NC State football 2023 schedule released
The 2023 NC State football schedule has been released. The Wolfpack is set to have one of the best home slates in recent memory.
The season kicks off on the road, however, for a non-conference game for the second consecutive year. NC State will be at Connecticut on Saturday, Sept. 2. In 2022, the Wolfpack trounced the Huskies 41-10 in Raleigh. UConn, however, rebounded to win five of six games after that and qualify for the Myrtle Beach Bowl, which the Huskies lost to Marshall.
The season opener in 2022 was at East Carolina, a game NC State escaped with a 21-20 triumph.
One week after playing at Connecticut, the Sept. 9 home opener is a highly anticipated showdown with Notre Dame, which lost its only previous game at Carter-Finley Stadium in a 2016, well-remembered contest for being played while Hurricane Matthew was passing through Raleigh.
NC State will host VMI from the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) on Sept. 16.
The following Friday, ACC play starts on the road with a game at rebuilding Virginia. That will be the first of two consecutive Friday games for NC State. That could also mark the return of quarterback Brennan Armstrong to his old school. Armstrong transferred to NC State in January after three years as a starter for the Cavaliers, where he set numerous passing records.
The following Friday, NC State will host Louisville, which has a new head coach in Jeff Brohm. Brohm replaced Scott Satterfield, who left the Cards for Cincinnati. Coincidentally, Cincinnati was originally on the NC State football schedule, but the Bearcats canceled the game and were replaced by Marshall.
The final non-conference game is Oct. 7 in Raleigh against aforementioned Marshall, which may be a trendy choice to be one of the top Group of Five teams in the country in 2023.
On Oct. 14, NC State will travel to Duke for the first time since head coach Dave Doeren’s first season in Raleigh in 2013. That will also be the final game before the bye weekend.
NC State returns from the break hosting Clemson, the defending ACC champion, on Oct. 28. A week later, Miami comes to Raleigh. The Hurricanes are the lone conference team that Doeren has not defeated entering his 11th year at the helm. The Pack is 0-3 against Miami since Doeren took over prior to the 2013 campaign.
The following two weekends feature road dates, with NC State traveling to Wake Forest Nov. 11 and Virginia Tech a week later.
The Wolfpack has lost 11 of the last 13 games against Wake Forest in Winston-Salem, and NC State has dropped three in a row vs. Virginia Tech in Blacksburg.
The regular-season finale is Saturday, Nov. 25 against North Carolina. The Pack has won two straight thrillers over the Tar Heels and has taken five of the last seven games in the rivalry. This marks the ninth straight season the game was scheduled to end the regular season, although in 2020 the reshuffled conference slate due to the pandemic moved the contest to earlier in the season.
NC State football is coming off an 8-5 record in 2022, losing to Maryland in the Duke’s Mayo Bowl. The Wolfpack went 4-4 in the ACC.
Here is the 2023 NC State football schedule:
| Date | Opponent | Location |
| Sept. 2 | at Connecticut | East Hartford, Conn. |
| Sept. 9 | NOTRE DAME | Raleigh |
| Sept. 16 | VMI | Raleigh |
| Sept. 22 (Friday) | at Virginia | Charlottesville, Va. |
| Sept. 29 (Friday) | LOUISVILLE | Raleigh |
| Oct. 7 | MARSHALL | Raleigh |
| Oct. 14 | at Duke | Durham, N.C. |
| Oct. 28 | CLEMSON | Raleigh |
| Nov. 4 | MIAMI | Raleigh |
| Nov. 11 | at Wake Forest | Winston-Salem, N.C. |
| Nov. 18 | at Virginia Tech | Blacksburg, Va. |
| Nov. 25 | NORTH CAROLINA | Raleigh |
