North Carolina State University Athletics
Saturday, November 18
Winston-Salem, N.C.
7:30 p.m.
NC State
at
Wake Forest
Old Rivals NC State and Wake Forest Meet for 111th Time
11/17/2017 9:50:00 AM | Football
Game Day Central | Thursday Football Notebook
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RALEIGH, N.C. - After facing 10 straight out-of-state opponents, the NC State football team will go local the last two weeks of the regular season. A trip to Wake Forest (6-4, 3-3 ACC) on Saturday is on the immediate horizon before the #25 Wolfpack (7-3, 5-1) finishes up with a home game against North Carolina next weekend.
Kickoff from BB&T Field in Winston-Salem is set for 7:30 on Saturday night, and the game will be televised nationally on ESPNU.
"I think the pride you have for being the best team in the state and having a better record than all of them at the end, I think all of those things come into play and you use it in recruiting," said NC State head coach Dave Doeren. "One thing that makes this state unique is having four conference teams in the state and we get to play two of the three. I think it matters to our guys."
This season, there's no debate over who the best two football teams in the state are heading into the weekend. Both NC State and Wake Forest are bowl eligible already, but with a strong finish, both will move up the bowl pecking order.
There's one more carrot out there for the Wolfpack: no team in school history has won as many as seven ACC games in the same season, so with consecutive victories the next two weeks, this NC State squad can make history.
"Being a senior, it would be nice to do something that's never been done here before," NC State linebacker Airius Moore said. "One thing coach D talks about a lot is being elite. Being 7-1 in the ACC is something we could say that we did. That's one of the things that's driven us to get better every single week."
Five previous NC State teams have won as many as six league games, the last posting such a record was the 1994 Wolfpack.
On Saturday, Wake Forest will present quite an obstacle to NC State's aspirations. Featuring perhaps the hottest offense in the conference, the Deacons nearly created a power overload in the Carrier Dome scoreboard last Saturday by rolling up 64 points in a come-from-behind victory over Syracuse. Among other things, the Deacons outscored the Orange 40-5 in the second half and piled up 734 yards of total offense. Quarterback John Wolford was responsible for many of those yards, by passing for 363 and rushing for 139 more.
While Wake's offensive schemes won't be foreign to the NC State defense, the Deacons' execution of those schemes is what has been setting them apart in recent weeks.
The Deacs rely heavily on RPO's (run-pass options), which, when executed properly, can, among other things, slow down opposing pass rushers like NC State defensive end Bradley Chubb.
"To be honest, you're not in a pass rush because everything looks like a running play until the last minute," Chubb said. "You can't get frustrated with how he's getting the ball out. We've just got to get our hands up, bat balls up and hopefully get them in third and long situations where we can actually rush the passer."
No one in NC State history has done that better than Chubb, who surpassed Mario Williams last week as the Wolfpack's all-time leader in both sacks (26) and tackles for loss (57.5).
Keeping Chubb off his quarterback is one of many concerns for Wake Forest coach Dave Clawson. The last two games in the series have gone the Wolfpack's way, primarily because of what's happened in the first quarter.
"We have never defended these guys well," said Clawson, now in his fourth year with the Deacons. "Last year we were down 17-0 at the quarter. Two years ago we were down 28-0 at the end of the first quarter. They have done a great job of getting their guys ready to play our game, and I have not done as good a job in this game for our football team."
Given Wake's offensive prowess in recent weeks, NC State wouldn't mind playing keep away on Saturday. At its best this season, the Wolfpack has done a good job staying on the field for long periods, thanks to the controlled passing of quarterback Ryan Finley and the running of tailback Nyheim Hines. Coming off his fourth 100-yard rushing game of the season last week at Boston College, Hines is just 202 yards shy of giving the Pack a 1000-yard rusher in back-to-back years after Matt Dayes eclipsed that plateau last season. NC State hasn't had 1000-yard rushers in consecutive years since Ted Brown pulled it off in 1977-78.
NC State has won three straight in the series, the most consecutive wins over Wake Forest since 2000-02. The Pack ended a six-game winless streak in Winston-Salem with a 35-17 win in 2015.
"We did play very well last time we were down there, and that hasn't been traditionally how NC State plays at Wake," said Doeren. "We know that not only do we have to do that again, but this is probably the best Wake team we've played since I've been here. I think they're playing really good on offense. Their quarterback's exceptional right now."
The Wolfpack Sports Network will begin pregame coverage on Saturday starting with the Matthews Motors Pregame Show at 5:30 p.m. In the second hour of the pregame, Gary Hahn, Johnny Evans and Tony Haynes take over from the booth. Once again this season, Evans, a former Wolfpack All-American, will take questions from fans about Pack football on 'Ask the Analyst.' Send Johnny questions on Twitter@packradio or click HERE to submit online.
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| #25 NC State (7-3, 5-1) at Wake Forest (6-4, 3-3) | |
| Date | Saturday, Nov. 18 |
| Time | 7:30 p.m. |
| Location | Winston-Salem, N.C. |
| Stadium | BB&T Field |
| TV | ESPNU |
| Streaming | ACC Network Extra |
| Radio in NC | Wolfpack Sports Network |
| National Radio | Tunein, Sirius 108, XM 193 |
| Live Stats | WakeForestSports.com |
| Social Media | @PackFootball, PackFootball |
RALEIGH, N.C. - After facing 10 straight out-of-state opponents, the NC State football team will go local the last two weeks of the regular season. A trip to Wake Forest (6-4, 3-3 ACC) on Saturday is on the immediate horizon before the #25 Wolfpack (7-3, 5-1) finishes up with a home game against North Carolina next weekend.
Kickoff from BB&T Field in Winston-Salem is set for 7:30 on Saturday night, and the game will be televised nationally on ESPNU.
"I think the pride you have for being the best team in the state and having a better record than all of them at the end, I think all of those things come into play and you use it in recruiting," said NC State head coach Dave Doeren. "One thing that makes this state unique is having four conference teams in the state and we get to play two of the three. I think it matters to our guys."
This season, there's no debate over who the best two football teams in the state are heading into the weekend. Both NC State and Wake Forest are bowl eligible already, but with a strong finish, both will move up the bowl pecking order.
There's one more carrot out there for the Wolfpack: no team in school history has won as many as seven ACC games in the same season, so with consecutive victories the next two weeks, this NC State squad can make history.
"Being a senior, it would be nice to do something that's never been done here before," NC State linebacker Airius Moore said. "One thing coach D talks about a lot is being elite. Being 7-1 in the ACC is something we could say that we did. That's one of the things that's driven us to get better every single week."
Five previous NC State teams have won as many as six league games, the last posting such a record was the 1994 Wolfpack.
On Saturday, Wake Forest will present quite an obstacle to NC State's aspirations. Featuring perhaps the hottest offense in the conference, the Deacons nearly created a power overload in the Carrier Dome scoreboard last Saturday by rolling up 64 points in a come-from-behind victory over Syracuse. Among other things, the Deacons outscored the Orange 40-5 in the second half and piled up 734 yards of total offense. Quarterback John Wolford was responsible for many of those yards, by passing for 363 and rushing for 139 more.
While Wake's offensive schemes won't be foreign to the NC State defense, the Deacons' execution of those schemes is what has been setting them apart in recent weeks.
The Deacs rely heavily on RPO's (run-pass options), which, when executed properly, can, among other things, slow down opposing pass rushers like NC State defensive end Bradley Chubb.
"To be honest, you're not in a pass rush because everything looks like a running play until the last minute," Chubb said. "You can't get frustrated with how he's getting the ball out. We've just got to get our hands up, bat balls up and hopefully get them in third and long situations where we can actually rush the passer."
No one in NC State history has done that better than Chubb, who surpassed Mario Williams last week as the Wolfpack's all-time leader in both sacks (26) and tackles for loss (57.5).
Keeping Chubb off his quarterback is one of many concerns for Wake Forest coach Dave Clawson. The last two games in the series have gone the Wolfpack's way, primarily because of what's happened in the first quarter.
"We have never defended these guys well," said Clawson, now in his fourth year with the Deacons. "Last year we were down 17-0 at the quarter. Two years ago we were down 28-0 at the end of the first quarter. They have done a great job of getting their guys ready to play our game, and I have not done as good a job in this game for our football team."
Given Wake's offensive prowess in recent weeks, NC State wouldn't mind playing keep away on Saturday. At its best this season, the Wolfpack has done a good job staying on the field for long periods, thanks to the controlled passing of quarterback Ryan Finley and the running of tailback Nyheim Hines. Coming off his fourth 100-yard rushing game of the season last week at Boston College, Hines is just 202 yards shy of giving the Pack a 1000-yard rusher in back-to-back years after Matt Dayes eclipsed that plateau last season. NC State hasn't had 1000-yard rushers in consecutive years since Ted Brown pulled it off in 1977-78.
NC State has won three straight in the series, the most consecutive wins over Wake Forest since 2000-02. The Pack ended a six-game winless streak in Winston-Salem with a 35-17 win in 2015.
"We did play very well last time we were down there, and that hasn't been traditionally how NC State plays at Wake," said Doeren. "We know that not only do we have to do that again, but this is probably the best Wake team we've played since I've been here. I think they're playing really good on offense. Their quarterback's exceptional right now."
The Wolfpack Sports Network will begin pregame coverage on Saturday starting with the Matthews Motors Pregame Show at 5:30 p.m. In the second hour of the pregame, Gary Hahn, Johnny Evans and Tony Haynes take over from the booth. Once again this season, Evans, a former Wolfpack All-American, will take questions from fans about Pack football on 'Ask the Analyst.' Send Johnny questions on Twitter@packradio or click HERE to submit online.
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Monday, November 24