RALEIGH, N.C. (WNCN) – North Carolina State’s 2022 football schedule has been announced and the slate looks very manageable for the Wolfpack.
State will most likely be favored in every game except their Oct. 1st trip to Clemson.
The Wolfpack will be facing sky-high expectations this coming season and their schedule lines up pretty well for success.
State will get a challenge to start the campaign when they head to Greenville on Sep. 3 to face rival East Carolina.
The Pirates are expected to have their best team in nearly a decade.
Survive what should be an electric atmosphere at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium and the Pack should roll into Death Valley with a 4-0 record after disposing of Charleston Southern, Texas Tech and UConn.
All three of those games will take place at Carter-Finley Stadium.
The Tigers will be State’s toughest opponent.
No way Clemson will be as bad at quarterback as they were a year ago, and the Tigers still have the most overall talent in the ACC.
Last year’s win over Clemson gives the Pack confidence heading into this one.
But winning in Death Valley will be a huge challenge – the Pack hasn’t won at Clemson since 2002.
The following week sees Florida State come to town.
The once-powerful Seminoles are coming off a dreadful 5-7 campaign but FSU did show life late in the year, winning two of its final three games and losing by just a field goal at arch-rival Florida.
So what are the expectations for the Pack at the halfway mark?
6-0? 5-1?
Anything worse than 5-1 would certainly be a disappointment.
The second half of the season will see the Pack play three road games and three home contests.
State should be able to beat Virginia Tech, Wake Forest and Boston College at Carter-Finley Stadium although none of those games can be considered a gimme, especially Wake.
None of the Pack’s second half road games will be easy, including Syracuse on Oct. 15.
State’s final two regular season games are both on the road – Louisville and North Carolina.
Wolfpack fans will need a bottle of Maalox just thinking about heading to Louisville for a meeting with Malik Cunningham and the Cardinals.
Last season, Cunningham threw for 3,000 and rushed for more than 1,000 yards from his quarterback position.
Playing on the turf at Cardinal Stadium, this is the type of game that in the past, had a tendency to trip up the Wolfpack.
State will close out the regular season as they always do – facing arch-rival North Carolina on Thanksgiving weekend.
The two teams will once again play on a Friday night, with the Tar Heels breaking in a new quarterback, but fired up to avenge last season’s stunning last-minute collapse in Raleigh.
N.C. State has won 10 games in a season just once in the program’s history.
Next season they’ll be expected to do it again.
The 2022 Wolfpack schedule certainly won’t hurt their chances.