In the 101st showdown between one of the fiercest rivals in the nation, N.C . State (4-4, 1-3 ACC) takes on UNC-Chapel Hill(6-3, 2-3 ACC) on Saturday at Carter-Finley Stadium in a mouth-watering encounter that has a lot more than pride at stake with the recent event involving comments regarding off-field matters made by UNC’s interim head coach Everett Withers.

The two teams will meet after coming off of contrasting results: State being shutout by Florida State at Tallahassee and UNC becoming bowl eligible against Wake Forest. Both teams will know the importance of this game, a fixture that first took place in 1894.

N.C . State, the winner of the last four meetings between the two teams, will be hoping to turn around it’s season in what has been a fairly disappointing one by last year’s lofty standards. The Wolfpack is hoping to win in it’s own backyard against it’s most famous rivals and therefore getting ever-closer to that elusive bowl game.

Redshirt senior Mikel Overgaard admitted that he could feel the rivalry since the very first day he came to N.C . State and is expecting Saturday to produce a challenging game.

“The minute I set foot on campus I knew how deep this rivalry goes between Carolina and State,” Overgaard said. “They are a big athletic group. Just seeing the competition between the two teams, you know it’s going to be another challenge this week.”

Overgaard , also a member of the much maligned offensive line, also claimed the team has moved past their embarrassing loss last week against Florida State and takes full responsibility for the numerous hits quarterback Mike Glennon , who got sacked twice and threw for just 130 yards in the game, has taken this season.

“I don’t really want to talk about that. We’ve decided to move past that, put that game behind us. We’re going to get ready for this upcoming week,” Overgaard said. “When he takes a hit, that reflects on us and we want to prevent that as much as possible.”

Team captain and defensive tackle J.R . Sweezy , who has spent a majority of the season nursing his injury, highlighted the importance of the game and claimed the players made an extra effort to make sure the Pack could hold its head high against their rivals from Chapel Hill.

“It is a rivalry game. It’s a fun game to play in,” Sweezy said. “We’ve played really well every time we’ve played them. People just put in more effort and I think that’s a big reason we’ve won the past couple of years.”

On the defense that received a lot of criticism early in the season but has since performed decently, Sweezy expressed his total faith, provided everyone on the team sticks to their jobs.

“If we run our defense like we know we can and do our responsibilities, nobody can really run on us. We’re fully confident in that,” Sweezy said. “We’ve got to work more on getting off blocks and putting pressure on the quarterback in passing situations. That’s going to be more of our focus this week.”

Coach Tom O’Brien, who has never lost to the Tarheels during his time at State, chose to give special focus to UNC freshman Giovani Bernard, who leads the nation amongst freshman runners in the nation with over 107 yards of rushing per game, and sophomore quarterback Bryn Renner, who tops the ACC in passing efficiency, both of which will prove to be a formidable threat to the Pack’s defense, which has allowed over 395 yards per game.

“The tailback [Bernard] has made a difference. He has breakaway speed, does a good job, got really quick feet finding seems and then he can run away from you,” O’Brien said. “The quarterback [Renner] has been really efficient. He gets back there and he gets rid of the football. Looks like he knows where he’s going with the football when the ball’s snapped. He’s doing a good job of studying the defense and getting pre-snap reads.”

N.C . State quarterback Mike Glennon who had perhaps his worst performance in Wolfpack colors as the offense failed to score a single point last Saturday against Florida State, will be confident going into the game against the Tarheels according to O’Brien, who has perhaps been the biggest supporter of the redshirt junior.

“You’re still going to have games like that,” O’Brien said. “I think it’s a good thing for him that he can learn from it. I think he’s the right type of guy that will learn from it and will get better because of it. It’s all part of a learning process. I don’t think he was shy or intimidated at all.”

In the wake of recent comments regarding the academic performance by N.C . State players made by O’Brien’s counterpart in Chapel Hill, O’Brien felt his players “earn everything they get at this University.”

N.C . State take on UNC-Chapel Hill on Saturday Nov.5 in a 12:30 p.m . kick-off at Carter-Finley Stadium.