NC State: The Ides of November

On November 15 the Demon Deacons will travel down Tobacco Road for a contest with the NC State Wolfpack, Wake's only November road trip. My quick impression of this game is that it should be a win, and I think that impression will hold for a variety of reasons.

First and foremost, I'm confident Wake will be the better, more talented football team in 2008. No one has any idea who will be starting at QB for NC State, plus they lost two starting wideouts, and will only return four offensive starters. The defense is in the same position with only four returning starters. There may be plenty of talent on the roster, but it's still a year or two from really being developed.

I know it's tempting for us Deacon fans to find all kinds of reasons to give the Pack a hard time, but I don't really have anything bad to say about their football program. Pretty solid coaching staff who's done some good recruiting to develop a talented roster, but the pieces just aren't all in place yet. I suppose this team has the potential to be like the 2006 Deacons if all the breaks go their way, but I can't be predicting that right now.

Here are a few other reasons I have for being confident:

Because this game is our only road trip in November (sandwiched between four home games), I think the team will actually be excited to have a change of scenery. Sometimes a new venue can energize a team, and I think this is the perfect example of that situation.

Our guys seem to get a bit more excited about playing NC State than other teams. The local guys have plenty of connections to guys at NC State and anytime we play these games against UNC or State there seems to be a bit of extra motivation.

The last couple of years Wake has performed well against State. In some cases that might cause a team to be overly confident about a particular game, but I don't see that being an issue in this case. I don't think NC State will ever be a team the Deacs take lightly, so more than anything I expect the Deacs to be motivated to keep up the good work.

The Deacons will leave Raleigh with a win. I hope there will be many Deacon fans there to enjoy it!