2025 Week 10 Predictions - NC State @ Miami: a hurricane of emotions

For the last two weeks, I jokingly said, "Do you remember that NC State still has a football team?" It's really unfortunate that there seems to be such little momentum with the football team right now, despite a thoroughly enjoyable win over an alleged top 10 opponent in the last outing. But basketball came in and took all the air out of the room. Like when your younger sibling does one cool thing and everyone starts fawning over them, meanwhile you've been quietly doing well on your own waiting for your flowers. No, this did not come from any personal experience, why do you ask?

Having two non-conference games, then a bye week, two games, and another bye week makes the season feel disjointed. NC State did have one of the biggest wins of the Doeren era with the victory over Georgia Tech, but people aren't sure whether State is legit or GT are frauds. Maybe it's both?

Recap from Week 9 vs Georgia Tech

Look, it was a good win, don't get me wrong. Perhaps even a great win. But GT has legitimately terrible run defense, second to last in the ACC. It's shocking nobody exposed them earlier. But hey, 8-0 is 8-0, not easy to do against any schedule. We can't sneeze at it because NC State hasn't been 8-0 since that time they started 9-0 with Chuck Amato and lost to... checks notes... Georgia Tech. Okay then, they should have beaten these guys by even more.

The NC State defense did all the right things to contain the Tech running attack, especially against QB Haynes King. They really stretched the "bend but don't break" mentality and traded FG's for TD's, which is a very good recipe for success. On offense, give Doeren and staff a lot of credit for staying aggressive and trying to win instead of trying not to lose. They consistently made the right plays to keep the Yellow Jackets at bay. Just overall a great night under the Carter lights.

One fun note is this was the ESPN FPI's (aka Predicto-Bot) first incorrect pick from its predictions. It had given NC State a 42.2% chance of winning, but that had dropped to 28.9% in the days leading up to the game. Take that, computer.

The offensive output was extremely impressive. We were all rooting for Duke Scott to finish with over 200 yards, but came ever so close. And the final score of 48-36 is the most NC State has scored in a conference win since beating Louisville 52-10 in 2018. Who knew they had it in 'em?

Updated look at the team's predictions against their preseason picks week over week.

How well do these predictions add up for the season so far? (note: this table had erros in prior weeks but has been corrected here)

Predictions: Week 10 @ Miami - 11/15/25

If you're wondering just how legit NC State is now, you won't have to wait long. Miami is not "so back", as previously reported, but they are still hella talented. You can set your crystal ball to predict Mario Cristobal's performance after Halloween. Now in his fourth year, his Miami teams are 5-9 in the month of November. Those witches seem to put a spell on him every year. He probably gives out candy corn at his house, or maybe those gross orange peanuts.

For as good as NC State's defense was against Georgia Tech at slowing the running attack (*only* giving up 151 yards), getting crucial stops, and forcing field goals, they still allowed 559 yards of total offense, and 408 passing yards. Not great, Bob.

Miami is a team with a lot to prove. They don't control their own destiny, but must win out to have a hope at an at-large CFP slot if they aren't able to win the ACC. After they lost to SMU, they rebounded with a contentious win over Syracuse, but have razor-thin margins the rest of the way. This is the second top-15 team NC State will play in a row, and Miami seems like the more legitimate one in that tier than GT. The Pack will definitely have their hands full, and will not have as many running lanes available as they did last time out.

In the end, it's hard to know how to feel about this game. The emotional high of the big win last week was great to see. We were very happy for the coaches and players to experience that, and I always support any students who get to experience a good old fashioned field/court storming, those don't come around very often. But given the hot and cold nature of this year's team, that result was more likely a product of the opponent than of some major turning point in the team. We thought after the first three games this season that the issues from last year had been solved, then learned it was more of a factor of the defenses the team faced. We would love to be wrong. If you're with the team, please feel free to pin this to the bulletin board if you need extra motivation.

Alec wanted to make note that if Hollywood Smothers returns to the starting lineup and does not have the offensive output that Duke Scott did, everyone needs to keep in mind the opponent rather than the player. Duke Scott was running through openings not seen since Red Sea parted. He still made the most of it, but regardless of who's running the ball, they will face stiffer challenges this week.

And now, on to our Week 9 predictions!

So, what do you think will happen this week? Let us know in the comments below, and respond in the poll with your pick!

AI Image of the Week

As usual, the computer is ever just so off with the image generation. Why does the bird have one arm? Maybe it got confused about how a bird with wings would wear boxing gloves? These are the kinds of questions for humans, though. No computer could fathom such a quandary.

Funnily enough, I made a joke that last week's image of the wolf running on water perhaps was a hint of a miracle performance of Biblical proportions, yet quickly dismissed it. I guess the computer gets the last laugh there.