NC State discusses ECU ahead of challenging season-opener
In less than a month, NC State football will travel to Greenville to renew a classic in-state showdown with East Carolina. The rivalry is a heated one, and, headed into the fall with the weight of extraordinary preseason expectations, the Wolfpack will have plenty of attention on the program for its matchup against the AAC foe.
Tickets to see the Pirates take on NC State are officially on sale via the ECU website. September 3 will be the first time the Wolfpack has faced East Carolina since a 34-6 blowout victory in 2019. NC State has won the previous two matchups by a combined 92-9.
Subscribe to The Wolfpacker today for a limited-time $1 deal for a year of premium access
With that said, the program has played the Pirates twice on their home field since 2010 and lost each time. NC State realizes that this matchup is more than just a clash with a group-of-five program.
“I think, playing at ECU, it’s going to be a hostile environment,” head coach Dave Doeren said at ACC Media Day. “I have great respect for Mike Houston, and he’s done a good job, and they got a lot of good players back.
“So, that’s going to be a heck of a football game.”
NC State special assistant to the head coach Ruffin McNeill is especially familiar with East Carolina after leading the program as head coach from 2010-2015, going 2-0 against the Wolfpack in his tenure.
“That’s going to be an important game for him, I know, personally,” Doeren said.
Drake Thomas, one of the Wolfpack defense’s experienced stars, is looking forward to taking the field again with his teammates.
“It’s going to be so much fun to get back out there with the guys and compete,” Thomas said at ACC Media Day. “It kind of got taken away from a lot of them last year. So, just being able to get back out there and compete with those guys, I just really can’t wait.”
Thomas said the team needs to lock in, ignore the headlines and focus on executing on the field in order to avoid an upset in Greenville. The next matchup is the most important regardless of the opponent, the linebacker said.
“Just trying to show up and be the best version of ourselves,” Thomas said. “Just not letting outside noise creep in.”
Linebacker Isaiah Moore sees NC State’s rising national perception headed into 2022, but that’s not going to faze the graduate student.
“We’re in a different place than we’ve ever been in the past that I’ve been here,” Moore said at ACC Media Day. “But, at the same time, you can’t shy away from it. You have to understand that it’s there, and we expect to get everybody’s best, even when we were underdogs, and that’s not going to change this year.”
While the program’s No. 13 coaches poll ranking will create a lot of hype around the Wolfpack, Moore said that outside excitement will not change their mentality.
“I think we’re still underdogs because we don’t have an ACC championship in the last 40-something years at our school,” Moore said. “We weren’t the top dogs in the ACC last year. There are many expectations that are being put on us this year. That’s just on paper, and we still have to go out there and play. And that’s our goal.”
