.vresize.36.36.medium.0.png){kind=small}
.vresize.36.36.medium.0.png){kind=small}
So much for North Carolina's efforts to add more emphasis to the rivalry game with North Carolina State.
The Tar Heels managed a season-low yardage output in a 13-0 loss to the Wolfpack on Saturday, their fifth straight loss in the series and their first shutout loss to N.C. State in more than five decades. Outplayed from the start and beaten up physically, North Carolina's players can now look forward to another year of talk about when they'll manage to beat Tom O'Brien's Wolfpack.
''This is a big game in this state,'' interim coach Everett Withers said. ''This is supposed to be a rivalry, and it's supposed to eat at you. It's supposed to get to you when you lose, and you're supposed to remember it, get better and come back the next year and try to do something about it.''
The Wolfpack (5-4, 2-3 Atlantic Coast Conference) ranked in the bottom half of the league's defensive statistics, but shut down freshman runner Giovani Bernard and knocked starting quarterback Bryn Renner from the game by the end of the third quarter to give UNC (6-4, 2-4) its first shutout loss since 2006. The Tar Heels finished with just 165 yards, including 3 on the ground.
The rivalry got a little extra spice late in the week when O'Brien and Withers traded verbal jabs about graduation rates and the lingering NCAA investigation of the UNC program, a departure from the days of former UNC coach Butch Davis playing down the buildup to the game. But the outcome was the same misery for UNC, as N.C. State celebrated its first shutout of UNC since 1960, its first shutout of an ACC opponent in a decade and the first in five seasons under O'Brien.
The only highlight was Bernard becoming the first Tar Heel in 14 years to run for more than 1,000 yards in a season. He managed just 47 yards on 18 carries. Renner left the game with concussion-like symptoms, though he'll have extra time to recover since the Tar Heels are off this week before a Thursday night trip to Virginia Tech on Nov. 17.
''I felt like we tried to play hard,'' Withers said. ''I don't think it had anything to do with intensity, emotion. It was about X's and O's and not blocking and not tackling and not doing those things.''
For the Wolfpack, Mike Glennon threw a touchdown pass to T.J. Graham to lead the offense. James Washington ran for 110 yards
The win marked the first time the Wolfpack had taken five straight meetings with the Tar Heels since 1988-92.
The Wolfpack didn't manage many big plays against a North Carolina defense that played solidly enough to keep the Tar Heels in it, holding N.C. State to 290 total yards. The problem was that defense got absolutely no help from an offense that came in averaging 31 points per game.
N.C. State had allowed three of four ACC opponents to rack up at least 400 yards, but the Tar Heels managed minus-7 yards through the first quarter, 32 through the first half and didn't even crack the 100-yard mark until the final period. Renner threw for 76 yards on 9-for-17 passing with two interceptions before leaving the game late in the third.
The closest thing the Tar Heels had to a big play came when Renner found Dwight Jones with a midrange pass that Jones turned into a 74-yard touchdown run early in the second quarter, but a holding call wiped out the score. In addition, Renner took a hard hit on the throw and got up gingerly. He never looked right the rest of the game, even leaving briefly late in the first half and going to the locker room while Braden Hanson stepped under center.
Hanson took over late in the third and threw for 86 yards with an interception, but he didn't get the Tar Heels any closer to a score than Renner did.
