The NC State football team will be back in action Saturday night taking on No. 22 Florida State in this year’s Military Appreciation Game.
The Wolfpack (4-4, 1-3 ACC) is coming off a tough 21-14 loss against Boston College, a game which NC State was favored to win. Meanwhile, the Seminoles (5-3, 2-3 ACC) are also trying to rebound after losing a close game to Clemson 37-34. This is a pivotal matchup for both squads, as the Pack needs two more wins to become bowl eligible and FSU tries to stay in the national rankings.
After the surprising loss to Boston College, NC State will need to exceed expectations in order to notch two more wins in its remaining four games. That being said, this week’s game could be an opportunity for the Pack to steal a game as an underdog.
NC State has a history of playing well against the Seminoles at home, having beaten them twice in the last three games played in Raleigh. Also, for whatever reason, head coach Dave Doeren and his team have played well in games under the lights in Carter-Finley Stadium. Doeren is 7-1 in home night games and the team has only lost one home night game since 2010.
“I’m hoping for a great crowd with it being a night game against a great opponent with Florida State,” Doeren said in a press conference held by NC State Athletics Monday.
This history, along with the Noles having had an up-and-down season could be a winning combination for the Wolfpack. However, even though FSU is not having the season that they likely hoped for, the Seminoles are still a strong team with a lot of talent.
Offensively, FSU has arguably one of the best running backs in the country with junior Dalvin Cook, and young, redshirt freshman quarterback Deondre Francois has been effective.
“Dalvin Cook is a fantastic player and picked up where he left off last year, [he] runs hard, can cut, sees things, catches the ball well, finishes runs [and is] hard to tackle,” Doeren said. “Francois has gotten better and better as the year’s gone on, he’s completing over 60 percent of his passes and has 11 touchdowns.”
Doeren continued by saying that Francois also has quite a few weapons in his passing arsenal, such as junior wide receiver Travis Rudolph and sophomore tight end Ryan Izzo.
Defensively, Doeren noted the strength of FSU’s secondary and its ability to play a lot of man coverage with skilled cornerbacks such as sophomore Tarvarus McFadden who leads the nation in interceptions. He also described the Nole’s D-line as “active” and specifically praised the abilities of junior tackle Derrick Nnadi and sophomore end DeMarcus Walker.
“The best thing that you can say about them right now is they’re plus seven in turnover margin,” Doeren said. “So they’ve done a nice job taking care of the football and getting it back defensively. It’ll be a great challenge for us.”
Facing the Noles stingy secondary should indeed be a great challenge and opportunity for redemption for NC State’s Ryan Finley. The redshirt sophomore quarterback started the season well, throwing no interceptions through the first five games, but has thrown two interceptions in each of the last three games.
Additionally, the Pack’s offensive line will need to show improvement from last week in order for the run game to start having success again. Senior tailback Matt Dayes has been held to less than 50 yards rushing in each of the last two contests. It will be interesting to see if the NC State coaching staff will start to incorporate others like junior Jaylen Samuels or sophomore Nyheim Hines into the run game to add some variety and be less predictable.
If State can get its running game going it could lead to opportunities for Finley to take advantage of the deep threats the wide receiving corps possesses in redshirt sophomore Stephen Louis, senior Bra’Lon Cherry and freshman Kelvin Harmon.
Lastly, one other factor that could help NC State win is success on special teams. Sophomore punter A.J. Cole III was recently named a candidate for the 2016 Ray Guy Award identifying the nation’s top collegiate punter. Meanwhile, Hines could be primed for a big game, after having a key 56-yard return that gave his team the chance to tie the game against Boston College last week.
The bottom line is that the Wolfpack has shown it can compete with some of the top teams in the nation, and if it puts the last few weeks behind itself and executes properly it can beat Florida State. It would be an important win to get back on track and keep its bowl hopes alive. If the Pack can get this tough test out of the way, fans can have some optimism about the remaining games of the regular season.
A version of this article appeared in print on Nov. 3, 2016 on page 12 with the headline: Wolfpack to host Seminoles Saturday
