Saturday, Nov. 5 • 8 pm • ACC Network
Radio coverage begins at 6 pm on the Wolfpack Sports Network
Wolfpack vs. demon deacons
• NC State has faced Wake Forest more times than any other opponent in its 130 years of football. Saturday’s game will mark the 116th meeting between the two squads, with NC State holding a 67-42-6 advantage.
• The teams have met every season since 1910, making it the longest continuous rivalry in the ACC and the second-longest in the FBS (Wisconsin-Minnesota have met every year since 1906).
• Since 2001, the Wolfpack has posted an 8-2 mark in games played at Carter-Finley, while going 2-9 mark in games played at Wake Forest.
• This will mark the sixth time that NC State will be facing a ranked Wake Forest squad. The Pack is 2-2-1 in the first five such games.
• This will mark only the third meeting when both teams come in nationally ranked. Last season, the No. 16 Pack lost to the No. 12 Deacons in Winston-Salem, while in 1992, No. 13 NC State downed No. 25 Wake Forest 42-14 at Carter-Finley Stadium.
becoming a habit
NC State and Wake Forest first squared off on the football field in 1895. Back then, NC State was known as The North Carolina College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts, the team name was the “Farmers,” they hosted games in Pullen Park, and wore brown and white uniforms. Wake Forest ... well it was actually IN Wake Forest - about 30 minutes north of Raleigh.
Although the UNC- Virginia series is the most-played series in the ACC (126 games) and the UNC - Wake Forest series is the oldest (1888), the Wolfpack and the Demon Deacons boast the longest continuous rivalry in the league - meeting every year since 1910.
It’s the second-longest continuous rivalry in the FBS, as Wisconsin and Minnesota have met every year since 1906.
home field advantage
NC State now boasts a 15-game winning streak at Carter-Finley Stadium - the sixth-best active home winning streak in the FBS and the second-longest in the history of the venue, which opened in 1966.
NC State has opened 5-0 at home in 2022, posted a 7-0 mark in games played in Carter-Finley in 2021 and has not lost a home game since Nov. 6, 2020.
The 2021 Wolfpack was the first squad since 1986 (35 years) to go undefeated at home (and that squad did post one tie) and one of just six teams in school history (1967, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1986) to post an unblemished record at Carter-Finley Stadium.
During the 15-game streak, the Wolfpack has outscored its opponent 32.9-15.5 (494-233) at home.
selling out
NC State’s game vs. Wake Forest will mark the fifth sellout in its first six home games of 2022. That’s the highest number of sold out games in a season since the Wolfpack sold out six games in 2003.
bowl bound
NC State is now bowl eligible for the eighth time in Dave Doeren’s 10 seasons with the Wolfpack. The Wolfpack heads into Game 8 with a 6-2 record. NC State posts a 5-2 bowl record under Doeren (last year’s game was canceled on game day)
Doeren has led NC State to more bowl games than any coach in school history.
streaking
NC State has now been ranked in the top 25 of the AP poll for 10 straight polls this season and in the last six polls of 2021. Those 16-straight weeks marks the longest streak in school history.
In 2002, the Wolfpack spent nine straight weeks in the top-20, then dropped out for a week late in the season to break the streak.
The Pack was also ranked 10th in the first 2022 CFP poll, which was released this week.
qb3 > Qb2 > qb1
If true freshman quarterback MJ Morris gets the start as expected this week vs. Wake Forest, he will be the first true freshman to start at quarterback for NC State since Philip Rivers started the season opener of his true freshman season on Sept. 2, 2000 - before Morris was even born.
Unlike Rivers, who graduated high school early and had been on campus for nine months before his first start, Morris arrived on campus in June for the second session of summer school and was expected to have a bit of a learning curve while playing behind preseason ACC Player of the Year Devin Leary in 2022. Now less than five months later, he is expected to get his first starting nod.
the comeback pack
When Virginia Tech went up 21-3 on the Wolfpack with 4:02 remaining in the third quarter last week, NC State did what’s it’s making a habit of doing in recent games: came back to win the game.
It marked just the third comeback of 18 or more points this season in the FBS this season and tied for the second-largest second-half comeback this season.
NC State and Houston are the only teams with multiple second-half comebacks of 14+ points this season, as the Wolfpack also came back from a 14-point deficit to defeat FSU. That marked the first time since 2014 that the Wolfpack overcame a two-touchdown halftime deficit to win. That season, NC State was down 17-3 to Georgia Southern at the half but came back to win 24-23.
The Wolfpack began the comeback trend in the final game of 2021, coming back to defeat UNC 34-30 after trailing 21-30 with less than two minutes left in the game. In other words, three of the Pack’s last seven wins have been come-from-behind victories.