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Notre Dame-North Carolina State: All Of The 'Trappings'

Head coach Dave Doeren and his Wolfpack are seeking a win over a "brand" team. (The Wolfpacker.com)

Notre Dame’s visit to North Carolina State has all the “trappings,” so to speak, to the 2016 season that its trip to Virginia did in 2015.

The Fighting Irish trek to Charlottesville last year was their first, and it was one of the most anticipated football games ever at the school founded by Thomas Jefferson.

That game was “supposed to be” one of the easiest ones on the Notre Dame slate. Virginia had finished under .500 six of the previous seven seasons while totaling a 31‑54 record (including 11‑25 from 2012‑14), plus head coach Mike London’s job status was in jeopardy. Meanwhile, the Irish had just crushed Texas 38‑3 in their season opener and had the look of a national title aspirant.

Yet it was the Fighting Irish who found themselves on the cusp of defeat in the closing seconds. They lost starting quarterback Malik Zaire to a season-ending injury during the third quarter and trailed 27‑26 before then redshirt freshman DeShone Kizer found junior wideout Will Fuller on a 39-yard touchdown pass with 12 seconds left to pull out the victory.

Virginia ended up 4‑8, resulting in the firing of London at the end of the season, but that one particular day at home against Notre Dame, Charlottesville was rocking.

Likewise, this will be Notre Dame’s first trip ever in football to Raleigh — the only previous meeting was North Carolina State’s 28‑6 Gator Bowl win over the Irish on Jan. 1, 2003 — and it has been awaited with similar immense anticipation, despite the sub.‑500 record for head coach Brian Kelly’s team.

It is the Wolfpack’s most heralded non-conference contest since Ohio State came to town in 2004. Furthermore, NC State’s football team will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the first game in Carter-Finley Stadium, exactly 50 years to the day, for the Notre Dame weekend. The celebration will include donning its throwback uniforms from the 1980s, which includes a red diamond “NCS” logo on a white helmet.

The Wolfpack hasn’t quite fallen on the same hard times that Virginia has over the past decade, but it is aching for a momentous victory at home after throwing scares into first defending national champion Florida State — with Jameis Winston at quarterback — in 2014, and then eventual national runner-up Clemson last year, before losing by identical 56-41 scores both times.

The game at Virginia last season for Notre Dame also came the week before hosting then No. 14 Georgia Tech, which was considered one of the red-letter games on the Irish schedule. This year, the Wolfpack come before the Irish host Stanford, which has become one of the two or three most exciting annual games on the Irish slate.

The confluence of those factors make this a dangerous road trip, as does the need for fourth-year head coach Dave Doeren to post a marquee win. That brings us to …


Back in 2013, Doeren was on Blue & Gold Illustrated’s short list of potential Notre Dame head coaches in case Kelly opted to leave — a thought that was prompted by his January 2013 interview with the NFL’s Philadelphia Eagles.

With strong Midwestern roots, Doeren earned buzz in the college football ranks when he led Northern Illinois to an 11‑3 record in 2011, and then followed that up with a 12‑0 regular season in 2012 (like Kelly at Notre Dame) and the Mid-American Conference’s first trip to the Bowl Championship Series, where it lost 31‑10 to Florida State.

North Carolina State hired Doeren to replace Tom O’Brien. After a 3‑9 debut in 2013, he improved the Wolfpack to 8‑5 in 2015 and optimism was high that in year three the Wolfpack could break through, especially with veteran quarterback Jacoby Brissett (now a temporary starter with the New England Patriots) at the helm.

However, Doeren’s stock dropped with a disappointing 7‑6 season.

North Carolina State was 7‑0 against teams that either had losing records or were in the Football Championship Subdivision (such as William & Mary and Eastern Kentucky), and 0‑6 versus opponents that finished above .500.

The Wolfpack defense allowed only 14.6 points per game in the seven wins against inferior opposition, but permitted 39.0 in its six defeats, capped with a 51‑28 loss to Mississippi State in the Belk Bowl.

This year, the schedule was in place for a 4‑0 start prior to the Notre Dame game, but a 33‑30 loss at East Carolina (5‑7 last year) Sept. 10, created an instant letdown.

North Carolina State generally has been a middle-of-the-road operation, ranking somewhere between 40 and 60. Since 2003, it has finished in the Associated Press top 25 only once — No. 25 in 2010 under O’Brien.

Under Doeren, the recruiting has been upgraded some with Rivals class rankings at No. 30 (2014), No. 36 (2015) and No. 44 (2016).

The Wolfpack has shown it can be jacked at home for marquee games. Two years ago it led defending national champ Florida State, with Winston at QB, 24‑7 after one quarter, before losing 56‑41. Last year it was up 20‑19 on Clemson and trailed only 33‑27 in the second half before falling by the identical 56‑41 score.

NC State hasn’t shown an ability to finish these showdowns, but this still looms as a dangerous trip for the Fighting Irish.

“The main thing people are looking for is the statement win,” TheWolfpacker.com editor Matt Carter said of the Doeren era. “The general agreement is that he’s upgraded the talent, and their recruiting has gotten better. For the most part — until East Carolina — they’ve done a good job the last two years of eliminating the bad losses.

“But they haven’t won the 50-50 game or pulled that upset yet. They’ve come close. They’ve been very competitive with Louisville the last two years, and they’ve come close with Clemson and Florida State. But they haven’t had that statement-defining, program-defining win, and that’s what fans are eager for at this moment.”

Even against a sub-.500 Notre Dame team, such a victory might qualify.

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