It’s almost fitting that one of the most highly anticipated NC State football seasons ever begins in Greenville against East Carolina, a place where the Pack has historically struggled.
NC State only has one win to its name in Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium, with that lone victory coming in 2007, and has lost its last two visits.
The last two times the teams met in Raleigh, it was a much different story, with the Pack pounding the Pirates by a combined score of 92-9 in 2018 and 2019. At that point, the Pirates’ program was going through upheaval as it was transitioning from former head coach Scottie Montgomery to current head coach Mike Houston.
Now in his fourth season, Houston has had time to fit the program into his mold. The effects started to show last season, when the Pirates went 7-5 to secure their first winning season since 2014, inspiring a renewed sense of optimism within the program.
Simply put, this is no cakewalk of a season-opener for NC State. In fact, this should be one of the toughest road games the Pack has to play all year.
NC State fans know that every time the Pack plays ECU, the Pirates give the red-and-white their best shot. For decades, ECU and its fans have felt slighted that the school isn’t a member of the ACC, and the Pirates have a chip on their shoulder every time they play a program in the conference.
For ECU, it’s the Super Bowl. It’s the biggest game of the year. And this year, ECU would love nothing more than to spoil NC State’s high hopes by knocking off the Pack in the season-opener.
The circumstances surrounding this year’s matchup share similarities to a matchup between the two teams in 2008. In that one, 15th-ranked ECU came into Raleigh for an early-season matchup against the Wolfpack. The Pirates, like NC State this year, had hopes of making noise at the end of the season, but a young freshman quarterback named Russell Wilson helped the Pack spoil those hopes with a 30-24 overtime win.
Almost 15 years later, ECU will be looking to reverse those roles as the Pack enters Saturday ranked No. 13 and the Pirates have an upstart squad of their own that is due for a big win.
A big part of the reason why ECU had a winning record last season was the play of quarterback Holton Ahlers, who returns for his fourth season as the starter. The Pirates also return their two leading tailbacks Keaton Mitchell and Rahjai Harris, along with several key starters on defense.
All five of ECU’s losses last season came against good teams: Appalachian State, South Carolina, Central Florida, Houston and Cincinnati. The Pirates only lost to South Carolina on a last-second field goal, and they lost to Houston in overtime.
ECU was right there in many of its games, just a play or two away from taking down some big names. It will now hope to take down perhaps its biggest rival and reestablish itself as a burgeoning football program.
On top of the anticipation and expected intensity, the game will likely be scorching hot for the players. Labor Day weekend in one of the hottest areas of the state is likely to make things uncomfortable, and after the Pack didn’t play a single noon kickoff last season, it will be thrown quite literally back into the fire to start 2022.
Nobody ever said it was going to be easy for the Pack. It’s going to be hot. It’s going to be rowdy. It’s going to be tough. But if NC State wants to break out this season and prove itself, it has to get through ECU first.
Kickoff is set for noon on Saturday, Sept. 3, and the game will be televised on ESPN.
