NC State football set to host rare ranked non-conference opponent

It’s been a dozen years since NC State hosted a ranked non-conference opponent, but back in 2008, it happened on back-to-back September weekends with contests against No. 15 East Carolina and No. 13 South Florida.

When No. 21 Liberty, the lone holdover from NC State's original non-conference slate after COVID-19 impacted the schedule, visits Carter-Finley Stadium on Saturday at 7:30 p.m., it will be a significantly rare occurrence to have a ranked opponent from outside the ACC on the opposing sidelines.

In fact, since The Associated Press first started publishing its national Top 20 in 1938, only 18 ranked non-conference opponents have visited when the Wolfpack was a either member of the Southern Conference (1938-52) or the Atlantic Coast Conference (1953-present) at either Riddick Stadium (1938-65) or Carter-Finley Stadium (1966-present).

There could have been two more entries on the list below, but the highly anticipated game scheduled against No. 14 West Virginia two seasons ago in Raleigh was canceled because of approaching Hurricane Florence and not rescheduled. Instead, NC State added a home game against East Carolina at the end of the season.

And on Sept. 29, 1939, when defending national champion Tennessee played NC State as part of the college’s 50th anniversary celebration, there was no such thing as preseason polls. The first regular-season poll was published in mid-October that year, and Tennessee was No. 5. The Volunteers finished the season undefeated and ranked No. 2 behind Texas A&M.

The two games in 2008, played so closely together, show the upside and the downside of facing a ranked opponent outside the conference for a team trying to put itself into postseason contention.

In the first, fresh-faced redshirt freshman quarterback Russell Wilson established himself as the Wolfpack’s starter for the next three years with three touchdown passes against the Pirates. The Wolfpack won the contest in overtime, thanks to a fumble recovery by Willie Young on East Carolina’s possession and a 10-yard touchdown run by Andre Brown, two players who would later join Wilson in playing in the NFL.

Wilson gave the first glimpse at his big-play, comeback ability after suffering a concussion in the season-opener against South Carolina, missing most of the second game against William & Mary and falling flat in the third game against Clemson.

However, against South Florida, both Wilson and linebacker Nate Irving were out of action because of injuries, and neither the Wolfpack offense nor defense could make up for those absences against South Florida. The Bulls, just three years after being shutout by the Wolfpack in the Meineke Car Care Bowl in Charlotte, rolled over the home team, 41-10.

Wilson and Irving both returned to the lineup shortly after and, after losing the next three games following South Florida, Wilson led the Wolfpack to consecutive victories over Duke, Wake Forest, North Carolina and Miami to qualify for a postseason bowl game.

Head coach Tom O’Brien’s team lost a narrow decision to Rutgers in the Papajohns.com Bowl in Birmingham, Alabama, 29-23, after Wilson went down with an injury just before halftime.

Tim Peeler is a regular contributor to The Wolfpacker and can be reached at tmpeeler@ncsu.edu.

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