In the words of Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta , more commonly known by her stage name, “Lady Gaga,” the Wolfpack football team was “on the edge of glory” during the 2010 season but fell just short of competing for an ACC Championship.

While coach Tom O’Brien was able to salvage a bowl win over West Virginia in the Champs Sports Bowl, 23-7, many changes that took place during the offseason have fans wondering if the 2011 season can live up to the hype built up by the previous year.

Both offensive and defensive leaders, Russell Wilson and Nate Irving, will be gone this season, with Wilson enrolling at Wisconsin and Irving going in the third round of the NFL Draft to the Denver Broncos. Speaking of offense, the top two leading receivers from last year, Owen Spencer and Jarvis Williams, have graduated.

To make matters worse, the leading rusher last season, sophomore tailback Mustafa Greene, was sidelined with a foot injury. While O’Brien said the Irmo , S.C ., native will return in the fall, the injury will still hold him out of any offseason conditioning leg workouts and cuts that led him to the endzone in the first four straight collegiate games of his career.

With all of these factors stacked against O’Brien and co., the odds of competing for a spot in the ACC Championship game do not look very good.

So why do I still believe this is the year that the Pack will have its first 10-win season since Philip Rivers’ junior season in 2002? The answer is quite simple, actually – O’Brien, his defense and the schedule.

Following last season, O’Brien had a choice: deal with the offseason Brett Favre-like wavering that comes along with Wilson at quarterback, or go with redshirt junior Mike Glennon . O’Brien chose to go with Glennon and granted Wilson his release to play football with another school in 2011, and we already know where he ended up.

But since Glennon started his new job, O’Brien said the redshirt junior is “as talented as any quarterback I’ve had.”

And the bar is set high for Glennon too. O’Brien’s past quarterbacks list include Tim Hasselbeck , a former NFL quarterback, Matt Hasselbeck and Matt Ryan, starters for the Seattle Seahawks and Atlanta Falcons, respectively.

Though Glennon’s performance on the field may still be unknown, one of the team’s strengths from last season will remain intact: the defense.

While much has been said about State’s inexperienced offense, eight starters – led by redshirt senior linebacker Audie Cole, who is moving to the middle linebacker position for the first time in his four-year tenure – will return from last season.

The defense that held the Mountaineers to only seven points in the final game of the season will remain together as two linemen, two linebackers and all four players in the backfield.

Though the defense will be a crucial component for the Pack, the biggest potential factor for an ACC Championship berth this season will be the way the schedule works out.

The first three games of the season are against Liberty and South Alabama at home and Wake Forest in Winston-Salem. Each of these games fall under the category of “cupcake” games, leading to a Thursday night contest with a Cincinnati team still recovering from losing Brian Kelly two years ago.

If the Pack can survive a home game against Georgia Tech and down Central Michigan and Virginia, the team will travel down to Tallahassee with a 7-0 record to start the season.

The meat of the schedule begins with the game against Florida State, but three of the last four games are at home against UNC-Chapel Hill, Clemson and Maryland, which are all winnable games.

While the Pack has not beaten Clemson in seven straight contests, it lost by only a single point last year, and the game should be tight defensively with State having the upper hand at home.

Overall, my prediction for the season is a 9-3 record, though 10-2 is not out of the realm of possibility, and a tight race against Florida State for a spot in the ACC Championship game.

State has not won the ACC title since 1979, but with the players that O’Brien will be putting on the field in the 2011, the Pack has a shot at wearing a ring next year.