Oh wait, football is still happening? Turns out NC State will be trotting out the football team once again, and I guess every following week to finish out this season. Huh, guess the year didn’t end when Dave Doeren was fired. Weird. Everyone’s already laser focused on what seems to be the inevitable Philip Rivers era and is overlooking the fact that there’s still another four football games to be played.
The first of these four occurs Saturday against Duke. Manny Diaz has that program going in the opposite direction of NC State right now. It’s sad to have the air of inevitability hang over a game like this. Duke isn’t exactly a world beater. They are not invincible, as they currently stand 6-2 (3-2). Technically they’re tied for fifth in the league, but there’s seven teams in this logjam of 0-2 conference losses. Their best wins are against, idk, Illinois (5-3 (3-2))? UVA (4-5 (2-4))? Honestly, who have they really beaten? They lost to Georgia Tech (blech) and UNC (double blech). GT is basically the worst team in the ACC. Really their best win qualitatively is last week against BC, winning 47-2 (go look up how BC scored those two points, amazing stuff).
That big win causes recency bias to think they’ll come into Raleigh and torch the Wolfpack. Are the Pack going to still be in “get one for the Gipper” mode? If you don’t get that reference, ask your dad, and also, know your CFB history. NC State was working last week to win for their recently fired head coach. Whether that will continue this week will be the bellweather for how the remainder of the season will go. The Duke’s Mayo Bowl is still on the table for NC State, so, you know, everything still left to play for!
Let’s get to the picks!
