A player brawl. A coach fight. The story of when UNC, NCSU last played as ranked teams.
When N.C. State and North Carolina last played each other as nationally ranked teams, there was a brawl on the UNC sideline — with shoves, punches and swinging helmets — and two assistant coaches went all WWE when it was over, as they body-slammed and wrestled on the turf.
Other than that, it was a nice, cool fall afternoon at Carter-Finley Stadium.
UNC won 35-14, Mack Brown’s first win over the Wolfpack.
The Tar Heels were ranked 18th and the Pack 19th that September Saturday in 1993. After five straight losses to the Wolfpack, Brown was aching to win the rivalry game.
In Brown’s first two years, the Pack won in blowouts. Then came a walk-off 56-yard field goal. The Wolfpack’s 24-7 win in 1991 included a 99-yard pick-six, and a year later quarterback Terry Jordan, who broke a wrist in the ‘91 game, was 23-of-25 passing for 361 yards in the Pack’s 27-20 win at Kenan Stadium.
A melee during the game
Then things changed. Wolfpack coach Dick Sheridan resigned after the 1992 season. Mike O’Cain was the Wolfpack’s head coach, handpicked and promoted by then athletic director Todd Turner. Brown’s strong recruiting classes were tilting the talent edge to UNC.
UNC, coming off a loss to top-ranked Florida State, trailed the Pack 14-10 at halftime in the ‘93 game. But late in the first half, Tar Heels quarterback Jason Stanicek was scrambling toward the UNC sideline when he was pushed out of bounds by the Pack’s Ricky Bell, Stanicek tumbling over a bench.
Within seconds, there were guys in red and white surrounded by guys in blue and white. Helmets were being swung. What prevented the melee from becoming an all-out rumble was the NCSU coaches keeping their players on the Wolfpack sideline until order was restored.
“When we came back to the line after the brawl some of the State players said something like, ‘If you think that’s bad we got something else to give you in the second half,’” UNC offensive lineman Shawn Hocker told reporters after the game.
UNC’s Bucky Brooks, a Raleigh native, said: “It was like a call on our manhood.”
Stanicek, in an N&O interview Wednesday, called the incident a “scuffle” but also called it a turning point.
“We had lost to State five years in a row and still trying to get over that hump with coach Brown,” Stanicek said. “That incident took us to another intensity level after that. It did ignite our team. We came out with a different mindset.”
N.C. State’s James Walker was ejected and O’Cain said after the game that the ejection had a detrimental effect on the Pack. “We lost some enthusiasm and intensity and never regained it,” he said.
UNC quickly took charge in the second half. Marcus Wall returned the kickoff 50 yards and tailback Curtis Johnson took it from there with a 50-yard TD run, finishing with 153 of UNC’s 301 rushing yards.
And then the post game, the aftermath.
Coaches wrestle after the game
There was some bad blood between UNC assistant coach Donnie Thompson and Ted Cain, the Pack’s offensive coordinator, that apparently stemmed from recruiting. Whatever the reason for their blowup, the two went at each other, Thompson tackled Cain and the two had to be yanked away from each other as players from both teams watched in amazement.
ACC commissioner Gene Corrigan quickly took corrective action. He suspended Thompson and Cain for one game. He had a conference call for all ACC coaches to discuss player behavior — there also had been a fight in the Duke-Virginia game the same day.
Stanicek on Wednesday said 1993 game was an example of the intensity of the rivalry, noting, “It’s intensity, it’s recruiting, it’s going out and talking to high school coaches. And a lot of that staff was with Mack a long time and frustrated about not beating State and getting over the hump. It all piles up over time.”
UNC went on to a 10-3 season and the Wolfpack was 7-5 as both played in bowl games — UNC in the Gator, lost to Alabama, and N.C. State lost to Michigan in the Hall of Fame Bowl. The Tar Heels finished 19th in the final AP poll.
Twenty-seven years later, it’s the Pack and the Tar Heels again, both ranked. This one will be in Kenan Stadium with Brown again on the UNC sideline and Dave Doeren, 3-0 at Kenan, coaching the Wolfpack.
“The State-Carolina game is always going to be intense and competitive and I think this one will be,” said Stanicek, who lives with his family in the Triangle and has a daughter at UNC. “I think the UNC defense has a lot to prove coming off the last couple of games. I think our offense is explosive but State has a good (offensive) scheme.”
The Tar Heels were No. 5 before stumbling last week at Florida State, and dropping to No. 14. The Pack, after its comeback win over Duke, is in the national rankings for the first time since the 2018 season and is ranked 23rd.
“None of these rankings matter until the end of the season,” Doeren said in his press conference Monday. “It won’t matter until we play our last game.”
What does matter, a lot, is the next game.
(Staff writer Chip Alexander covered UNC athletics in 1993 for the N&O.)
No. 23 NC State at No. 14 UNC
When: Noon, Saturday
Where: Kenan Stadium, Chapel Hill
Watch: ESPN
This story was originally published October 21, 2020 at 7:17 AM.
