Syracuse Orange football 2021 opponent preview: NC State Wolfpack

The Syracuse Orange football season starts in just two months, as you may not have already noticed. Get to know the songs moving at a brisk pace, site group previews have begun, and the pre-magazine has continued its annual (2018 aside) shadow campaign toward SU football space, although this is likely to be a justified 1-10 campaign in recent years.

As every year, the coming season also means that we continued our early examination of all 12 future opponents of Syracuse. Last week, it was the Louisville team looking to go back to their own disappointing season. This time we will focus on:

NC State Wolfpack

School: State University of North Carolina

Mascot: Susilauma

# BRAND slogan (s): # 1Pack1Goal

Alternative # BRAND slogan suggestions: No, WE ARE Russell Wilsons Alma Mater OR OUR STATE … except when the ECU beats us

Recommended blog: Packaging support

Conference: ACC

History vs. Syracuse: Things have been pretty good NC State in this series, which dates back to 1972. Pack won the first six games before Syracuse’s victory of 24-10 in 2013 broke the pipe. State followed it for four more in a row before SU hung them on the Domain in 2018. However, Cuse has lost the last two games in a completely debilitating way. You don’t want to talk about 16-10 losses in Raleigh or the fourth peak in recent years, but they do exist.

Photo: Grant Halverson / Getty Images

Coach: Dave Doeren, Season 9. A citizen of Doerens who played tight in Drake before jumping to the right high school alma mater coach for a short trip before going back to Drake to deal with linebackers and then the defensive coordinator. He spent several years as a grad assistant at USC, then jumped to Montana and was the Kansas Defense Coordinator until 2005. Doeren ran the Wisconsins defense in 2006-10, which earned him the job of head coach for Northern Illinois. A 23-4 match in two years was enough to get him to NC.

In the state, he is only 55-46, but has largely found success and brought talent. The culmination of his accomplishments was a nine-win season in 2017 and 2018, which can be seen as either good or bad depending on your perspective on how many games he should have won with talent on these lists.

The 2020 record: (8-4) (7-3)

Summary of the last season

The 4-8 campaign in 2020 certainly put some pressure on Doeren, but winning last year’s eight games silenced concerns quickly enough. The package won Wake Forest in the first week, before smoking Virginia Tech nine games later. After three straight wins, they lost two in a row to UNC and Miami, and then threw four straight wins to qualify against the regular season, including nail clamp Syracuse, who may have ended differently, unless a few questionable late decisions by Orange. State also lost the tight Gator Bowl to Kentucky, 23-21.

The NC state offenses were not necessarily anything special, ranking 74th in the country at 385 yards / game. while the score is 30.3 points. The running game had ups and downs, averaging just 122.5 yards per game, but they were in the top 40 past the attack. Between Bailey Hockman, Devin Leary, and others, Pack threw over 3,000 yards and collected 24 touches in the air. State QBs also spread the ball pretty well around them, with six different players grabbing 20 or more. Although the teams rushed heavily, both Zonovan Knight and Ricky Person did solid individual work averaging at least 4.37 yards per stump.

The defensive side, the State, gave 415 yards and 29.2 points per game so far in the middle of the road when four different opponents scored at least 40 points for them. However, Pack was one of the best teams in the nation to achieve after resisting the QB, collecting 32 sacks (led by Daniel Joseph with 6.5). They only forced 13 fetches, so they had a big part of their game. A profit minus six in the turnover margin means they may have bad luck.

Photo by Justin Berl / Getty Images

Outlook for the 2021 season

At this point, it’s pretty clear that the 2019 season was a bit of a deviation, but was it also last year? This will be a key issue for Doeren and Wolfpack this fall as they face a tighter schedule in 2021. Together with a hard, non-conference road State of Mississippi in week two there are difficult home games against Clemson, Louisville and North Carolina. More Conference Slate Boston College, Miami, State of Florida and Wake Forest, and a team as good as last year could stop falling.

Leary returns to the middle and that’s a good thing considering he was a better playmaker. In just four matches last year, he completed 60% of his throws with 890 yards and eight touches (just two selections). The NC state loses only one of the teams ’five goals last year (tight-headed Cary Angeline), and both Knight and Person return, so the team is equipped with experienced players. In addition, four of the five line starters have also returned. Many of the things that worked in favor of the Pack Crime seem ready to work again in 2021.

The defense has a lot of experience to return, and the team will add Marshall’s safety transfer to Derek Pitts (42 tactics, 1.5 TFLs last year) and Florida State Security Cyrus Fagan (41 matches, one Int in 2019). Of the amazing last 15 (and 12 best) fighters, 13 are all back, and last year the young team now has plenty of clicks that tell of an improvement this time around.

Syracuse Game Day: Saturday, November 20th

Location: Carter-Finley Stadium, Raleigh, North Carolina

Odds on orange win: 30%

Very early view vs. Syracuse

As long as NC State was able (and perhaps should) lose the Orange match easily in recent years, they didn’t have and had a team that seems to be at least as good as 2020, if not better. When Syracuse travels to Raleigh (a place they’ve won only once) against a group experienced on both sides, it’s hard to see SU going to victory from it. The 30% chance of winning may be optimistic, but the close game of recent years and Doeren have been good to lay eggs every year. No matter how good or bad each side has been since SU joined ACC, these have all been pretty close games, five of which have become single-digit and all have been decided by up to 15 points. It makes sense to expect the same here again, to win or lose.