The Wolfpacker predictions: Western Carolina at NC State

Western Carolina travels to NC State Saturday afternoon for a 12:30 kickoff, presuming there are no ramifications from the track of Hurricane Dorian in the Atlantic.

NC State is not expected to have much trouble with the Catamounts, who is 0-1 after losing 49-27 to Mercer at home in its opener. One betting book has NC State an almost six touchdown-favorite in the contest.

Nevertheless, The Wolfpacker staff offers up its prediction on how the season will go.

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I have to confess — I'm not a fan of these types of games.

I understand the reasoning behind them. There are no preseason games for college football teams. This is the closest it can get to such a thing.

Other than the curiosities of how many players will play — like will all the quarterbacks receive live action including redshirt freshman Devin Leary — there is really not much to break down in the contest.

And that's reflected in my predicted score: NC State rolls 51-10.

Previous predictions:

Week 1 vs. ECU — Prediction: 34-17 NC State; Actual: 34-6 NC State

Should I start off with my annual "instead of playing Western Carolina, the Wolfpack should have an extra ACC game, preferably against Duke"?

That is usually followed up with the annual "key to the contest is that nobody sustains any major injuries." After that, if you are a scholarship player and don't play much, even in the fourth quarter, then it's time to have a heart-to-heart about what is needed to improve.

The two biggest predictions are one of the four running backs gets on a roll and goes over 100 yards, and that redshirt sophomore quarterback Matthew McKay works out his deep ball throwing skills and connects on a couple of long ones.

That will lead to a nice 48-3 victory over visiting Western Carolina.

Previous predictions:

Week 1 vs. ECU — Prediction: 38-17 NC State; Actual: 34-6 NC State

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