2025 Week 7 Predictions - NC State @ Notre Dame: looming leprachauns

Recap from Last Week, Week 6 vs Campbell

Did everyone enjoy watching the open scrimmage last week? It was really nice of Dave Doeren to un-cancel the Spring game, but holding it in the fall during the season to really give the fans a preview of what to expect this season. What's that? I'm being told this was an actual game against an actual D1 opponent that counted towards NC State's actual record. Truthfully, there aren't a lot of positives you can take away from playing such a doormat team like Campbell. In my opinion, there are more negatives than positives, which is really hard to say when winning a game 56-3. Sorry, that's the score ECU beat Campbell by... NC State "only" beat them 56-3.

Pros:

- The team amassed 607 yards on offense, yay big numbers!

- Hollywood Smothers had 123 yards on only 4 rushing attempts, and added another 30 on 2 catches. We thought he had the potential to be an all-ACC level back, but nobody expected him to be at an all-American level.

Cons:

- While the offense looked good, CJ Bailey wasn't quite as accurate as he should be at this point in the year. His throws were a touch behind on many of his passes.

- Muffing a punt to set up the opponent's lone touchdown of the day early in the first quarter is not the way to quell concerns from the crowd as to the momentum of your team's season. RIP to Teddy Hoffman's punt returning career.

- After that turnover, the defense could have stood tall, but got flummoxed on some crossing motion to allow an easy touchdown for Campbell.

- As we talked about on our Discord last weekend (join now!), if you're an opposing offensive coordinator, NC State has put so much poor decision making on tape that any offense worth its salt will just use motion and varying route concepts to pick the Wolfpack defense apart. It's great news then that the Pack's hardest four opponents are in the next five games. Can't wait.

- The potential future may include some growing pains if NC State is unable to retain CJ Bailey's services for next year. Backup QB Lex Thomas looked OKAY, and alleged QB of the future Will Wilson looked like he's easily QB3 and will need a fair amount of time to get up to speed as a college QB.

- I was also disappointed that the backup QB's weren't given enough throwing opportunities. This ALWAYS happens in these types of games. The backups played the whole fourth quarter, and Dave Doeren is just trying to kill the clock and finish the game rather than kicking the tires and taking the backups for a spin around the block. You don't get many of these opportunities, so you should see what you have with these guys against live competition. You could have given each of them a 4-8 play script to go and run to see if they could lead a drive down the field for a touchdown. But no, simple concepts meant to minimize risk. Even with that, Wilson still managed to throw an interception. Doing that against a team like Campbell is concerning to say the least.

- There's already chatter about where Bailey might go (it rhymes with Slysammy), and I'm sure tampering is in full effect right now. It stinks that college sports have been reduced to a one year at a time proposition, and no matter how well a player is doing for your school, you have to keep a portion of your mind worrying about them leaving after the season that's currently in progress.

- The defense only managed 2 sacks against what should have been easy pickins. To their credit, Campbell QB Kamden Sixkiller (killer name, btw) only had 87 passing yards, below his 197 ypg average.

It's weird to feel like you're complaining about a win, and it's nitpicking for sure. But the leeway in the schedule is gone now. NC State heads to South Bend for yet again with a major opportunity for a signature win in the Doeren era. There's no more room for error. NC State wants to entertain ideas of playing in a bowl, which is definitely questionable right now, so they'll need to tighten things up down the stretch.

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?

Predictions: Week 7 @ Notre Dame - 10/11/25

I did a Q&A with Notre Dame site One Foot Down, check it here! I covered all kinds of topics, from the Dave Doeren era, to the appropriate order at Cookout and Bojangles, to the variety of tree species indigenous to both North Carolina and the Raleigh aera. I really go in depth into the history of oak trees in Raleigh, you know, just the kind of content you expect from an NC State sports writer. I am such a professional.

Speaking of the Irish, in his career vs Notre Dame, Dave Doeren is currently 0-2-1*

* = hurricane-assisted

NC State returns to South Bend for the first time since 2017. There was so much hype leading into that game given the quality of the roster that year, and when they lost convincingly 35-14 it was like air coming out of a balloon. I mentioned on the Lotcast this week that, unless I'm wrong, Dave Doeren has never won a road/neutral game against a non-conference power conference opponent, including independent Notre Dame. You can correct me in the comments below if I'm wrong on that one. But the fact that a stat like that SOUNDS right says enough for how confident you should feel about NC State going in and pulling off the upset. Unfortunately, I don't think this roster is equipped to do that, and that doesn't bode well for the remainder of the season. Hold on, as they say, to your butts.

And now, on to our Week 7 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

Spooky season is upon us, and what better way to change themes in the pictures than to show a scary ass leprechaun about to feast on a poor defenseless little wolf. I say defenseless because at this point NC State literally is defense-less.