn out:
Matt Carter
I get why NC State fans are nervous. It's the nature of being a Wolfpack fan.
UNC comes in with a two-game winning streak after laboring to have just one win in its first nine games and the Pack just lost a heartbreaker in Winston-Salem to Wake Forest. For the Heels, this is their bowl game. For NCSU, it's just the last game of the regular season.
The theory goes that UNC will lay it all on the line to ruin NC State's season. Sure UNC is capable of doing that, especially since junior quarterback Nathan Elliott has taken over the offense and offered some stability in the backfield.
Expect the trick plays and gadgets from the Heels, and that may sustain UNC into the game for a while, but eventually it is going to boil down to who you have in the trenches, in the backfield and on the perimeter, and in every regard NC State, in my opinion, has more talent.
Thus I am going with NC State to prevail, pulling away in the second half.
Prediction: NC State 35, North Carolina 20
Jacey Zembal
NC State hasn't had many ACC games where the Wolfpack are the clear-cut no question favorite.
Pittsburgh was one scenario such as that, and a smidge of the Syracuse game, but the Orange had enough offensive weapons to be a little bit scary. UNC's weapons aren't in Tar Heels uniforms. The early departure of quarterback Mitchell Trubisky and running back Elijah Hood, combined with a mash unit of an injury report, which has hovered between 16-and-20 players for most of the season, has led to a jarring 16.5-point line in favor of NC State today.
Thanksgiving week is full of team bonding, distraction and seeing the end in sight, all at once. With the Wolfpack having so many seniors celebrating their last home game at Carter-Finley Stadium, motivation shouldn't be lacking. Every coach has that first full class of recruits that set the tone for the program. NCSU head coach Dave Doeren has the class of 2014, several of whom played as true freshman through trying times.
The group of 20 seniors should do what was expected of them back in August, reinforced in October and now when the time matters most — crush North Carolina.
Prediction: NC State 38, North Carolina 17
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