Going 0-4 against Wolfpack under Davis, Tar Heels restore emphasis

North Carolina (6-3, 2-3 ACC) will visit N.C. State (4-4, 1-3) at 12:30 p.m. Saturday in the game that will be televised by WRAL in Raleigh."Yeah, it's important," Withers said Monday at his weekly news conference. "Sometimes you want to stay so focused that you want to say, it's (just) the next game, it's the next game. But these kids were recruited by State, the lot of them. Some of them may not have been offered by State. They may not have had an opportunity. So I think it's critical when you have the school that's only 20, 25 miles down the road, to be the rivalry."O'Brien always has treated N.C. State's rivalry with North Carolina as if it's more critical than alternative games. He said Monday the team has to play all 12 games, but there is one that's always the little more critical than the others."It's an critical game because it's an critical game to the faculty, the staff, the alumni, the fan base," O'Brien said. "That's what makes it different."Twice in the past three seasons the Tar Heels have finished with the better overall record than N.C. State, but lost the in-state rivalry game. In 2009, North Carolina went 8-5 and the Wolfpack struggled to the 5-7 record. But one of those five N.C. State wins was the 28-27 decision against the Tar Heels.North Carolina defensive end Quinton Coples admitted that N.C. State's players have seemed more motivated for the rivalry game."Over the past couple of years we've been going to good bowls and what not," Coples said. "I think that, I guess in the sense you could say they wanted it more. We were overlooking them and how talented they actually were. We were going out and playing the good game but not good enough."If the Tar Heels weren't fired up to play N.C. State in the past, it seems they are now. Freshman wide receiver T.J. Thorpe of Durham said the older players want to win this game more than any alternative on the schedule.Thorpe said he already is hearing trash talk from fans. He said one of his former high school girlfriends used to be an N.C. Sta! te cheer leader and was texting him saying her classmates were saying the Wolfpack will kick the ball away from him on returns."Her friends are always talking to me about it," Thorpe said. "I have the lot of friends who were N.C. State fans when I was in high school. I get calls from them and my old teachers and everything. But I think it's all in good fun, except for on game day."And except for when you lose. It's not fun then, either. North Carolina's players know that feeling all too well.They are determined not to let it happen again, and so is their coach. Withers usually spends the fair amount of time reviewing film after the game.But after the Tar Heels' 49-24 win last week against Wake Forest, he immediately turned his attention to preparing for N.C. State."I think the older guys, they can say they haven't been, but all year long they've probably had this one marked on the calendar," Withers said."I've been places where you talked about it from Day One of training camp. It's an in-state game. We want to win it and beat every team in this state that we play. It gives us the chance to be 7-3. So it's huge for us."Staff writer J.P. Giglio contributed to this story