NC State vs Notre Dame in 1-2-3

One Thing I’m Worried About

1. Notre Dame is, like, really freaking good, man. This Fighting Irish team, which has steamrolled its first two opponents by a combined score of 98-6, will be one of the two most talented (Clemson being the other) that NC State will face this year. They also have the luxury of a talented and extremely experienced quarterback who has faced a Tony Gibson led defense three times now. That QB also is playing off his face right now to a Heisman-worthy level.

Two Things I’m Confident In

1. While Notre Dame has cakewalked their first two games to laughable outcomes, this will be their first real test of the season. No offense to Navy and Tennessee State, but the Irish will see a different level of athlete on Saturday than they’ve lined up against so far.
2. NC State didn’t play all that great of a game against UConn, which should motivate the team heading into a marquee game. There were several defensive miscues, some that UConn took advantage of and some that it did not. Having those issues exposed in a game they still won gives the Wolfpack the opportunity to clean them up without it necessarily hitting State in the loss column.

Three Stats You Should Know

1. NC State’s offense wasn’t explosive last week, but they were efficient, currently ranking 11th in non-garbage time success rate (collegefootballdata.com). Notre Dame is ranked 6th in the nation by the same metric.
2. Notre Dame has converted 77.8% of their 3rd downs on offense this year, a mark that ranks 3rd nationally. NC State is ranked 32nd (53.3% conversion rate).
3. Notre Dame has only punted on two of 18 drives this year.