What a great week!! The start of the college football season is upon us in just four days (and the start of college basketball practice actually tips off in 31 days).
The national football previews that I have seen over the summer almost unanimously project Dave Doeren’s first installment of NC State Football to be generally ‘middle of the road’ in the national picture – consistently projected to be ‘rated’ somewhere between the #52 and #67 team in the county. You can click here for a prototypical example that has the Wolfpack in at #61; and, most of them say something very similar to the following:
Outlook: With all the changes and the losses the team racked up last season, the Wolfpack certainly could struggle this season. Not only did the team lose its offensive leader in Glennon, it lost a trio of key defensive backs in David Amerson, Brandan Bishop and Earl Wolff. A favorable home schedule, including games against Louisiana Tech, Richmond and Central Michigan, could give NC State a chance to stun the nation with a higher-than-expected win total. Make no mistake, though, Louisiana Tech and Richmond are no cakewalks, and Doeren knows just how tough Central Michigan is from his days in the MAC.
But despite those tepid projections, Sports Illustrated still is looking for the Wolfpack to win enough to become bowl eligible in coach Doeren’s first season. Today, SI projected all of the bowls for the 2013 college football season that included a UAB vs NC State match-up in the AdvoCare (Independence) bowl in Shreveport, Louisiana on New Year’s Eve. That would slot State as the seventh selection from the ACC.
A few other items in SI’s predictions were interesting and worthy of note:
* Florida State to win the ACC Championship. Not Clemson, who is slotted to the Chik-Fil-A Bowl and NOT an at-large BCS selection.
* Maryland is projected to squeak into a bowl as the ACC’s 8th selection during the Terps last season in the conference. NC State and Maryland will square off in the last game of the year and the Terps last game as an ACC institution.
* UNC is picked as the ACC’s #3 selection and is projected to play Cincinnati in the Russell Athletic Bowl in Orlando. That could lead you to the inference that the Tar Heels are expected to make it to the ACC Championship game where they are projected to lose to Florida State.
