Pieces of Shit? - by Jim Pomeranz
After NC State spanked North Carolina 39-20 last Saturday, Wolfpack coach Dave Doeren offered his players a potty mouth description of the Tar Heels .
I want to beat North Carolina more than the next person in line for every athletics contest between my alma mater—NC State University—and the Tar Heels, “affectionally” known to Wolfpackers as the “Tar Holes” who have their own disrespectful versions of NC State and Duke and their athletes and fans.
Wolfpackers, in general, mean no harm when speaking lowly of the “Baby Blues,” especially when the Red & White is superior (winning by one point is enough) on any location of athletics battles.
Close football wins in 2021 (34-30, after trailing 31-20 with 2:12 left in the game) and in 2022 (30-27 in double overtime) were gratifying, but the recent (last Saturday) 39-20 spanking of North Carolina in the Wolfpack’s over-capacity filled Carter-Finley Stadium took us (Wolfpack fans—alums and hangers on alike) to a different stratosphere of euphoria.
The game was a thorough beating of a team favored by 2.5 points on a wing, prayer, and myth. UNC is/was not as good as the predictors, prognosticators, and odds-makers thought. Even if the experts had thunk it, the Wolfpack would have never been favored by those experts.
The beat down took Wolfpack coach Dave Doeren back to his filthy mouth performance after the game. Earlier this season, on national TV, Doeren said ESPN Game Day guest picker Steve Smith “can kiss my ass” because Smith said State fans were waiting for basketball season, as if the real flagship school (NC State) of the UNC System is a basketball school. Doeren has thin skin, it seems, so the slightest of slights makes him erupt. He did then, and he did last Saturday.
This time, Doeren reserved his nasty comments for the Wolfpack’s post-game locker room celebration. Though he was “mic’d” up for ACCN post-game coverage, the comments came behind closed doors of his celebrating locker room.James Curlee, very active on “X” (formerly known as Twitter), recorded it on his cell phone and posted it, bleeping out the key word.
“Hey, you know it’s been 1,460 days since those pieces of s*** beat us,” Doeren proclaimed to his players in the locker room (as reported on the Sports Illustrated website: SI.com).
It doesn’t take much imagination to know *** is “hit” and when preceded by “s” the missing word is “shit”. Nothing wrong with the media printing the word; a head football coach saying it while knowing it would be repeated to the public is something different. Doeren must have known calling UNC “pieces of shit” would be repeated in many places including here, though here is a minor place for a repeat.
Was Doeren referring to the entire Chapel Hill campus of students, faculty, and staff all the way up to the Chancellor as “pieces of shit?” Or was he sticking it to the football coaching staff, headed by Mack Brown who has more national football titles than Doeren. Or, maybe he was referring to the North Carolina football players. Is Drake Maye a piece of shit? Hardly.
Hey, my son, I’m proud to say, is a graduate of UNC-Chapel Hill, and he’s not a “piece of shit.” He can get a little riled up about his Tar Heels and say bad things about NC State but he’s NOT a “piece of shit.”
In recent history of the rivalry, NC State holds the upper hand, winning six of the last eight games and 12 of the last 17 games. The record for the Wolfpack speaks for itself; No need to call the coaches, players, students, faculty, staff and everyone else at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill “pieces of shit” even in the weak privacy of the post-game locker room celebration.
Surely the players got a kick out of it; surely many Wolfpack fans feel the same and refer to UNC that way (which shows jealousy); but, the best thing for a rivalry is to keep the verbiage clean off the field and win the game on the field. Doeren’s comments this time and last time show his immaturity. It’s also fuel for UNC for next season when the Wolfpack plays in Chapel Hill. Only a win by NC State will remove that incentive from the bulletin board.
Coaches usually have strict team rules, efforts to keep the players in line off the court. Duke basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski had one—and only one—rule for his players: Do nothing to embarrass Duke University. That should be applied to coaches as well. Doeran publicly telling someone to “kiss my ass” and saying an entire well-respected University is made up of “pieces of shit” is an embarrassment to NC State University. It shows immaturity.
Some might think Doeren’s verbal reactions are funny but that just encourages him to do more. Wonder how NC State Chancellor Randy Woodson and the Board of Trustees feel about these comments. We’ll know soon enough because a win over the Tar Heels usually results in an extended contract and a salary raise, despite the public potty mouth.
Maybe there are several underlying factors at work here. Last Saturday’s post-game handshake between Doeren and Brown lasted about a millisecond, if that long. Brown usually has some wisdom to impart, even when losing. Doeren has always been quick to get away from that ceremony. This is not a mutual admiration society.
Could it be the nasty comments about NC State the UNC recruiting coaches say to recruits and portal transfers? NC State coaches no doubt say similar about UNC. Is it a jealousy thing because it appears North Carolina athletics gets more attention than NC State, especially when it comes to predictions and the media wanting one team finishing higher in the standings than the other. (It’s always the media’s fault.)
Whatever the bad blood is now, it seems to have gotten worse in recent years. Maybe it’s just part of life today, a reflection of the Hatfields and McCoys of yesteryear and the hate between the Republicans and Democrats today.
Wolfpack fans do not want athletics director Boo Corrigan and football coach Doeren to break bread with UNC athletics director Bubba Cunningham and football coach Brown to show they can go along and get along. That was tried many years ago; fans of both schools were outraged at the attempt at detente. For the rivalry to remain, there needs to be a pure dislike between the two schools. Sometimes the prodding needs to be kept light and lively, but calling each other names, being disrespectful, is not needed.
All of this reminds me of a joke told many times with many endings. Here are three versions of the same situation:
Lou Holtz, the NC State head football coach, 1972-75, decided to take in the North Carolina State Fair prior to the mid-season game with North Carolina. He was walking down the Midway when approaching him was Tar Heels football coach Bill Dooley who was carrying a pig. As the two got closer, Holtz asked, “Where did you get that?” and the pig said, “I won him at the Fair!”
Updated slightly: Bo Rein/Monte Kiffin/Tom Reed (pick one), NC State head football coaches, 1976-87, decided to take in the North Carolina State Fair prior to the mid-season game with North Carolina and was walking down the Midway when approaching him was Tar Heels football coach Dick Crum who was carrying a pig. As the two got closer, Rein/Kiffin/Reed asked, “Where did you get that?” and the pig said, “I won him at the Fair!”
Now, today: Dave Doeren, the NC State head football coach since 2013, decided to take in the North Carolina State Fair in mid-season with the annual game set for Thanksgiving weekend. He was walking down the Midway when approaching him was North Carolina football coach Mac Brown. As the two got closer, Brown asked Doeren, who was carrying a pig, “Where did you get that?” And the pig said, “I won him at the Fair!”
After the 39-20 very satisfying win over the Tar Heels, I say with tongue in cheek to all the “pieces of shit” at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, you “can kiss my ass!” I say it lightly and without malice; it’s a joke.
Not so much for Doeren, who, despite controlling the rivalry by winning, has a giant chip on his shoulder when it comes to NC State versus North Carolina. He should be above the potty mouth language if he’s going to represent NC State University.
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