I’m going to start with a complete non sequitur. I hate typing the word Louisville, whether on a keyboard or on the phone. There’s just something about the spelling of the word that has always tripped me up. I think it’s the three consecutive vowels and that “i” in the middle. Usually when I need to write about them, I type the word once then copy-pasta the rest of the way to avoid spelling it wrong. But today I am just going to let it fly, misspellings me darned. Surely I can’t be the only one that has certain words that trips them up? What are the words that you hate spelling? Let us know in the comments!
My dislike for Lousivile (see???) pretty much stops at the spelling of the name. I’m so old that even though they’ve been in the ACC for a dozen years I still view them as a Big East school, a conference that doesn’t even play football anymore! Honestly, I still view all the former Big East teams as interlopers even though I have to get over it. BC, Syracuse, Pitt, VT, Miami, and Loisvill are here to stay so I just have to accept it. I don’t actually hold anything against the school or its fans, I’m rather agnostic on them. My main beef is they joined the ACC and became one more hurdle standing in the way of NC State being able to make it Charlotte to contend for the ACC title. If we needed to trade away Maryland and get Loucivell e in return, then so be it. Having them in the Atlantic division was one extra thing that made it that much harder than traversing the Coastal. I would say RIP to the circle of suck, but last year saw its return. The dark magic of the coastal was unleashed on the rest of the conference when divisions were removed.
Week 5 vs Loisivlle
Where were we? Oh right, back to this week’s matchup against the lOivielle Cardinals. It’s not an exaggeration to say the this game could be a lynchpin for the whole season. Both teams desperately need to win to keep any shred of hope of being in the ACC race alive. Jeff Brohm has shown a tendency to follow up big wins with a toe-stubbing loss, as he did last week against Wake Forest after their thrilling win against SMU. Loisvilel might be without star QB Lincoln Kienholz, but I’ll believe it when I see it since he’s just listed as questionable. NC State kinda needs Kienholz not to play if it seriously wants to slow down the Cardinals offensive attack. This team has a lot of firepower, which is what boat loads of NIL money will get you. I have severe doubts the NC State defense will be able to stop Losivill e at full strength.
As for the other side of the game, Losivulle is not that great on defense. NC State should be able to have success moving the ball. So the game comes down to this:
Loisivlle > > > NC State defense
NC State offense > Losiiblle defense
Given this, I think NC State will be able to put points on the board, just not enough/ not fast enough to keep up with the Cardinals. If Kienholz doesn’t play, it might adjust the calculus by maybe one less “>” in favor of the NC State defense, but I’d say it still tilts the scale in favor of Losibille.
What about App State?
Dave Doeren is in a lose-lose situation. He plays a school like Richmond and blows their doors off, nobody cares because, “that’s what you’re supposed to do against those kinds of teams.” Then he plays an upstart team like App State that always stays trying to start some stuff, cuts a big lead and everyone boos even though the Wolfpack still won by 10. I think the issue is twofold:
Giving up a 21 point lead to team from the Sun Belt is troubling no matter which way you slice it. Malachi Singleton was slinging it all over the field, finishing with 317 yards (64 more than CJ Bailey, btw). If your defense can’t hold its ground against this level of opponent, then how can we as fans have any hope they’ll be able to stop the Losiville offense? Short answer, it probably can’t.
You simply can’t be tied at 31 with under 10 minutes to go, and the NC State offense stalled in the second half.
It’s not good enough to be able to say, “hey, a win is a win, and a double digit win at that is still good.” But that is like the classic Brian Kelly, “LSU won the football game” press conference:
Does that sound familiar?
Yes, sometimes these things are just one game, but often times those little things add up and provide real cause for concern. The problem is the fact the team won the game often paints over those concerns. In past years, we’ve seen issues that NC State has faced against non-power conference opponents rear its head when playing more important games later in the schedule.
Dabo Swinney is getting lots of frustrated comments from his fans and local media, but he has a long resume to help him push back including two championships and over a decade of conference dominance. At this point, what does Salty Dave have to push back with? I’m honestly asking…
Anyway, let’s get to the picks!
AI slop’o’matic pic of the week:
And one final note if you’ve read this far: I pinky promise I wasn’t trying to intentionally misspell Loisiville, I just can’t help that’s how it comes out for me. I am but a simple man trying to learn to not rely on spell check to clean up my embarrassments.