Junior corner Mike Stevens has many reasons for wanting to win on Saturday when Miami comes to Carter-Finley Stadium in Raleigh.

For one, he has looked up to and learned much from senior Jack Tocho, his counterpart at corner, and Saturday will be Tocho’s Senior Day.

“We got to finish strong for him,” Stevens noted.

Another reason: bowl eligibility. NC State needs one more win to get a sixth win and receive a possible (likely?) bowl bid.

There is one more reason, more personal-related, for Stevens. Growing up, he and his younger brother Matt Stevens, a redshirting freshman linebacker at NC State, grew up big Miami fans.

“We just watched their game every Saturday,” Stevens, who noted Matt was the bigger fan of the two, said.

The two have a cousin, Tracy Howard, who played defensive back for the Hurricanes and is now a rookie with the Cleveland Browns. His rooting interests with "The U" ran deeper than that however.

“Back when they were real good, I used to watch them,” Stevens noted. “I wanted to be like Sean Taylor, so I looked up to him a lot.”

He even got to take a trip during his freshman year of high school, going with current Clemson defensive back Mark Fields. The Stevens brothers also were taken by their father to Raleigh in 2008, the last time Miami made it to Carter-Finley Stadium. Quarterback Russell Wilson led NC State to a 38-28 win that day.

Ironically, that win secured bowl eligibility for that Pack squad on Senior Day.

The days of being a Miami fan are, it goes without saying, long gone for Stevens, but he still acknowledges that Saturday is “a big game” for him.

“At the end of the day, they are the other team that I would love to beat,” he said.

Stevens would play a large role in winning the game for the Pack. He’s enjoyed a solid junior season, highlighted by his pick six at Clemson to start the second half of that game.

For the season, Stevens has 21 tackles, two pass breakups and an interception.

“I feel like I have grown tremendously just in the little things, details have really separated me from this year to last year,” he noted.

The question is had Stevens picked up a Miami offer in high school, would he still be on the home sideline Saturday?

“I still would’ve come to NC State,” Stevens insisted. “That would have been a good offer, though.”