11/4/2020 football Edit

Matt's weekly matters: Best-case scenario for NC State post-bye

Matt Carter • TheWolfpackCentral

Editor

NC State Wolfpack football is 4-2 through six weeks. Realistically, many Pack fans would have immediately jumped out of their seats, raised their hands and eagerly accepted a proposition of having such a record at the bye.

Of course, the absolute best-case scenario would have been going undefeated, but NC State’s shortcomings were exposed by Virginia Tech and North Carolina. A still-young Wolfpack squad is going to have such hiccups on the road, but as sophomore left tackle Ikem Ekwonu said earlier this week, NC State still passed its test of having to play four of its first six games away from Raleigh.

That opens up the possibility for Wolfpack fans to dream big to finish for the final five games.

Before the season, we went with the best-case scenario for each week. We revisit that theme here for the final five games.

NC State Wolfpack football quarterback Bailey Hockman — Redshirt junior quarterback Bailey Hockman will lead the team into the second half of the season after starting the opener. (Ethan Hyman/News & Observer)

• Friday vs. Miami: NC State uses the bye week to throw a few surprises at Miami and start strong, like it did in its season-opening win over Wake Forest. Helping aid the cause is Miami players not appreciating temperatures in the upper 50s around kickoff (ideally, it would have been a much colder).

The net result is that the Wolfpack build up a margin of error, and Miami quarterback D’Eriq King makes a couple of contributions to the “Takeaway Bone.”

• Nov. 14, 2020 vs. Florida State: Here’s the deal: mention “Carter-Finley Stadium” to a FSU fan and it sends a shiver up their spine. There’s a sense from the Florida State side that going to Raleigh is like the Noles’ “House or Horrors”

It’s easy to see why. Among other examples, FSU thought that they had a potential championships contender when it the third-ranked Seminoles blew a 16-0 halftime lead and lost to NC State 17-16 on a fourth and goal play in the final seconds in 2012.

Two years earlier, it looked like FSU was about to steal a late win, but FSU quarterback Christian Ponder inexplicably fumbled while pulling the football back on a play-action pass and State linebacker legend Nate Irving jumped on the loose ball.

NC State will be breaking out the new alternate unis this week, and it gives them the spark needed and continue FSU woes at Carter-Finley.

• Nov. 21, 2020 vs. Liberty: The “plus-one” game looks a bit trickier after Liberty beat Syracuse and every other team it has played this season. They have a game at Virginia Tech this week that should be their biggest test so far this year.

The back half of the scheduled has multiple trap games that could end up being that “what was that loss?” This could be one, but under the best-case scenario talent wins out.

Nov. 28, 2020 at Syracuse: Truthfully, the best-case scenario is that the game is played. Syracuse has been in a precarious situation all years with its numbers due to injuries and opt outs. If it is played, then NC State shows up and plays to its potential to avoid losing to the worst team in the conference (thus far, at least).

Dec. 5, 2020 vs. Georgia Tech: Redshirt sophomore quarterback Devin Leary makes a triumphant return against the team he played his best game against last year and gets revenge for the close loss in Atlanta.