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Notre Dame-NC State: Irish Primed To End Two Mini-Streaks

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Last year's game played during Hurricane Matthew saw North Carolina State eke out a 10-3 win versus Notre Dame.
Last year's game played during Hurricane Matthew saw North Carolina State eke out a 10-3 win versus Notre Dame. (Rivals.com)
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There are two mini-streaks that No. 9-ranked Notre Dame is seeking to end versus No. 14 North Carolina State this weekend.

The first is the Wolfpack are 2-0 all time versus the Irish. They won 10-3 last year at Raleigh in treacherous conditions during Hurricane Matthew, and 28-6 in the 2003 Gator Bowl when future NFL star Philip Rivers was the starting quarterback for North Carolina State while Irish starting signal-caller Carlyle Holiday was knocked out of the game early.

North Carolina State has never finished in the top 10 of the Associated Press poll that began in 1936. The highest final placement occurred in 1974 — No. 11 — when third-year head coach Lou Holtz led them to a 9-2-1 campaign. The Wolfpack also finished No. 9 in the coaches’ poll (UPI) that season, their lone top-10 finish ever.

Nevertheless, despite that lack of renowned tradition, North Carolina State will attempt to become only the fourth team since the start of the 20th century to begin a series against Notre Dame with a 3-0 advantage, and the first in 77 years.

Michigan and Wisconsin were the first two with three consecutive wins from 1900-08. Iowa became the third from 1921-40.

The second mini-streak is the Fighting Irish have lost three straight games to Power Five Conference teams making their debut in Notre Dame Stadium: Louisville (2014), Virginia Tech (2016) and Georgia (2017).

Since the opening of Notre Dame Stadium in 1930, 15 of 76 opponents have won on their first visit — and six of them have occurred since 2009. In addition to the aforementioned three since 2014, they include Connecticut (2009), Tulsa (2010) and South Florida (2011).

Oh, and one more item: If the Fighting Irish win, it would be the first time since 1989 they recorded victories in back-to-back weeks against Associated Press Top 15-ranked teams at the time of the game. That was against No. 9 USC on October 21 (28-24) and No. 7 Pitt on Oct. 28 (45-7) — the same dates as this year's USC and North Carolina State contests, and both at home as well.

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