NC State football 2022 schedule: Ten observations

The NC State football schedule was officially released Friday evening.

The Pack will begin and end the season with road games against in-state rivals, starting at East Carolina on Sept. 3 and ending at UNC Nov. 25, a Friday night contest in Chapel Hill, N.C.

Here are 10 observations from the schedule.

1. Starting With Four Non-Conference Games, First On The Road

For the fourth time in what will be NC State football head coach Dave Doeren’s 10th season in Raleigh, the Wolfpack will have completed its nonconference slate by the time it begins conference play.

In 2014 and 2015, NC State went into league play 4-0, but it should also be noted that the toughest game it had in those years from non-conference opponents was probably a good Georgia Southern team in the 2014 opener. NC State rallied to win 24-23 on a late touchdown. That Georgia Southern team would finish 9-3 in 2014, with one of its other losses a close four-point defeat at Georgia Tech.

In 2019, NC State went 3-1 when it started with four non-conference opponents, only losing at West Virginia, 44-27. Ironically, the opener that season was also East Carolina, which is the last time the Pack played the Pirates. NC State rolled to a 34-6 win.

The last time the Wolfpack opened up with a game on the road was in 2017, when it lost in Charlotte to South Carolina, 35-28.

You have to go back to 2008 to find NC State opening its season on an opponent’s home field. That was also against South Carolina. The Gamecocks won 34-0 in a game that was more memorable for being quarterback Russell Wilson’s first career start. Wilson, however, was knocked out with a concussion.

2. Resuming The ECU-NC State Football Rivalry

After a two-year hiatus, NC State is once again playing East Carolina. The last two meetings were enjoyable for Doeren’s squad. The Pack outscored the Pirates by a collective score of 92-9, including 58-3 in the 2018 regular season finale.

The last trip to East Carolina, however, was not fun for NC State. The Pirates, in game two of former head coach Scottie Montgomery’s tenure, won 33-30.

The last time the Wolfpack opened the season at East Carolina was 1983, head coach Tom Reed’s first game at NC State and a 22-16 loss to the Pirates. NC State is just 1-4 all-time in Greenville, but leads the overall series 18-14.

3. Potentially Hosting A Power Five Non-Conference Game?

Week three is supposed to bring Texas Tech to Raleigh, but it may be best to wait until game week to count on it.

NC State was set to host Mississippi State last season, but COVID-19 changed all that. That was the second straight time the Wolfpack lost a scheduled Power Five opponent at Carter-Finley Stadium. In 2018, a highly anticipated showdown in Raleigh with a ranked West Virginia squad would be canceled due to Hurricane Florence.

That means that the last time NC State played a home non-conference game against a team considered a Power Five opponent was when Notre Dame came to Carter-Finley in 2016, and many fans skipped that game because Hurricane Matthew was rolling through Raleigh exactly at the time of kickoff.

The last time the Wolfpack hosted a team from an actual Power Five league was in 2009, when NC State had both South Carolina and Pittsburgh (then in the Big East in what was considered a BCS conference) come to Raleigh. The Pack lost to the Gamecocks in the opener but then had a dramatic rally to win over Pitt.

4. The NC State Series Vs. Texas Tech

The Wolfpack is 4-1 all-time against the Red Raiders, having won the last four meetings between the two teams.

The most memorable was when NC State legend Philip Rivers won a quarterback duel with Kliff Kingsbury, now the head coach for the Arizona Cardinals. Behind running back T.A. McLendon’s five-touchdown performance, the Pack needed overtime but prevailed 51-48 on the road, part of an 8-0 start in 2002.

The two teams met again in 2003, with NC State winning more comfortably, 49-21.

5. The Last Time Connecticut Came To Raleigh

It was 2003, and the game was tied when this happened with five seconds left for NC State:

The linebacker was current NC State nickels coach Freddie Aughtry-Lindsay, and the quarterback was Don Orlovsky, who would play 12 seasons in the NFL before becoming a visible presence as an analyst on ESPN.

The only other time the two teams met, NC State squeaked out a 10-3 win on the road in blustery conditions in 2012.

6. New Coaches

Both Texas Tech and Connecticut will play against NC State with new football coaches.

The Red Raiders hired Joey McGuire, who was the assistant head coach at Baylor for the past three seasons and prior to that a very successful high school coach in the state of Texas.

Connecticut went with a more familiar name in Jim Mora Jr., the former head coach of the Atlanta Falcons, Seattle Seahawks and then UCLA. Mora went 26-22 in three years with the Falcons and 5-11 in one campaign at Seattle. In five seasons at UCLA, he went 46-30 overall and 29-24 in the Pac-12, going to four bowl games in his first four seasons and twice finishing in the top 25.

The other team on the NC State schedule with a new coach is Virginia Tech, which comes to Raleigh for a Thursday night game Oct. 27. The Hokies hired Brent Pry, who was a long-time assistant for James Franklin, coaching with him at both Vanderbilt and Penn State. Pry spent the past six seasons at Franklin’s defensive coordinator.

Virginia Tech has not played at Carter-Finley Stadium in a while, dating back to 2010 when the Hokies upset No. 23 NC State, 41-30.

7. Starting ACC Play With A Bang

For the second consecutive year, NC State’s ACC opener will be against Clemson. The Wolfpack knocked off the Tigers, 27-21, in double overtime this past fall. It is the third time in Doeren’s 10 years that the Pack’s conference opener was against Clemson.

In 2013, third-ranked Clemson won 26-14 in a game most remembered for NC State receiver Bryan Underwood being ruled to have stepped out of bounds on what appeared to have been a long touchdown run for a reverse.

The last time NC State won at Clemson was 2002.

8. Ending ACC In Familiar Fashion

For the eighth consecutive year, NC State is scheduled to end the regular season against archrival UNC. In his tenure, Doeren is 5-4 against the Heels.

In 2020, the schedule was revamped due to COVID-19, and the game in Chapel Hill was played earlier in the slate. Two years before that, the cancellation of the West Virginia contest opened the door for a late-scheduled NC State home game against East Carolina a week after the originally planned regular season finale at UNC.

The last time NC State ended its regular season in Chapel Hill was 2016, when Doeren arguably saved his job with a 28-21 win over UNC.

The UNC ender is part of a two-game road trip to conclude the fall. A week prior the Pack will be at Louisville. Ending the regular season with two road games has not happened since 2010, when the famous two-yard Hail Mary from Wilson helped NC State beat UNC in Chapel Hill, 29-25. The Pack then lost at Maryland, 38-31, with a trip to the ACC Championship game on the line.

The last home game is scheduled to be against Boston College Nov. 12, the finale of a three-game home stand beginning with the Thursday night contest against the Hokies and then Wake Forest Nov. 5.

The Wolfpack will have two home games in October for the first time since 2016.

9. How The NC State Football Opponents Did In 2020

Here is a breakdown of how the NC State opponents did in 2021, broken down in chronological order of the schedule.

Team	Overall record (conference)	Bowl game
East Carolina	7-5 (5-3 in American)	Canceled
Charleston Southern	4-6 (3-4 in FCS’ Big South)
Texas Tech	7-6 (3-6 in Big 12)	Beat Mississippi State in Liberty Bowl
Connecticut	1-11 (independent)
Clemson	10-3 (6-2 in ACC)	Beat Iowa State in Cheez-It Bowl
Florida State	5-7 (4-4 in ACC)
Syracuse	5-7 (2-6 in ACC)
Virginia Tech	6-7 (4-4 in ACC)	Lost to Maryland in Pinstripe Bowl
Wake Forest	11-3 (7-1 in ACC)	Beat Rutgers in Gator Bowl
Boston College	6-6 (2-6 in ACC)	Canceled
Louisville	6-7 (4-4 in ACC)	Lost to Air Force in First Responder Bowl
North Carolina	6-7 (3-5 in ACC)	Lost to South Carolina in Duke’s Mayo Bowl

10. Opponents’ Opponents Before NC State

One side story to every schedule is who does the opponent play the week before they face NC State? Here’s the rundown:

Charleston Southern — NA

Texas Tech — hosting Houston

Connecticut — at Michigan

Clemson — at Wake Forest

Florida State — hosting Wake Forest

Syracuse — Bye week

Virginia Tech — Bye week

Wake Forest — at Louisville

Boston College — hosting Duke

Louisville — at Clemson

North Carolina — hosting Georgia Tech

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