Let's be honest: Thanksgiving weekend is an endurance test.
From the stress of pre-holiday prep to the dinner conversations with people you don't see (or care to see) all that often to the glorious, gluttony of the big meal itself, it's no wonder a late-afternoon nap often is in order.
That applies to the excess of football as well. Several days packed from noon to midnight with high-stakes, hatred-fueled action can take it out of a person. That is, until a rivalry game matches -- or exceeds -- the anticipation and delivers a finish that gets you jumping out of your seat in amazement at what you just witnessed.
With those stupefying (or stupor-defying?) moments in mind, we present some of the most fantastic finishes from the biggest Rivalry Week matchups -- those unforgettable scenes that keep us coming back for more year after year.
Jump to a rivalry:
Ole Miss-Miss. State | Georgia-Georgia Tech
Texas A&M-Texas | Arizona-Arizona State
Ohio State-Michigan | Clemson-South Carolina
Wisconsin-Minnesota | Florida State-Florida
USC-UCLA | Virginia-Virginia Tech
Alabama-Auburn | North Carolina-NC State
All times Eastern
Ole Miss @ Mississippi State
Better known as: Egg Bowl
This year's game: Friday, noon, ABC
Record: Ole Miss 68-46-6
Current streak: Ole Miss, 2
It's difficult to overlook the Piss and the Miss in 2019. But in the string of dramatic finishes that runs through this 124-year-old rivalry, the most bizarre ending in Egg Bowl history came 42 years ago this month. In Oxford, at least, it's remembered fondly as The Immaculate Deflection, even if there was no deflection at all.
Mississippi State and Ole Miss met in the capital city of Jackson as a pair of sub-.500 programs in late fall of 1983. With 24 seconds to play, Bulldogs kicker Artie Crosby lined up for a potential game-winning 27-yard field goal attempt. After leading 23-7 at the 4:54 mark of the third quarter, Mississippi State trailed 24-23 in the game's final minute after three late turnovers provided the kindling for a 17-point Rebels comeback.
The kick looked good off Crosby's foot. Mississippi State fans roared. But suddenly, as the ball reached its apex, it seemed to stop, held up by a gust of wind, and pushed wide left. Three years before Diego Maradona's famous goal at the 1986 World Cup in Mexico City was guided by "the hand of God," a divine force seemingly was on Ole Miss' side.
"I've never seen a kick come backwards in my years of coaching," Bulldogs coach Emory Bellard said postgame. "It was like something reached down and stopped the ball in flight."
The Rebels held on for the one-point win, clinching a trip to the Independence Bowl, their first bowl appearance since 1971. Afterward, offensive lineman Frank Harbin summed up the feelings of the fans in Starkville. "I'm sure in a year or two I'll be able to look back at that kick and laugh," he said. "But right now, it ain't too damn funny." -- Eli Lederman
Georgia @ Georgia Tech
Better known as: Clean, Old-Fashioned Hate
This year's game: Friday, 3:30 p.m., ABC
Record: Georgia, 72-39-5 (acc. to Georgia); 72-41-5 (acc. to Tech)
Current streak: Georgia, 7
While Georgia's 44-42 victory over Georgia Tech in eight overtimes last season might have been the wildest contest in the 118-game history of the intrastate rivalry known as Clean, Old-Fashioned Hate, the most controversial finish happened 25 years earlier.
In the 1999 meeting at Bobby Dodd Stadium in Atlanta, Georgia Tech took a 41-24 lead late in the third quarter. But then Marvious Hester's muffed punt at Tech's 10-yard line gave the Bulldogs new life. They scored 24 straight points to take a 48-41 lead with 5:12 to play. The Yellow Jackets answered right back, however, when Heisman Trophy contender Joe Hamilton threw a touchdown to Will Glover with 2:37 remaining.
That's when things got very weird.
The Bulldogs drove right down the field and were in position to kick a game-winning field goal in the final seconds. On first-and-goal at the Tech 2, Georgia coach Jim Donnan elected to run one more play. Quarterback Quincy Carter handed the ball to tailback Jasper Sanks, who bulldozed his way toward the end zone.
"Right before the play happened, I can remember Miles Luckie, our center, saying, 'Hey, man, hold onto the ball,'" Sanks said.
The Yellow Jackets stopped Sanks short of the goal line, and the ball popped out when he hit the ground. Tech safety Chris Brown picked up the ball just in case.
After a brief huddle, officials ruled that Sanks fumbled and the Yellow Jackets recovered, even though TV replays showed both of Sanks' knees were down when the ball came out.
"He didn't fumble, he was down," Georgia linebacker Kendrell Bell said. "Jasper was lying on his back and eating cookies when it came out."
In overtime, Georgia failed to score when Hester intercepted Carter's pass in the end zone.
The Yellow Jackets had third-and-6 at the Georgia 21 on their overtime possession, and coach George O'Leary sent out kicker Luke Manget to attempt a 38-yard field goal for the win. Bell blocked Manget's kick, but holder George Godsey recovered the ball at the 21, giving Manget another try to win. His second kick was good.
For more than a quarter-century, Georgia fans have argued Sanks was down, while the Yellow Jackets still contend that Sanks fumbled.
On Black Friday, the Yellow Jackets will attempt to become the first Tech team since that crazy finish to defeat the Bulldogs in Atlanta. -- Mark Schlabach and David Hale
Texas A&M @ Texas
Better known as: The Lone Star Showdown
This year's game: Friday, 7:30 p.m., ABC
Record: Texas, 77-37-5
Current streak: Texas, 2
The most dramatic game in the Texas-Texas A&M rivalry is the 1999 game, when the Aggies rallied for a 20-16 win after 12 Aggies died during the building of the annual campus bonfire.
But that one has been well-documented since last year was the 25th anniversary. So for our purposes, we'll go back to 1963, just six days after John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, when No. 1 Texas traveled to 1-6-1 Texas A&M, which was still an all-male military school, in one of the most storied games in the rivalry.
Twice that week, Aggie cadets steernapped the 1,700-pound Bevo VII; the Houston Post called him "ugly but perhaps overly friendly." They first whisked him away from the State Hog Farm in Austin, and the second time they snatched him from a new secret location; he was later found by a Texas Ranger.
Texas students allegedly retaliated by pouring chemicals on the Kyle Field grass to spell out BEVO. The Aggies brought in dirt to help fix the damage, but two days of rain turned it into a mud bath. Frank Erwin, the legendary Texas regent, tried to commandeer the PA system to chastise the Aggies, then issued a public statement at halftime that read: "The condition of the playing field is a disgrace and a reflection upon A&M and its athletic department. No university which makes any pretense of having a major athletic program would permit any such condition to exist."
The Aggies appeared to ice the win with an interception in the end zone, but the play was ruled an incomplete pass, which is still disputed by A&M. "It was the greatest injustice on a group of young fellows I've ever seen," A&M coach Hank Foldberg said.
The Longhorns, down 13-9 in the last two minutes, drove 80 yards for the winning TD on a 1-yard sneak by Duke Carlisle. "I'll tell you, I don't want to win many like this," Darrell K Royal said afterward.
The win clinched Texas' first unbeaten and untied season since 1920 and earned the Longhorns their third straight Southwest Conference title, the first time in the 49-year history of the league a team had won three in a row. Weeks later, Royal would lead Texas to its first national championship with a 28-6 Cotton Bowl win over No. 2 Navy. -- Dave Wilson
Arizona @ Arizona State
Better known as: Territorial Cup
This year's game: Friday, 9 p.m., Fox
Record: Arizona, 51-47-1 (acc. to Arizona); 51-45-1 (acc. to Arizona State)
Current streak: Arizona State, 1
Few games in Territorial Cup history have delivered the kind of emotional whiplash that unfolded in Tucson in 2018. It featured a pair of first-year coaches -- Arizona's Kevin Sumlin and ASU's Herm Edwards -- and by the end of the third quarter, quarterback Khalil Tate had guided the Wildcats to a commanding 40-21 lead. A win would have made Arizona bowl-eligible, partially salvaging what was a disappointing debut season for Sumlin.
Instead, Arizona State turned in a remarkable fourth-quarter comeback that now serves as a fence post in the collapse of Arizona's program over the following two years. ASU quarterback Manny Wilkins led the Sun Devils on four scoring drives: a field goal, a touchdown and a field goal before the go-ahead score came on a 22-yard run from Eno Benjami with 3:08 left in the game. But even after all that, Arizona still put itself in position to win the game after a 14-play, 54-yard drive set up a 45-yard field goal in the waning moments. But again, there was heartbreak as the attempt missed, sealing the win for the Sun Devils.
It was a stunning defeat that Sumlin would never come back from and a prelude to one of the most miserable stretches in Arizona history, in which the Wildcats went 5-24. -- Kyle Bonagura
Ohio State @ Michigan
Better known as: The Game
This year's game: Saturday, noon, Fox
Record: Michigan, 62-51-6
Current streak: Michigan, 4
In 2016, The Game came down to an inch.
In double overtime, Ohio State coach Urban Meyer opted to go for it on fourth-and-1 from the Michigan 16-yard line instead of trying the game-tying field goal. Buckeyes quarterback J.T Barrett ran left, Michigan safety Delano Hall hit his shoulder, bouncing Barrett into the back of Buckeyes tight end A.J. Alexander right at the line to gain.
Relive the Buckeyes' thrilling double-overtime win against the Wolverines in 2016.
Officials initially gave Barrett the first down. Then they upheld the call on video review.
On the next play, Curtis Samuel dashed into the end zone, lifting the second-ranked Buckeyes to a dramatic and controversial 30-27 victory over the No. 3 Wolverines, Ohio State's fifth straight win in the series.
Afterward, Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh ripped the officials, which drew a $10,000 fine and a public reprimand from the Big Ten.
"It was not a first down," Harbaugh said at the time. "I'm bitterly disappointed in the officiating. Can't make that any more clear."
The result eliminated the Wolverines from playoff contention, while catapulting Ohio State to the playoff for the second time in three years.
"One of those great moments," Meyer would later say. A great moment for the Buckeyes -- and a bitter memory for the Wolverines. -- Jake Trotter
Clemson @ South Carolina
Better known as: Palmetto Bowl
This year's game: Saturday, noon, SECN
Record: Clemson, 73-44-4
Current streak: South Carolina, 1
The way the game actually ended in 2004 is a bit of trivia few recall. Clemson won 29-7. The final score hardly mattered.
Most fans remember the pushing and shoving that took place before the game, as South Carolina players milled about at the bottom of the hill inside Death Valley, just as Clemson was making its entrance. That was the fuel.
Gamecocks fans certainly remember the hit South Carolina quarterback Syvelle Newton took on an incomplete pass with just less than six minutes to play. That was the spark.
Everyone remembers the brawl that followed, an explosion of violence in which one Clemson player was seen kicking a helmet-less South Carolina player, police took the field, and play was suspended.
"What an ugly, embarrassing scene it was for both schools and our state," Steve Spurrier later told reporters.
The game was Lou Holtz's last at South Carolina before turning the reins over to Spurrier. Both teams ultimately forfeited bowl bids as a result of the violence.
The Brawl, as it has become known, came just hours after another ugly sports scene, the so-called Malice at the Palace in which several Indiana Pacers players entered the stands during a fight in Detroit against the Pistons.
"My players watched that all Friday night and all Saturday morning. That's all they saw," then-Clemson coach Tommy Bowden said. "And unfortunately it was SEC officials. ACC officials don't let players go inside the 25, but SEC officials didn't know the rules. There were so many compelling factors on top of it being a rivalry."
Holtz admitted afterward his hands were tied in terms of what he could have done to prevent the fight.
"They announced my retirement on Monday, and we played them on Saturday," Holtz told the Associated Press afterward. "I did not have control of the team."
While the brawl was a dark moment in the history of the rivalry between the Tigers and Gamecocks, it turned out to have been a watershed moment.
At the time, Clemson had won seven of the last eight games in the series, and Spurrier used the embarrassment of 2004 as motivation for the school to rededicate itself to football and get the program back on par -- on the field, anyway -- with its chief rival. Although South Carolina lost again in 2005, the Gamecocks would then win six of the next eight meetings, and Spurrier's five-year winning streak from 2009 through 2013 defined Dabo Swinney's early tenure at Clemson.
The Brawl also galvanized the national media. Coming on the heels of the NBA fight, it got tons of attention. In the short term, that was a stain on both programs, as Clemson athletic director Terry Don Phillips said. But it also put the rivalry on the map. For years, it had been overshadowed nationally by other games like the Iron Bowl and Michigan-Ohio State, but suddenly fans who weren't at all familiar with what has become known as the Palmetto Bowl had an understanding of just how heated this rivalry was.
"Because of the fight, it threw some national spotlight to say, hey, they're pretty serious in South Carolina too," Bowden said. -- David Hale
Wisconsin @ Minnesota
Better known as: Battle for Paul Bunyan's Axe
This year's game: Saturday, 3:30 p.m., FS1
Record: Tied, 63-63-8
Current streak: Minnesota, 1
The 2015 Michigan State-Michigan game, famous for Sean McDonough's "trouble with the snap" call and Chris Baldwin's surrender cobra, isn't the only time a punting error in a Big Ten rivalry game left one team's fans in utter disbelief. Ten years earlier, Wisconsin and Minnesota had a midseason meeting at the Metrodome in Minneapolis, renewing the most-played rivalry in the FBS and the battle for Paul Bunyan's Axe.
Both teams were just inside the AP Top 25, and were built similarly, around powerful rushing attacks. But Minnesota held the edge for most of the day, behind Laurence Maroney, who had a mind-boggling 43 carries for 258 yards and a touchdown, and Gary Russell, who added 139 rushing yards and two scores.
The Gophers took a 34-24 lead with 3:27 left on Russell's second touchdown plunge. Even after Wisconsin responded to score with 2:10 to play, Minnesota seemed safe. Wisconsin's onside kick squirted through Minnesota's hands team, but Maroney tracked it down inside the Gophers' 10-yard line.
Unfortunately for Minnesota, that wasn't the last special teams play of the day. After Wisconsin stopped Maroney on third-and-3, Minnesota lined up for a punt, with Justin Kucek standing yards from his own end zone. But the snap bounced off of Kucek's hands, and when he picked it up and tried to punt, Wisconsin's Jonathan Casillas smothered him for the block. The ball bounced into the end zone, where Wisconsin's Ben Strickland recovered it with 30 seconds left to secure a 38-34 win.
ESPN cameras panned to the stands and captured several surrendering cobras.
"When I walked out to shake Barry's hand, we both said at the same time, 'When you think you've seen it all,'" Minnesota coach Glen Mason said, referring to Wisconsin counterpart Barry Alvarez. "The only difference was that he was smiling and I wasn't."
Alvarez, in his final year as Wisconsin's coach, called it "as good of a win as I've had."
Two years earlier, on the same field, Minnesota had won by almost the exact same score (37-34), on a special teams play gone right. Kicker Rhys Lloyd hit a 35-yard field goal as time expired. Heeding Mason's reminder before the kick of Don't forget the Axe, Lloyd took off running for the axe before the ball even sailed through the uprights.
But the Gophers wouldn't recapture college football's most famous rivalry trophy for another 15 years. -- Adam Rittenberg
Florida State @ Florida
Better known as: Sunshine Showdown
This year's game: Saturday, 4:30 p.m., ESPN2
Record: Florida, 38-28-2
Current streak: Florida, 1
There have been some fantastic finishes between the Seminoles and Gators, but it is hard to pick against The Choke at Doak in 1994. Thirty-one years later, that game still resonates with both fan bases. Never again will a game feel quite like this (mostly because there are no more ties in college football).
The Gators and smack-talking coach Steve Spurrier -- who spent the bulk of the season calling Florida State "Free Shoes University" after FSU players allegedly got heavily discounted gear at a Foot Locker -- raced out to a 31-3 lead. The game was so out of hand, then-Florida State coach Bobby Bowden started thinking about what he would say in his postgame news conference to explain such a bleak performance.
Receiver 'Omar Ellison told The Los Angeles Times: "When we were down 31-3, we just wanted to score some points to make this thing respectable so we could go to class on Monday."
"Score some points" ended up being 28 straight in the fourth quarter to come out with a jaw-dropping 31-31 tie. Spurrier, known for "hanging half a hundred" on opponents, went conservative, which was hard for many Gators fans to believe considering his offense was nicknamed The Fun N Gun.
Florida State took advantage of a Gators defense that switched from man to zone as Danny Kannell went 18-of-22 for 232 yards, 1 touchdown and 14 first downs in the fourth quarter alone to finish with a school record 40 completions in 53 attempts for 421 yards. Bowden elected to kick the extra point instead of going for 2 and the win after failing on a 2-point try against Miami in 1987 and ultimately losing the national championship.
That game set the stage for some of the best, and nastiest, matchups between the two while Spurrier was the Gators' coach: The Fifth Quarter in the French Quarter six weeks later in New Orleans; the 1996 FSU win in which Spurrier accused Bowden of dirty tactics on Gators QB Danny Wuerffel; the rematch in the 1997 Sugar Bowl that gave Florida the national title; the Florida upset win in The Swamp in 1997 that ended Florida State's undefeated season; and the 1998 matchup marred by a pregame brawl in which Doug Johnson threw a ball that nearly hit Bowden.
All those games had winners and losers. The Choke at Doak ended in a tie, but it left one side feeling like it had won, and the other like it had lost.
Bowden might have said it best postgame: "It is a pretty dang good win ... I mean tie."
"They were all bragging about the tie. I said, 'Hell, it's the same for you as it is for us,'" Spurrier said.
Maybe in the record book. But that is not how it felt to anybody who played or watched. -- Andrea Adelson
Virginia Tech @ Virginia
Better known as: Commonwealth Cup
This year's game: Saturday, 7 p.m., ESPN
Record: Virginia Tech, 62-38-5
Current streak: Virginia Tech, 4
We've arrived at a must-win moment for Virginia against rival Virginia Tech, with ACC championship hopes on the line for the 9-2 Cavaliers. They've taken down the Hokies just once over their last 20 meetings. Could this year's showdown deliver the same last-minute drama we saw in 2019?
Both teams were 8-3 that year going into a Commonwealth Cup showdown that decided the Coastal Division title and a spot in the ACC title game.
Hendon Hooker fumbles the ball in Virginia Tech's end zone and Eli Hanback recovers it to give Virginia a 39-30 lead.
For quarterback Bryce Perkins and his Cavalier teammates, it was senior day and the culmination of a four-year rebuild under coach Bronco Mendenhall and his staff. It was the perfect day to snap the program's 15-game losing streak to its in-state rival.
In a wild second half featuring a combined 50 points, Virginia had an answer each time Virginia Tech grabbed the lead. Cavaliers linebacker Noah Taylor delivered the game changer by picking off Hendon Hooker with less than five minutes left and the score 30-30, setting kicker Brian Delaney up for a 48-yard, go-ahead field goal with 1:23 remaining.
Virginia's defense had given up a last-minute touchdown and lost in overtime in Blackburg in 2018. This time, they left no doubt. They delivered sacks on first and second down. Then they did it again, with defensive lineman Mandy Alonso stripping Hooker in the end zone and Eli Hanback falling on the ball to clinch a 39-30 victory.
Mendenhall wiped tears from his eyes several times during his postgame news conference, overwhelmed with pride about how far the program had come in finally ending the 15-year drought.
"The stage was not too big for them," he said. "The moment was not too big for them. What was at stake was not too big for them." -- Max Olson
Alabama @ Auburn
Better known as: Iron Bowl
This year's game: Saturday, 7:30 p.m., ABC
Record: Alabama, 51-37-1
Current streak: Alabama, 5
If Punt Bama Punt had happened in almost any other rivalry, it would be forever commemorated as the rivalry's greatest ending. But this is the Iron Bowl, which has produced not only the Kick-Six -- maybe the game's single most fantastic finish ("Auburn's gonna win the football game!" "Auburn's gonna win the football game!") -- but also Van Kiffin's 53-yarder at the buzzer in 1985 (The Kick), and Auburn's 24-point, Cam Newton-led comeback (The Camback), and Alabama's fourth-and-31 touchdown in 2023 (Grave Digger), and Bo Jackson's over-the-top touchdown (1982) and game-losing missed block (1984).
Still, Auburn's comeback win in 1972 was as absurd as it was special. Trailing 16-0 in the fourth quarter, the Tigers got a field goal from Gardner Jett but still had no hope of driving for a pair of scores against Alabama's mighty defense. But they didn't have to.
With 5:30 left, Bill Newton got a hand on Greg Gantt's punt, and the ball bounced perfectly into David Langner's arms, in stride, for a 25-yard touchdown. Alabama nearly ran out the clock, generating two first downs, but came up short on a late third down, so the Tigers came after Gantt again.
And again, Newton blocked the kick, which bounced into Langner's arms for a 20-yard score. Jett's PAT gave Auburn a shocking lead with 1:34 remaining, and because poetry exists, Langner also reeled in the game-clinching interception.
Auburn gained 80 yards in 52 snaps that day but won thanks to the perfect combination of Gantt-to-Newton-to-Langner.
"The last nine minutes were Auburn's and no finer nine minutes are recorded in the annals of Tiger football," wrote Millard Grimes in The Opelika-Auburn News. Auburn linebacker Mike Neel was a little more succinct: "The Lord gave it to us."
At that moment it was difficult to come up with a better explanation. -- Bill Connelly
UCLA @ USC
Better known as: Crosstown Rivalry
This year's game: Saturday, 7:30 p.m., NBC
Record: USC, 51-34-7
Current streak: USC, 2
Though there have been several Crosstown Rivalry games in recent years that have gone down to the wire -- USC's winning field goal in 2000, UCLA's remarkable 17-point fourth-quarter comeback in 1996 and Jason Leach's game-sealing interception for USC in 2004 -- there is a staunch consensus when it comes to the best finish -- and best game -- for this rivalry.
In 1967, USC and UCLA entered the game as evenly matched as possible. USC had only one loss on its résumé (3-0 to Oregon State) while UCLA was undefeated but sported a tie on its record. This game would decide not only the conference champion but also the coveted Rose Bowl berth.
At the time, both teams played at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, meaning the stands were split quite literally -- Trojans fans on the south side of the stadium and Bruins fans on the north side. Both teams had been No. 1 in the country during the season, and the game more than delivered.
UCLA quarterback Gary Beban was nursing a rib injury and had to be helped off the field a few times -- it turned out he had a bruise and a piece of detached cartilage -- yet he stayed in the game and led UCLA to a 20-14 lead in the fourth quarter.
USC head coach John McKay noticed that UCLA kicker Zenon Andrusyshyn's field goals were hit with a low trajectory, so he put 6-foot, 8-inch Bill Hayhoe in the middle of the line. Hayhoe helped block two field goals and an extra point on the final Bruins' touchdown, which kept it a 6-point game.
That set the stage for O.J. Simpson -- who would win the Heisman the following year (Beban won it in 1967) -- to rip off a 64-yard touchdown run on third-and-7 that sent the crowd into a frenzy and won the game for the Trojans. McKay's team won by a point and went on to win the national championship.
ABC broadcaster Keith Jackson called it the greatest game he had ever seen. Legendary Los Angeles Times columnist Jim Murray wrote that he was glad he "didn't go to the opera, after all" and Sports Illustrated featured the game on its cover. It became one of several college football games over the years that has been dubbed "the game of the century." -- Paolo Uggetti
North Carolina @ NC State
Better known as: Carolina-State
This year's game: Saturday, 7:30, ACCN
Record: UNC, 68-40-6
Current streak: NC State, 4
You want fantastic finishes? How about a series of unanticipated terminations, punctuated by an uncharacteristic tantrum?
Less than two months ahead of the 2011 season and less than seven months after beating Tennessee in the Music City Bowl, UNC fired head coach Butch Davis amid ongoing investigations surrounding improper benefits, including allegations of academic fraud by way of "paper classes" for Tar Heel football players. Defensive coordinator Everett Withers was pressed into service as interim head coach and did a nice job of slapping Band-Aids to the hull of Kenan Stadium, rolling the Heels into their Nov. 5 trip down I-40 to NC State with a solid 6-3 record and buzz that he might have earned the full-time gig.
But during a radio interview that week, the Charlotte native and former App State defender said of his employer and the long-bitter "little brother" university on the other side of the Triangle: "I think the kids in this state need to know the flagship school in this state. They need to know it academically. If you look at our graduation rates, as opposed to our opponent's this week, graduation rates for athletics, for football, you'll see a difference. ... If you look at the educational environment here, I think you'll see a difference."
The Raleigh media breathlessly rushed that quote to NC State practice and head coach Tom O'Brien, a stoic former United States Marine who in five seasons with the Wolfpack had never unleashed a Mike Gundy-ish rant. Until then.
"It's a little tougher here if you actually have to go to school and you're expected to have a syllabus and go to class, so you know I think that our guys earn everything that they get here," O'Brien said. "What else did he say?"
O'Brien was told about the flagship comments and Withers making sure to overemphasize "the" in "the University of North Carolina." TOB didn't care much for that, either.
"There's a guy that's on a football staff that ends up in Indianapolis [at NCAA headquarters]. You take three things that you can't do in college football. You have an agent on your staff, you're paying your players, and you have academic fraud. I mean, that's a triple play as far as the NCAA goes. ... If that's what the people want in their flagship university in North Carolina, then so be it."
NC State won the game 13-0, its fifth straight over UNC, holding off a pair of fourth-quarter drives that nearly got the Heels back into the contest. At season's end, Withers was relieved of his duties. One year later, replacement Larry Fedora ended the Heels' rivalry losing streak with a 43-35 win that helped State's case to fire O'Brien at season's end.
None of that matters in the booths of barbecue joints around the Old North State. Tom O'Brien's rant still does. The fantastic tellings of that story will never be finished. -- Ryan McGee