2025 Week 9 Predictions - NC State vs Georgia Tech: apathy time

Recap from Week 8 @ Pitt

Last week, I jokingly said, "Do you remember that NC State still has a football team?"

The not-so-funny thing is, I don't think NC State remembered either, to the point that I get to reuse this gif:

Dave Doeren teams are usually better when coming off a bye, but it's disappointing that the result was rinse and repeat. The flaws are features, not bugs.

Most of our thoughts have been captured in these posts from Alec and Jackson about where our thoughts are with Dave Doeren's tenure. It's just sad, nobody likes this point in the coaching cycle.

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 9 vs GT - 11/1/25

Last week, I deemed the game against Pitt a must-win game to keep any hope of making a bowl alive. That clearly didn't work out, so the disappointment continues this week against #8 Georgia Tech. It's not every day a top 10 team comes in Carter-Finley. The TRT crew is split on the legit-ness of this Yellow Jackets team, but that doesn't matter: 8-0 is 8-0.

Dave Doeren has never been 8-0 in his life. GT may not have the toughest schedule, and they've skated through some games they could have lost. I mean, they only beat Wake Forest by 1 point, even NC State managed to do better than that. Disregard that Wake Forest is better now than when they played the Pack. On the flip side, NC State is worse than they were during that week 3 matchup, and it's only getting worse with the current injury report if both Hollywood Smothers and Justin Joly don't play.

After this week, NC State has to play another top 10-adjacent team in Miami, followed by hosting complete wildcards in FSU and UNC. Even against those latter two teams, no wins are guaranteed. There's no point in even projecting the final record at this point. It really seems plausible NC State might lose out to end the season on a 6 game losing streak, and 8 of their final 9. There's just no "juice" with this team, absolutely zero vibes. The fans have resigned themselves to the current state of things. Apathy has set in, and everyone has already moved on to basketball. Maybe Steve Smith was right after all.

As I said last week, unless seen otherwise, there is no reason to have confidence that the Wolfpack will be able to stop anyone at this point. They know GT wants to run the ball, and NC State is pretty decent at stopping the run on 1st and 2nd down, but simply can not get off the field on 3rd down. It doesn't do them any good if they limit Tech's running attack most of the time, then give up the usual 60+ yard run. Georgia Tech is likely going to blow the Pack off the line, and it's not going to be pretty to watch. Complete side note: I mostly type GT when talking about this team because I find typing the word Georgia to be hard. I always tend to type it Goergia, then have to redo it, but that's just a personal problem. We can all work to get better.

The most disappointing part of this situation (other than my typing skill) is that Brent Key is only in his third year. He's built this program in a hurry, and done it under Dave Doeren's watch. He's probably up for an SEC job this offseason, but that won't help the Wolfpack on Saturday.

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

The funny thing about AI images is how delightfully off they are. I wanted a picture showing a swarm of bees chasing a wolf as he jumps into water. Instead, the wolf is going towards the bees?... And also apparently running ON the water?? Silly, computer, art is for humans. Although, perhaps it's giving a hint of a miracle performance of Biblical proportions? Nahhhh...