A season after the football team had a 7-5 overall record, a 14-0 victory in the Meineke Car Care Bowl against South Florida and three first-round NFL Draft selections, last week ACC media picked N.C. State to finish fifth out of six teams in the Atlantic Division, one spot ahead of Wake Forest.
However, redshirt senior cornerback A.J. Davis said the rankings do not matter, especially considering they have no factor in determining where the team finishes at the end of the season.
“We use it as motivation,” Davis said. “I’ve been on both ends of the stick. I’ve been part of teams that have been predicted to finish top 10 and didn’t do well, and I’ve been on teams that were not projected to do well, and we’ve done well.”
With the early departure of junior Mario Williams and redshirt junior John McCargo and the graduation of Manny Lawson, all of whom were first-round picks and defensive linemen, the Wolfpack will be replacing three starters from its defensive line.
While there will be new faces along the defensive front, senior kicker John Deraney said there are athletes who can fill the hole.
“We lost some guys, but we’ve got some guys that can come in and step up,” Deraney said.
Not only will the team be looking to fill holes on the defensive front, according to Deraney, but he said State will also be competing in one of the top conferences in the nation.
“The ACC is getting like the SEC used to be,” Deraney said. “No disrespect to the SEC, but we are starting to get some of their players.”
In order to stay competitive in the conference, Davis said the team can’t afford to continue to lose games the team is supposed to win. The only team the Pack were predicted to finish ahead of in the ACC Atlantic preseason rankings was Wake Forest, a team State lost to last season.
“We are in a really tough conference,” Davis said. “We have to play good every week. We can’t play good one week and then not so good the next.”
With victories over Florida State and Maryland last season, teams predicted to finish ahead of State, Davis said fans have a right to expect good things from the team.
“The expectations should be there,” Davis said. “We have higher expectations than anyone. We just have to be sure to play the best we can play.”
Deraney added with the facilities the team has, the fans should look for State to be one of the top programs in the ACC.
“With the facilities we have, it’s not wrong for fans to expect us to be top notch,” Deraney said.
On the other side of the ACC, in the Coastal Division, rival North Carolina was also predicted to finish fifth. Deraney said because the two programs are rivals, the game between the two, which is the last ACC game of the season for the Pack on Nov. 18, could go either way, but that his team should come out on top.
“It doesn’t matter,” Deraney said. “It’s a rivalry game — it’s always going to be a close game. But I want to say we have a better program with better players.”