NC STATE WOLFPACK vs. WAKE FOREST DEMON DEACONSKickoff: 3:30 pm (10/3/09)
Location: BB&T Field, Winston-Salem, NC
Television: ESPNU
Records: Wolfpack: 3-1 , Deacons: 2-2
On Saturday, the Wolfpack will make the trip up to Winston-Salem to face off against the 2-2 Wake Forest Demon Deacons. The Wolfpack will come in fresh off of a confidence building victory against, Big East foe, Pitt, while the Deacs are coming off a heartbreaking overtime loss against Boston College. This will be the first ACC opponent that the Wolfpack will face this season and their first time taking the field away from home in 2009. This game will surely be a test for the NC State defense, as Wake Forest boasts a running attack that currently ranks third in the conference. The defense will not only need to make tackles (over 40 missed in the two games against D-1 opponents) but also stay disciplined since Wake is known as the masters of misdirection.
QB SHOWDOWN
The match-up will also star the ACC's top two quarterbacks in Russell Wilson and Riley Skinner. Wilson leads the ACC with a QB rating of 169.56, while the senior Skinner is hot on his tail with a 156.37 rating. Both also are sitting in the top three in overall passing yards so far this season and both a very heady signal callers with great leadership ability and a very strong will to win.
PACK BEGINS DEFENSE OF 'STATE' TITLE
The Wolfpack begins its defense of the unofficial 'state' title this weekend at Winston-Salem. NC State will play Duke on October 10 and will finish the season with North Carolia on November 28th.
Head coach Tom O'Brien has been particularly strong when playing against i-state rivals since arriving in Raleigh. O'Brien has posted a 6-1 mark against FBS teams from the state of North Carolina, including a perfect 3-0 mark at home. In fact, his only loss to an in-state school was at Wake Forest in 2007.
The Wolfpack posted wins over North Carolina , East Carolina, Duke and Wake Forest in 2008. It marked the first time NC State has defeated all four in-state FBS schools in the same season since 1986.
PACK DEFENSE IS NATIONAL LEADER
Say all you want, but the numbers are speaking for themselves. NC State, so far, has the best defense in the nation. We highlighted this yesterday in an article that sparked a good deal of discussion. This defense will be tested week in and week out for the remainder of the season, and it truly starts on Saturday. Wake Forest can move the football. They rank fifth in the ACC in total passing yards and third in total rushing yards. They are known for their misdirection, end-around, trickery on the ground. Mix that with a quarterback who is more than capable of driving his team down the field and you have your hands full on defense.
The Pack, however, is only allowing 14.8 points per game and a nation's best 201.2 yards per game. They were completely stingy against South Carolina, allowing only 7 points. USC has since gone on to average over 30 points per game facing big name competition in #21 Georgia and #4 Ole Miss. The Pack defense then allowed only 36 yards against Murray State, even though they second, third and fourth teams spent a majority of time on the field.
WILSON STILL STREAKING
Russell Wilson set the all-time record for consecutive pass attempts without an interception a couple weeks ago against Gardner-Webb. Wilson broke the mark of 325, which was set by Kentucky's Andre Woodson from 2006-07 and now has thrown 364 passes without being picked off. Thats spans over 13 games.
NC STATE vs. WAKE FOREST: THE OLDEST RIVALRY
Saturday will mark the 103rd showdown between the Pack and the Deacs. While UNC remains NC State's biggest true rival, there is none that have dated back further than Wake Forest. The Wolfpack vs. Demon Deacon series is the longest running series in NC State football history. The Pack leads the series 61-35-6, and have won 15 of the past 21 meetings. The bad news is that the Pack has lost 5 of their last 6 in Winston-Salem.
WOLFPACK KEYS TO THE GAME
Discipline. The NC State defense is going to have to do what they are supposed to do, when they are supposed to do it, and do it that way every time if they are going to take down the Deacs. Jim Grobe and company will certainly be no walk in the park. Grobe has taken a ACC irrelevant football team and turned them into a true contender year in and year out. The trouble with preparing for Wake is their constantly changing game plan. Coach O'Brien mentioned that Grobe is known to tweak his method of attack every two weeks or so. State will have to stay in their lanes and not allow the constant misdirection to catch them over-pursueing. Stopping the run will only be half the battle, as Wake's Riley Skinner (a 4 year starter at QB) is hard to stop in his own right. The Wolfpack secondary will have the task of shutting down the Skinner to Williams connections. Marshall Williams is a tall, lanky receiver that has been one of Skinner's favorite targets, already scooping up 20 receptions for 329 yards and 2 TD's.
On the other side of the ball it's going to be the Wolfpack offensive line that will be key in walking away with a win. Like every week, if Russell Wilson is given time, he will succeed, however this is no slow front line that Wake is throwing out there. The Deac defense is athletic, but still has questions. In a surprise move, Jim Grobe has decided to take the redshirts away from three freshmen and allow them to fight for some action this Saturday. Daniel Mack, Duran Lowe, and Dominique Tate have been participating with the first team, according to the Winton-Salem journal, in hopes that Grobe will find someone that can make tackles in the secondary. State will need to open up the run game to keep the Deacs honest. If Baker and Eugene can pull that off, Wilson should have a heyday throwing against this young secondary.
**Some information courtesy of NC State Media Relations
comments
16 Responses to "GAME PREVIEW: Pack Out to Dismantle Deacs"Gameplan: I say we pound them with Baker and Eugene until they fold like origami.
...and, run the play action pass to thoroughly confuse the three true freshmen in the secondary that they just took the red-shirts off of, and then throw jump balls to J. Will and bombs to TJ! We also have to get Baker into the secondary so that the Wake newbies get a chance to try to tackle him...HA! Welcome to your first ACC Football game, gentlemen. Meet the bolwling ball with legs, Toney Baker!
Not accusing anyone of anything, but this article reads almost word for word with the one posted on packpride @ http://northcarolinastate.scout.com/2/905039.html
What's the deal?
The deal is that Pack Pride gets the same Media Guide for each game from NC State's Media Relations department. We didn't even look at their game preview. I guess we found a lot of the same information to be valuable.
If you look at PP's Game Preview it says at the top that NC State Atletics (media relations) was the author of theirs. We took a lot of the same information and tried to put our own spin on it.
I dont know if you guys ever read the technician's ongoing weekly article called "Tones Take" but its really a good read. Every week Toney Baker gets to write a short article about his season week to week as well as the teams ongoing issues. Its very interesting to me to see his week to week gameplans and how hes feeling w/ his health. I would highly recomend everyone check it out Toney is a very well spoken man.
http://www.technicianonline.com/sports/toney-s-take-week-5-1.1936072#
I used to work in sports media and all the media gets the same info, mostly has the same sources....its pretty much just a matter of who you prefer.
i come here bc its more of a unique set up and take on state sorts but i also think the Wolfpacker does a legit job.
I'm a frequent visitor of a lot of different Wolfpack sites. The only ones that I feel have really relevant information are this one, Packpride and Wolfpacker.
I also like statefans nation when i'm angry at the pack. I think each one brings their own unique flavor to the table. but the only ones that really break any kind of inside information are the first three i listed. These type of sites fill an enormous gap left by local media outlets by covering the Wolfpack. If the technician would upgrade their sports section and get more indepth on recruiting then that would be the ultimate source.
Anon the Anonymous
We can attest that all the sites work very hard on getting and reporting information, and all do what they do really well.
Take a look at coverage from other schools. NC state has a bunch of sites that cover their Wolfpack sports as intensive as possible. That's more than you can say about a lot of schools. It's a credit, not only to the people that are running these sites, but more so to the State fans who have an undying passion for their school. They demand up-to-date, in-depth coverage, and in turn, that's what they get.
Anon the Anon,
I could be wrong, but I doubt the technician can cover recruiting like you wish because of their affiliation with the NCSU.
I dont know if anybody has seen this yet but NCSU alum Anthony Hill has tested positive for swine flu. I would like to wish him a speedy recovery.
I see alot of people who really think this game is going to easy...
I believe and hope and pray that this team listened this week in practice and I hope this team went thru tackling drills and blocking drills this week. I believe beating this team (wake) is about fundamentals.
I see the final score as 24 to 20.
Go Wolfpack
It sure would be nice to have a in depth interview with Terry Harvey, Carl Reeves, Jimmy Grisset, Eddie Goines,Jamie Barnett, Alvis Whittet, Phillip Rivers, Terry jordan,Jeff Bender.
I was also wondering if maybe If you have some info on why Rivers has not been back to visit? is he still sore about amato?
wolfpacker.com is finally coming out with the story...
Brosius commits.
hey anonymous, re: brosius' commitment, the wolfpacker just came out with the story because they, just like everyone else was asked to hold out until today. it has been widely known for a while now, but could not be discussed or a formal article run as tyler had requested this. thanks for playing
ummm... Hence me saying, finally. They were the first ones to 'break' the news, so to speak. Clearly you cannot, or simply do not, understand sarcasm.
Regardless of this ignorance, good news for the pack, it appears to be good news for the pack and bad news for UVa.
I would like to apologize for the rudeness of this post, but, this guy is simply being ignorant. Not sure why he is attempting to insult me when I'm trying to bring good news. Even if we all knew, it's nice to have some something official.
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