This upcoming college football season is a highly anticipated one for NC State. Entering their 12th year under head coach Dave Doeren with various new exciting additions that could potentially take the Wolfpack over the top.
The expectations are high in Raleigh this upcoming season, which paired with the new look ACC seeming open and the expansion of the 12-team College Football Playoff could make the 2024 football season historic for NC State following a recent historic run on the basketball court.
ACC Network’s Roddy Jones is high on the Wolfpack and spoke with On3’s Andy Staples about the ceiling and the floor of a squad that Jones has high hopes for this year.
Ceiling: 11-1, College Football Playoff appearance
“This is a team that I think the ceiling’s 11-1, I really do,” Jones said. “And then you’re in the College Football Playoff and Dave Doeren finally gets his 10-win season, NC State finally gets their 10-win season. I think it’s an ACC Championship contender, I think they’re a College Football Playoff participant at the top end, I’m really excited.”
The Wolfpack lose some key pieces on defense like linebacker Payton Wilson. But Jones believes that NC State will be able to maintain their high standards they’ve set on defense and improve on offense with the addition of an experienced quarterback and several other weapons on that side of the ball.
“But Grayson McCall at quarterback I’m really excited about. Jordan Waters at running back, they haven’t been able to run the ball great since like Matt Dayes back in 2017 which is weird,” Jones said. “But I think they’ll be able to run the ball, I think they’ll get great quarterback play, and I think that defense will do what that defense does. Tony Gibson‘s probably the most underrated defensive coordinator in the country.”
Floor: 9-3
NC State could be in store for their best season to date, but both Jones and Staples believe that given their schedule the Wolfpack will still be able to do some serious damage this season. Seeing a significant drop off in competition outside matchups with Tennessee and Clemson early in the year.
“I’m with you, I am very high on this team. College Football Playoff is absolutely the ceiling for them and I had 8-4 as the floor, but I think I was probably being generous to the teams on their schedule. 9-3 is probably more realistic as a floor,” Staples said.
Matchups against ACC newcomers like Cal and Stanford, a Duke team with a new head coach, and a North Carolina team they’ve been in the past three seasons should give NC State fans confidence. But their re-tooled roster paired with a culture set for over a decade could be the biggest difference for the Wolfpack in 2024.
“This is a good team and a program that I think has really found its identity and that’s so important. Like just knowing what you are and Dave Doeren I think has been establishing that over the years, and now you really kind of know what you’re going to get from NC State,” Staples said.
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