College Football’s Week Three:
DG’s “Pick 6” Includes Eli Drinkwitz,
App-ECU, BC, FSU, NCSU, UVa, Wake
By David Glenn
North Carolina Sports Network
Each week during college football season, we offer a “Pick Six” package of intriguing matchups — three “local” games that include one or more North Carolina-based team and three “national” contests that involve the Atlantic Coast Conference and/or the most prominent intersectional games.
Week Three: Top “Local” Games
Game Four
Louisiana Tech (1-0) at NC State (1-1), noon (ACCN)
Latest Betting Line: Wolfpack a 21-point favorite
It’s going to be difficult for a large chunk of the NC State fanbase to turn the page on last week’s embarrassing 51-10 loss to #14 Tennessee, but that’s exactly what the Wolfpack players and coaches must do, starting with this game against Louisiana Tech, because plenty of the Pack’s 2024 goals remain within reach.
The hardest-to-digest part of State’s faceplant in Charlotte was that the Wolfpack was absolutely dominated in the trenches in that game, something that hasn’t happened often to Dave Doeren’s teams during his 12 years in Raleigh. Tennessee ran the ball a lot; State couldn’t run the ball even a little bit. Tennessee protected its star quarterback very well; State definitely failed miserably in that same category.
The Volunteers were simply more talented than the Wolfpack overall, but with the exception of Clemson, the Pack won’t have that sort of major talent disadvantage against any other opponent during the remainder of the regular season.
State’s next steps forward must include much better play from quarterback Grayson McCall, who so far has looked more like the embattled Coastal Carolina QB of 2023 rather than the three-time Sun Belt Player of the Year.
There’s little doubt that McCall has enough weapons around him, starting with stud wide receiver KC Concepcion and continuing with the big-time UConn transfer at tight end, Justin Joly, among others.
That means it’s up to the Wolfpack offensive line — left tackle Anthony Belton and center Zeke Correll are quality building blocks there, but they need more help — to protect McCall better and open more holes for guys like Jordan Waters, who was an All-ACC running back at Duke last season but ended up with seven carries for negative yardage against the Volunteers.
On defense, meanwhile, someone in the front six or seven has to become a consistently impactful player, now that legendary linebacker Payton Wilson is in the NFL. Will that be Davin Vann on the line, Caden Fordham or Sean Brown at linebacker, or someone else?
Louisiana Tech struggled with an FCS opponent in its opening game, so this should be exactly the sort of opponent that enables the Wolfpack to get back on track.
Game Five
Appalachian State (1-1) at East Carolina (2-0), 4 pm (ESPNU)
Latest Betting Line: Mountaineers a two-point favorite
First, it’s important to put the teams’ records in perspective here.
App State beat an FCS opponent and lost to Clemson in Death Valley. ECU’s two wins are over an FCS opponent and a close one at Old Dominion, which is not expected to be among the Sun Belt contenders this year. In other words, nothing unexpectedly bad has happened for either team so far, but nothing particularly special has happened yet, either.
This matchup is interesting, in part, because these are two of the seven Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) programs here in North Carolina, yet they’ve played each other as FBS members only twice.
Last year the Mountaineers won 43-28 in Boone (the North Carolina Sports Network was there with its “Old North State Tailgate and Traveling Sports Circus” for that one), and three years ago, when the teams faced off in Charlotte, the Mountaineers won 33-19. Now, finally, fans get this FBS-vs.-FBS matchup in Greenville.
App State may be the slight favorite in this game because, despite what happened against Clemson, the Mountaineers know they can be a special team again this year, especially on the offensive side of the ball. ECU, coming off a disastrous 2-10 season and with major turnover problems so far this season, may lack that confidence level.
Mountaineers coach Shawn Clark has a proven trigger man in Joey Aguilar, the Preseason Sun Belt Player of the Year, and very talented skill players around him, such as Anderson Castle and Kanye Roberts at running back, Kaedin Robinson and Christian Horn at wide receiver, and Eli Wilson at tight end.
What will be interesting is that, while the ECU coaches can’t possibly be sure what they’ll get from their offense, which is definitely improved from last year’s disaster but also turnover-prone and wildly unpredictable, the Pirates really do like their defense.
The Pirates were pretty good on defense last year, despite their ugly record, and coach Mike Houston said he expects it to be even better this year. Through two games, at least, that unit has delivered. Chad Stephens, D’Anta Johnson and Elijah Morris are very tough up front, Zakye Barker and Mike Edwards III have been strong at linebacker, and cornerback Shavone Revel Jr. is the star of the secondary.
The harder-to-predict aspect of this game, by far, will occur when the Pirates have the ball.
ECU running back Rahjai Harris is a really good player and was the offensive star of the victory at ODU. However, new Pirates QB Jake Garcia, formerly of Miami and Missouri, has both been making positive plays with guys such as Anthony Smith (an NC State transfer who didn’t play much during his four years with the Wolfpack) and Winston Wright Jr. (who was once a star for West Virginia but didn’t do much these last two season at Florida State) and thrown an NCAA-worst seven interceptions after only two games.
Katin Houser, a Michigan State transfer, could get a look for ECU if Garcia keeps being reckless with the football.
Bottom line: App State appears to be a more confident and slightly more talented team than ECU right now, and if it’s a close game, the Mountaineers’ distinct advantage at QB could be the difference.
Game Six
#5 Ole Miss (2-0) at Wake Forest (1-1), 6:30 pm (The CW)
Latest Betting Line: Rebels a 23-point favorite
This game is both exciting and scary for Wake Forest.
It’s exciting because the Demon Deacons don’t have many victories over top-10 opponents in the history of their football program, and coach Lane Kiffin’s Rebels come to town with a #5 national ranking.
So, by that standard, it would be one of the biggest regular-season wins for the Deacons in their 71-year history as an ACC member if they can somehow pull it off.
It’s scary because Ole Miss has played two games and defeated its opponents by scores of 76-0 (Furman) and 52-3 (Middle Tennessee State). Also, Wake has some significant questions on defense, and the Rebels have one of the more prolific quarterbacks in college football in senior Jaxson Dart, an NFL prospect.
In Week One, Dart threw for 400-plus yards in a single half, and in Week Two he set the all-time Southeastern Conference record for consecutive completions, with 36.
Meanwhile, Wake’s offense definitely has the skill players necessary to give the Ole Miss defense by far its biggest test of the season.
QB Hank Bachmeier, a sixth-year player who started a lot of games at Boise State and Louisiana Tech, played very well in the Demon Deacons’ narrow loss to Virginia last week. Donovan Greene and Taylor Morin make up one of the better receiving tandems in the ACC, and Demond Claiborne is a high-caliber running back.
It’s more difficult to predict how Wake’s blocking will hold up against an SEC defense (that didn’t go well for NC State last week), and it will be a surprise if Wake’s defense slows down that prolific Ole Miss offense.
Again, it’s both an exciting and a scary matchup that awaits the Demon Deacons in Winston-Salem on Saturday night.
