Following its first bye week of the season, NC State football returns home to take on the Stanford Cardinal on Saturday at noon.
After traveling to the West Coast last week for the first time since 1960, the Pack will also take on another first in the inaugural meeting between the two programs. Separated by 3,000 miles, conference realignment has helped connect these two teams.
This season, the ACC added three new teams to the conference. So far, No. 20 SMU has shown itself to be one of the best teams in the league and California has looked promising. At the beginning of the season, it appeared Stanford was also on track to have a successful first season in the conference.
Starting the season 2-1 with a marquee win at Syracuse, the Cardinal appeared to have lots of potential. Then came a matchup with Clemson in Death Valley. Losing convincingly, this kickstarted a string of five straight losses. Suffering blowout losses to Virginia Tech, Notre Dame and SMU, the Cardinal followed the poor form up last week with a narrow loss to Wake Forest.
This is a troubling trend for second-year head coach Troy Taylor. After compiling a 3-9 mark in his first season at Stanford, he is in danger of likely missing out on bowl eligibility again with a 2-6 record. Fortunately for the team, this weekend will be the final trip it will have to take to the East Coast.
So far this season, Stanford has suffered from lackluster showings on offense; evidenced by five straight games in which the highest it scored was 24 points. The unit as a whole only compiles 305.6 yards of total offense per game — the second-lowest in the ACC.
The low mark of the offense is the passing game as Stanford only averages 175.8 yards through the air , ranking last in the ACC. With the return of veteran quarterback Ashton Daniels, the offense looked to build off the success Daniels had last season. However, this year has seen Daniels and the unit take a step back with the most complete passing game coming in a Week 2 blowout win over Cal Poly.
Despite the growing pains, the unit boasts a star talent in wide receiver Elic Ayomanor. Bursting onto the national scene last season as a freshman, he secured his spot as a First-Team Freshman All-American. Even though Ayomanor’s production has seen a decline this season, he is still more than capable of making big plays and has 484 yards and four touchdowns on the year.
The Stanford offense is rounded out with a rushing attack that has been effective at times. The leading rusher is Daniels, who has helped shoulder a fair load of the burden with 352 rushing yards. He is complemented by two other backs in Micah Ford and Chris Davis Jr. who have a combined 541 yards this season. Another key name to keep an eye out for is running back Justin Lamson, who boasts all four of the team’s rushing scores on the year.
This is perhaps good news for an NC State defense that has, for the most part this season, not looked like its normal self. Coming off a trip to Cal in which it allowed its opponent to throw for nearly 300 yards, there is definitely room for improvement. The unit allows an average of 241 yards through the air per game. Undoubtedly, the secondary will look to do what it can to contain Ayomanor who has accounted for a large portion of the passing game’s success.
NC State will also look to improve upon its ground defense, an area it made strides in last week. Despite allowing two scores to California’s leading rusher, the Pack largely contained the rest of the attack with 42 yards coming from rushers outside of the opposition’s leading man. With the continued absence of redshirt junior linebacker Caden Fordham, the defense will have to find ways to fill in for his absence with names like graduate defensive lineman Davin Vann and redshirt junior linebacker Sean Brown.
On the other side of the ball, the Wolfpack will look to build off a very uplifting offensive showing in which freshman quarterback CJ Bailey passed for 306 yards and two scores. Bailey will lead the charge against one of the worst pass defenses in the ACC. The unit does contain the likes of safety Mitch Leigber and cornerback Collin Wright who each have two interceptions on the season.
While the passing component has continued to improve, NC State still has yet to find a consistent identity in the rushing aspect, as the team only put up a collective 29 yards against Cal. For seven consecutive games, the Pack have failed to produce a 100-yard rusher. This week should be another tough test as the Stanford defense allows 127.8 yards on the ground per contest. Anchored by linebacker Tristan Sinclair, the unit has only allowed one rusher over the century mark this season.
This week will mark the fifth noon game that NC State has played, which will be the earliest Stanford has had to play a game. With its body clock technically being at 9 a.m. when the game starts, this perhaps gives the Pack an extra advantage at kickoff.
