NC/ACC Week Six College Football Preview
(“This Week In College Football, with David Glenn” show = below)

By David Glenn
North Carolina Sports Network

The 2024 college football season continues Friday and Saturday with an intriguing Week Six schedule, including a Top 25 clash between #9 Missouri (led by former Appalachian State coach Eli Drinkwitz) and #25 Texas A&M (led by former Duke coach Mike Elko), the resumption of the Wake Forest-NC State gridiron rivalry, and another national television spotlight for one of the Atlantic Coast Conference’s top teams.

Elsewhere, coach Manny Diaz and Duke take the program’s first 5-0 record since 1994 on the road to face Georgia Tech, App State and East Carolina play important road games in their respective quests for bowl eligibility, and UNC tries to bounce back from its rivalry loss to the Blue Devils with a home contest against 4-0 Pittsburgh.

At the Division Two level, #6 Lenoir-Rhyne aims to build upon its 4-0 start under first-year coach Doug Socha, while #24 Johnson C Smith — which this week reached the coaches’ national Top 25 for the first time in program history — seeks to extend its success under third-year coach Maurice Flowers, a former JCSU player who has the Golden Bulls off to their first 5-0 start in more than four decades.

Missouri (4-0) and Texas A&M (4-1) are two of the nine Southeastern Conference schools ranked in this week’s Associated Press Top 25. The others from the recently expanded, 16-team SEC are #1 Alabama, #2 Texas, #4 Tennessee, #5 Georgia, #12 Ole Miss, #13 LSU and #19 Oklahoma. The Tigers and Aggies will play at A&M’s Kyle Field, which has a capacity of almost 103,000.

Although NC State has dominated its rivalry with Wake Forest historically, winning about two-thirds of the time, the matchup has been a true stalemate over the past 20 years, with 10 victories for the Wolfpack and 10 for the Demon Deacons during that period. This year’s game is at Carter-Finley Stadium in Raleigh.

Finally, this weekend also will give many Atlantic Coast Conference fans their first up-close look at the game-day football atmosphere at Cal, which hosts #8 Miami in ESPN’s late night television window on Saturday. ESPN’s popular College GameDay show — which airs from 9 am to noon here in the East (meaning it will be live from 6-9 am on Cal’s campus!) — will be in Berkeley for the first time since that show first became a traveling circus way back in 1993.

Bears coach Justin Wilcox and Hurricanes coach Mario Cristobal both were recent guests on the David Glenn Show.

NC Football Bowl Subdivision (Seven Teams)
(Games Saturday Unless Otherwise Indicated)

Pittsburgh (4-0) at North Carolina (3-2), noon (ESPN2)
Wake Forest (1-3) at NC State (3-2), noon (The CW)
East Carolina (3-2) at Charlotte (2-3), 3:30 pm (ESPNU)
Appalachian State (2-2) at Marshall (2-2), 3:30 pm (ESPN+)
Duke (5-0) at Georgia Tech (3-2), 8 pm (ACCN)

Open Week: none

Atlantic Coast Conference (17 Teams)

Syracuse (3-1) at #25 UNLV (4-0), 9 pm (FS1) — (Fri.)
Pittsburgh (4-0) at North Carolina (3-2), noon (ESPN2)
Wake Forest (1-3) at NC State (3-2), noon (The CW)
SMU (4-1) at #22 Louisville (3-1), noon (ESPN)
Boston College (4-1) at Virginia (3-1), noon (ACCN)
Virginia Tech (2-3) at Stanford (2-2), 3:30 pm (ACCN)
#15 Clemson (3-1) at Florida State (1-4), 7 pm (ESPN)
Duke (5-0) at Georgia Tech (3-2), 8 pm (ACCN)
#8 Miami (5-0) at California (3-1), 10:30 pm (ESPN)

Open Week: none

NC Football Championship Subdivision (Seven Teams)

Marist (0-4) at Davidson (2-1), 1 pm
North Carolina A&T (1-4) at #21 Richmond (3-2), 2 pm (FloSports)
Wofford (2-2) at Western Carolina (1-3), 2:30 pm (ESPN+)
Gardner-Webb (1-4) at UT-Martin (2-3), 3 pm (ESPN+)
NC Central (3-2) at Campbell (2-3), 4 pm (FloSports)

Open Week: Elon (1-4)

NC Division Two (14 Teams)

UNC Pembroke (0-4) at Wheeling (2-2), noon
Barton (2-2) at #25 Carson-Newman (4-0), 1 pm (FloSports)
#6 Lenoir-Rhyne (4-0) at Emory & Henry (3-1), 1 pm (FloSports)
Bowie State (1-3) at Fayetteville State (2-2), 1 pm (HBCU Go)
Winston-Salem State (4-1) at Virginia Union (2-2), 1 pm
Bluefield State (1-3) at Shaw (3-2), 1 pm
Virginia State (2-2) at #24 Johnson C Smith (5-0), 2 pm
Catawba (1-3) at Anderson-SC (2-2), 2 pm (FloSports)
Wingate (2-1) at UVa-Wise (2-1), 2 pm
Elizabeth City State (2-2) at Livingstone (3-2), 4 pm
Chowan (1-2) at #20 Delta State (3-1), 7 pm (FloSports)
Mars Hill (0-2) at Newberry (1-2), 7 pm (FloSports)

Open Week: St Augustine’s (program suspended for 2024)

NC Division Three (Five Teams)

Guilford (3-0) at Hampden-Sydney (2-1), 1 pm
Brevard (1-1) at Southern Virginia (0-4), 1 pm
Methodist (1-3) at North Carolina Wesleyan (0-4), 6 pm (FloSports)

Open Week: Greensboro (1-3)