NC State football wraps up its two-game homestand this weekend as it takes on the Miami Hurricanes on Saturday.
When the two teams take the field this weekend, it will be the 18th time they have met. Miami currently holds an 11-5-1 lead in the all-time series.
NC State does not play Miami often, and the Pack has not been able to find much success against the Hurricanes. It will be seeking its first win against Miami since a 38-28 triumph in 2008.
So far, the 2023 season has been one of ups and downs for the Miami Hurricanes. After a rough campaign last season, second-year head coach Mario Cristobal has largely been able to right the ship.
This season started off strong for Miami; Cristobal’s squad started off 4-0, which included a strong win over Texas A&M. The Hurricanes began to cool off as they faced Georgia Tech — in a heartbreaking defeat, they fumbled the ball late in the game, which allowed the Yellow Jackets to score a walk off touchdown to steal the game. A week later, their solid offensive performance against UNC-Chapel Hill was not enough to power to a victory.
Following a two-game skid, the Hurricanes rebounded with a gritty overtime win over Clemson, which was its first over the Tigers since 2010. Last week, Miami captured another overtime win, this time over Virginia. The Canes powered through adversity — they were outgained in terms of total yardage and lost the turnover battle.
A large factor in the Hurricanes’ success has been the consistent presence of quarterback Tyler Van Dyke. The redshirt junior signal-caller has continued to make progressions to help make Miami’s offense one of the best in the ACC.
Currently, Van Dyke boasts a statline of 1,884 passing yards and 16 touchdowns to eight interceptions. The passing unit as a whole currently averages 272.4 yards through the air.
The Hurricanes benefit from a very strong receiver core that includes the likes of Xavier Restrepo, who has turned in a very impressive season thus far with 648 receiving yards and four scores. The unit also includes Colbie Young and Jacolby George, who each have at least 400 yards and four touchdowns apiece.
Limiting Miami’s aerial attack will be of utmost importance to the NC State defense. On the season, its passing defense has been mostly average — it currently allows 227.4 yards in the air. Last week in a victory over Clemson, the defense was very effective in limiting its passing game while forcing two interceptions.
This week, head coach Dave Doeren will surely look for contributions from a secondary that’s steadily made improvements over the course of the season.
Another facet of the high-powered Miami offense is a running game that’s been able to find sustained success this season. With running back Henry Parrish Jr. at the helm, the unit averages 183.8 yards on the ground per game.
Parrish is currently on pace for a career season; he already has 454 rushing yards and four touchdowns. It will be interesting to see how the Canes use him because he saw limited action last week against Virginia after sustaining an injury earlier in the season.
Once again, the Pack will turn to its run defense, which has mostly been its pride and joy this season. Only averaging 109.6 yards per game, the unit held Clemson to 101 rushing yards last week. With three players with at least 40 tackles, the unit will attempt to prevent Miami from opening up another facet of its offensive playbook.
On the other side of the football, the NC State offense will look to improve on several facets of its game from last week. Despite securing the win, the Pack was outgained in terms of total yardage and only gained nine first downs during the game.
Sophomore quarterback MJ Morris looks to lift up a unit that only compiles a lowly 195.9 passing yards per game. To do this, he will look for freshman receiver Kevin Concepcion, who was responsible for two of the Pack’s touchdowns last week.
However, Concepcion had 83 of the total 138 passing yards in last week’s game, so Morris will need some contributions from the rest of his receiving core.
Saturday presents a favorable matchup for the offense to work on this facet of its game because it faces a Miami defense that currently allows 234 passing yards per contest. In the eight games it has played, five opposing quarterbacks have been able to exceed this mark.
Despite some struggles this season, the Miami secondary still includes some dangerous names, such as safety Kamren Kinchens and cornerback Te’Cory Couch. The Pack will need to keep an eye on these two. Each have at least six passes defended and three interceptions each.
Perhaps the biggest challenge for NC State heading into this weekend is establishing a run game against a very stingy Miami defense. Throughout the season, Pack has faced challenges with establishing consistency in its run game. Last week, the unit only managed to compile 64 total rushing yards, which included 51 from Concepcion. Currently, the Pack’s leading running back in terms of yards is sophomore rusher Michael Allen with 249 rushing yards.
The offense will have to face off against a strong run defense. Currently, the Hurricanes only allow 86.9 rushing yards per game. A large presence in this unit is linebacker Francisco Mauigoa. He has accumulated 40 total tackles and an impressive 11 tackles for a loss. Defensive lineman Rueben Bain has also made his presence known in his freshman season; he has a solid 7.5 tackles for a loss.
Last week, despite perhaps not putting forth impressive stats in certain categories, NC State was able to pull off a crucial win. This week, it will face a Miami squad which has proven to be one of the best in the ACC in several facets of the game, and it’ll need to build off momentum from last weekend to help power it to another key ACC victory.
Kickoff between the Wolfpack and Hurricanes is slated for 8 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 4. The game will be televised on ACC Network.
