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North Carolina State Ready to Make Some Noise in ACC

By David Albiani

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The North Carolina State Wolfpack are poised to pounce on their ACC competition in 2015.

In 2014 the North Carolina State Wolfpack started out 4-0 and nearly took out the defending champion at the time, Florida State Seminoles.

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Behind breakout star Jacoby Brissett they were able to jump out to a 24-7 lead after just one quarter of play. However, Florida State would come back and take the lead at the end of the third quarter and never look back winning 56-41.

The Wolfpack then proceeded to lose to every team that had even a remotely good season in the ACC and lost each game rather handily. The losses were by margins of 41, 16, 12 and 33 to the likes of Clemson, Boston College, Louisville and Georgia Tech. Despite those losses, they finished the season 7-6 and with a bowl victory over Central Florida.

Now after saying that most people would probably then say well if they only beat teams are bottom feeders and none that are even in the middle of the pack, how can they make a run in the jumbled ACC? Well the good news is head coach Dave Doeren and company have a few things going for them.

The first thing is that the Wolfpack have nine starters returning on offense, including a very solid running back corps led by Shadrach Thornton. Those starters put up 30 points per game last season and should be able to do better than that after finding a quarterback that stacks up against the better ones in the ACC. The offense will look to take advantage of their depth at running back as well as the scrambling ability of Brissett under center, and should put them among the best rushing attacks in the conference.

Despite the very solid rushing attack this offense will still rely heavily on Brissett’s arm. I highly doubt they will be slinging the ball around this season, but I do know that they cannot afford to turn the ball over, especially with a defensive unit that at best will rank in the middle of the pack in the ACC.

Fortunately for North Carolina State, Brissett proved last season that he could avoid turnovers, as he had just five picks all season last to go against 23 touchdowns. He also had just one game where he threw more than one interception. Furthermore he also threw interceptions in back-to-back games just once all year.

In addition to the rushing attack and the offense improving, the schedule sets up quite nicely for them. This season the Wolfpack avoid facing Georgia Tech and have just four road games in ACC play. Two of the four road games are against teams with less than stellar home crowds in Wake Forest and Boston College, while the other two certainly represent a challenge in Virginia Tech and Florida State.

They get to play Louisville and my pick to win the Atlantic Division, Clemson, at home this year. Although neither the Virginia Tech nor Florida State games sound like easy tasks on the road, keep in mind Virginia Tech’s struggled offensively with Michael Brewer providing less than stellar play, as well as the transition phase for Florida State on offense.

The last two games for North Carolina State are home games versus Syracuse and North Carolina, both of which should be winnable games.

This season to me sets up favorably for this team to make a run as this is the most talent assembled at North Carolina State in a long time. I could see them finishing with 10 wins and if all breaks right, a shot to play in the ACC championship game. They will have challenges along the way and Brissett needs to stay healthy for them to reach their potential.

Next: Ranking the ACC Head Coaches

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