Has the North Carolina State now proven itself worthy?

North Carolina State football failed to make much of an impact over its first two games, but has its Texas Tech win reminded us that it’s still here?

There were multiple college football teams that came out swinging to start their 2022 campaigns, but the North Carolina State football was not one of them.

In its season opener against the East Carolina Pirates, the Pack had to rely solely on the failures of ECU’s special teams to win by a pathetic score of 21-20. For those who are not aware, winning by a single point against a Group of 5 opponent is hardly something for the country’s then-13th-ranked team to brag about.

Week 2 was also unable to win the fans over, as all it saw was a beatdown of Charleston Southern, a lackluster FCS program—and again, as a ranked ACC power, that sort of thing should not be expected to blow many minds in the first place.

That brings us to Week 3, which gave the NC State Wolfpack its first chance to make a true impression by welcoming the Texas Tech Red Raiders to Carter-Finley Stadium.

Now no, Texas Tech is not exactly the first name that comes to mind when thinking of outstanding college football teams, but it had already done some self-validating of its own by the time it was entering this game.

The Red Raiders are not only coming off of a bowl season, but they also managed to survive the Houston Cougars who, while small, are one of the Group of 5’s strongest programs today.

North Carolina State Football proved itself against Texas Tech

With a victory of that size under their belt, they can at least be regarded as a formidable force in the Big 12. Knowing that didn’t seem to strike much fear into the Wolfpack, though, as it proceeded to down Tech by two scores.

To give NC State even more credit, it established its convincing lead in the first half, holding it until the battle had concluded. In other words, the Pack didn’t just win, it proved its visible superiority by controlling the game from beginning to end, and that is enough for me to declare that the ACC’s 2nd-highest-ranked team has redeemed itself until further notice.

However, just because North Carolina State football is in a good place right now doesn’t mean that it will stay there, especially when looking at who remains on the calendar.

Between now and the end of the regular season, the Wolfpack is set to face Clemson, Florida State, Syracuse, Wake Forest, and North Carolina; all five of those teams stand as unbeaten programs today, and three of them will be hosting the meetings in question.

Combining such a menacing slate with the fact that NC State’s offensive execution against the Red Raiders was far from perfect, there is nothing that concretely paints the Pack as being out of the woods just yet.

But through it all, the team is 3-0, sitting pretty in the AP Top 25 rankings, and still has time to build off of what we’ve seen so far. With all of that said, I wouldn’t bet money on the North Carolina State football team being the same pushover that it once looked like.