I doubt many of you need explanation, but I’ll throw it out there anyway. I’m not sure there has been a bigger game in Chuck Amato’s career at NC State. It certainly has the feel of a major turning point, one way or the other.
What a win would mean: A 2-0 start in the conference, with both wins against consensus “first division” teams. The possibility of real momentum, knowing that a home win against Wake would put us at 3-0 in ACC play, with very winnable road games at Maryland and Virginia up next. The schedule would set up well for a possible showdown game at Clemson for the division title (even though it would be a very hard game to win, at least we’d get our shot). Assuming we somehow beat Clemson, we would hold tiebreaker edges over everybody, meaning we’d control our destiny if we could just get to 6-2.
What a loss would mean: Our overall record would drop to 2-3, with 4 of our 6 remaining ACC games on the road. The Wake game would be do or die for conference/decent bowl positioning. A division title would probably require State to run the table. We would only have the Evans miracle keeping the season from being a complete disaster, as the losses to Akron and USM look even worse after those teams’ performance in recent weeks.
Let there be no doubt – we have a national stage to take advantage of a fantastic opportunity to establish some real program momentum. Amato simply must get it done tonight. He’s not likely to get such a chance again, with a weak ACC so ripe for the picking.
