Fire up the tailgate grills! It’s almost Labor Day, which means college football is finally back! This summer was interminably filled with the wrong kind of football, and we can at last get back to the right kind of football… the one that you throw (and sometimes use your foot).
If you’ve been keeping up with the Lotcast the last few weeks (as I’m sure you have), we’ve been breaking down all the aspects of the team between the vibes (with guest Cory Smith of Pack Power), the offense (with guest Alex Gee of Inside Pack Sports), and the defense. We went through the preseason picks, and we previewed the week 0 opponent UVA specifically.
The vibes are kina weird going into this football campaign. I feel like most of the fans have accepted the position Dave Doeren puts the team in at this point. In year 14 (wow), everyone knows what to expect. When I was doing my preseason picks, I inadvertently ended up with 10 wins and a 7-1 conference record. This was mostly due to the perception of the schedule being very manageable. But then I remembered that Dave Doeren simply does not win 10 games, so I had to go and find two more losses to add since that just feels more accurate.
I struggle to identify just where the vibes are at, and I think that is in line with most opinions on this team. There’s been a large amount of turnover, the portal additions didn’t win anyone over, and it’s hard to predict what we’ll see out of some of the returning players. So instead, I’m not going to assign a vibes level before any games have been played, I will let them come to us after each game. You have to build the vibes, they are not given.
Let’s get to the preseason picks!
As you can see, most of the team has a similar vision for how this season is going to go. I’m sure that means we’ll all be proven right and everything will go according to our predictions.
On the eve of the first game, the team put their final predictions specifically for the matchup against Virginia.
Do I think it’s very likely that NC State will win? Probably not, given Dave Doeren’s track record vs Power Conference opponents within the first 3 weeks of a season:
ACC: 4-2
Boosted by the Covid season being an ACC-only schedule, NC State went 2-1 to start that season. Wins over Wake Forest and Pitt, loss to VT.
Big 12: 1-1
Blowout loss to WVU, decent win over Texas Tech
SEC: 0-3
South Carolina, Mississippi State, Tennessee
Big 10/PAC 12: NA
Overall: 5-6