Tim Peeler: Does NC State usually win after a bye week?
The phrase “much-needed” always seems to precede the words “open week” this time of the year when college football teams take time off to gear up for the second half of the season.
Sometimes, it’s much-needed just to sit back and bask in the glory of an undefeated start.
Sometimes, it’s much-needed to figure out what exactly hit a team that has not lived up to preseason expectations.
And sometimes, it’s much needed to decide how to heat things up for a team, find some kind of spark, make some significant changes or insert a new player into a critical position.
Most times, it’s a chance to rest, recover and regroup for the season’s final push.
After NC State football took this weekend off, here are a couple of seasons when an open week in the schedule made a huge difference in the overall outcome of the season.
Understand first, however, that open weeks are a pretty recent phenomenon in both college and professional football. The NFL didn’t begin playing 16 games over 17 weeks until 1990.
Including three seasons that had to be re-arranged because of, in order, terrorist attacks, a natural disaster and a global pandemic, the Wolfpack has had at least one open week scheduled for every year since 1986, except for the outlier season of 1990.
Before then, most ACC teams played straight through the season, at least from 1970-1985, in the aftermath of college football adding an 11th game to the schedule. In the earliest days of the conference, the season was more compact, not starting until mid or late September and ending in November. When seasons started stretching from August to December, open weeks were built in to give teams a break. State had open dates in 1955, 1959, 1969, 1973, 1978 and then from 1980-81 before it started an annual week off. In those games, the Wolfpack went 3-5-1.
Those open dates are not necessarily an automatic fix to the things that ail a team. Studies show that most Power 5 football teams don’t see an appreciable difference in their outcomes following open dates. Still, from 1986-2012, State owned an 18-12 record (.600) after having a week off.
That mark has been even better under current head coach Dave Doeren, who owns a 7-3 record (.700) following open dates, if you include the two from five years ago.
The originally scheduled one in the 2018 season was between the Clemson and Boston College games, but an unanticipated bye week was added when the September 15 game against West Virginia was cancelled because of Hurricane Florence. The Pack won the game that followed the first open date at Marshall but lost the regularly scheduled one against Clemson. (State added a game at the end of the regular season against East Carolina to make up for the lost game against the Mountaineers.)
The original 2020 season also held an open date between the Clemson and Wake Forest matchups, but that was canceled once the ACC wiped the slate clean because of the on-going COVID-19 pandemic. The reconfigured schedule was played straight through over 12 consecutive weeks.
The Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania caused most schools to postpone their games for the next weekend. State moved its contest against Ohio until the end of the season and did not have an open date scheduled.
State had two open dates in 2008, with only three games scheduled during the month of October. It lost to Florida State after the first, 26-17, then beat Duke following the second, 27-17.
It had two open dates in 1996 as well, giving more than 100 points in a pair of losses to Florida State and North Carolina. It split again after two open dates in 1994, beating Western Carolina, 38-13, and losing to North Carolina, 31-17.
There are two seasons when open dates had a big impact on the final outcome. In Doeren’s second season, with quarterback Jacoby Brissett under center, the Wolfpack started the season with four straight wins, four straight losses and an open week after losing at Louisville.
It finished the season by winning four of its five games after an open week, including a St. Petersburg Bowl victory over Central Florida.
A week off can also kill a team’s momentum. That happened to State coach Dick Sheridan’s team in 1989. The Pack won its first six games of the season and rose to No. 12 in The Associated Press poll before taking a week off prior to its game at Clemson. The Tigers rolled up a 30-10 victory, as State lost five of its final six games, including a 17-10 loss to Arizona in the Cherry Bowl.
Tim Peeler is a regular contributor to The Wolfpacker and can be reached at [email protected].
NC State Football After Open Date Under Dave Doeren
Date Game Result
2013 NC State vs. Clemson L, 26-14
2014 NC State at Syracuse W, 24-17
2015 NC State at Wake Forest W, 35-17
2016 NC State vs. Wake Forest W, 33-16
2017 NC State at Notre Dame L, 35-14
2018 NC State at Marshall W, 37-20
NC State at Clemson L, 41-7
2019 NC State vs. Syracuse W, 16-10
2020 None
2021 NC State at Boston College W, 33-7
2022 NC State vs. Virginia Tech W, 22-21
2023 Clemson at NC State TBD
