2009 NC State Football Schedule Released

'09 Football Future Opponents General NCS Football23

The ACC released the 2009 football schedules today, so if you’re like me, you’re already planning your tailgating menus.

Key notes:

*8 home games
*Open with South Carolina on Thursday Night ESPN. It will never be the Red River Rivalry or the Cocktail Party, but this is a great regional rivalry and I think it should be renewed annually into the distant future, even if it meant playing the game in Charlotte every season.
*Heavy September and November at home; November looks to be a brutal stretch for us, too.
*That Wake game already scares me after opening with four straight September home games.
*End with Carolina, so it looks like the ACC is finally starting to see the marketability of this rivalry rather than the contrived nature of the Carolina-Duke football “rivalry.” Also, since we’re apparently marked for a Thanksgiving Weekend home game every season, then making it the biggest game of the season is the most practical solution to ensure a max-capacity crowd.

Apparently Alpha and I were both doing this at the same time, so I’m stealing his schedule and taking full credit for it.

Sept. 3 vs. South Carolina
Sept. 12 vs. Murray State
Sept. 19 vs. Gardner-Webb
Sept. 26 vs. Pittsburgh
Oct. 3 @ Wake Forest
Oct. 10 vs. Duke
Oct. 17 @ Boston College
Oct. 31 @ Florida State
Nov. 7 vs. Maryland
Nov. 14 vs. Clemson
Nov. 21 @ Virginia Tech
Nov. 28 vs. North Carolina

Here’s a composite ACC schedule.

About LRM

Charter member of the Lunatic Fringe and a fan, loyal to a fault.

'09 Football Future Opponents General NCS Football

23 Responses to 2009 NC State Football Schedule Released

  1. Alpha Wolf 02/12/2009 at 4:36 PM #

    This is a test of the emergency commentary system

  2. Classof89 02/12/2009 at 4:42 PM #

    This schedule reminds me a little of the Gator Bowl Notre Dame win year….schedule backloaded with heavy weights, but front half allows for strong start.

    Get by USC, and we could be 6-0 going into BC (sort of like the game at Clemson the Gator Bowl year). Win that one, and we’d be 7-0 going into an absolute murderer’s row… I could see us starting 7-0 and finishing 1-4.

  3. johnboyNCSU 02/12/2009 at 4:53 PM #

    I went ahead and threw the entries into a Google Calendar:

    http://www.google.com/calendar/embed?src=NWd2b2dvYjkyNnAwaTQ2N2thZTVlNWc3MmdAZ3JvdXAuY2FsZW5kYXIuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbQ

    I’ll try to keep it up-to-date as the game times get releases. If anybody wants the ability to modify the entries, just let me know.

  4. packbackr04 02/12/2009 at 5:16 PM #

    carolina has two weeks on espn… back to back. thursday night with FSU and the very next thursday night @ blacksburg vs va tech.

    how many espn slots do we have?

  5. BAC79 02/12/2009 at 5:34 PM #

    Off topic but you need to see this:

    http://www.guzer.com/videos/are-you-going-to-finish-strong.php

  6. BSIE80 02/12/2009 at 6:35 PM #

    8-4 should be our worst acceptable finish.
    4-4 in ACC is probable.

  7. dtwncsu 02/12/2009 at 6:57 PM #

    I think we have a chance at going 9-3 if we can still a game at wake or vt. Pretty tough schedule from top to bottom.

  8. 61Packer 02/12/2009 at 7:08 PM #

    Let’s see……EIGHT tailgates!! My biggest problem this coming fall won’t be getting to the games, it’ll be keeping my weight down. Going to be some serious pig consumed!

  9. wolfpackdawg 02/12/2009 at 8:56 PM #

    Get by USC,

    Please. The real USC is on the west coast. Refer to them as UsuC

  10. noblepack 02/12/2009 at 9:11 PM #

    I like this schedule alot. Start with a bang, the team should be motivated. Then we play some lessor competition to get some experience in our depth chart. You can certainly see if we play well and get large leads that we’ll play both QBs for experience. I’d much rather start fast before the ACC competition heats up.

  11. choppack1 02/12/2009 at 10:47 PM #

    Only NC State can have a schedule that sets you up for ridicule and is tough at the same time.
    *2 Division 1AA opponents
    *2 tough opponents OOC.
    *4 straight home games.
    *5 of first 6 at home.

    Man, a lot of potential road trips out there if I didn’t have 13 month old.

  12. robopack 02/13/2009 at 8:12 AM #

    Anybody else notice the POSSIBILITY i say possibility of playing carolina twice in about a weeks time? Nov. 28 in raliegh and Dec. 5 in tampa. (acc championship) Betcha that would get some press coverage! Also i know a lot of people are down on playing two Division IAA teams back to back and early, but i think a positive spin is the fact that if we handle our business early in those games Glennon can get in and get some valuable PT in those early games. Could serve us well in the long run.

  13. Classof89 02/13/2009 at 9:06 AM #

    I’m not as worried about Wake Forest as some of you seem to be. I think TOB has turned the corner on losing to Wake Forest. Didn’t Wake experience heavy personnel losses from last season?

    The trap game on this schedule is the home game vs. Maryland, sandwiched between FSU and Clemson.

  14. anti-smurf 02/13/2009 at 11:20 AM #

    Finally ACC got it right and put the real rivalry game, State/unc last weekend of the season.

    I’m not a fan of 2 1-AA teams, but I like 8 home games! Now if they’ll get rid of the 5 hr tailgating rule….

  15. Alpha Wolf 02/13/2009 at 11:24 AM #

    “The real USC is on the west coast. Refer to them as UsuC”

    I always use SoCar.

  16. SMD 02/13/2009 at 11:31 AM #

    I think that whether we win or lose South Carolina, the Wake game is the one to circle. Winston is not exactly at the top of most people’s “toughest places to play” lists, but it has been that way for us fairly recently.

    We win that one, and we can start to talk about a strong season.

  17. Alpha Wolf 02/13/2009 at 11:45 AM #

    ^ They have owned us up there. Hopefully, our improvement will show up against quality opponents on the road.

  18. tvp1 02/13/2009 at 1:05 PM #

    Just my opinion, but I think Wake struggles this year. Their entire run of success has been due to their defense. The playmakers off that defense are gone. Even in their ACC title year, their offense was mediocre at best. I don’t see Wake having the depth to replace Curry, Smith, et al. without missing a beat.

    I see surprisingly easy wins over Wake and MD next year. Clemson and BC have to be considered total question marks given their coaching shake-ups, but Clemson does worry me – they still have a significant talent advantage over us.

    We need to come out of the first part of the schedule at 5-2 minimum.

  19. Classof89 02/13/2009 at 4:03 PM #

    ^
    I agree on Wake being down this year, although I acknowledge Alpha’s note about our struggles at Wake. We are 1-5 in our last six visits to Winston-Salem (and the one win we lucky to get out of there at 17-14). The five losses are by an average of over 13 points, so we haven’t exactly been competitive.

    When Amato was here, we had superior talent and inferior coaching vs. Wake. Now, I think the coaching disparity is eliminated, and over time, we are re-establishing the talent superiority that allowed us to win 9 straight from ’88 to ’96 and 17 of 20 from ’77 to ’96.

    We’re in a tough division in football, and we aren’t going to be successful unless we can establish superiority over BC and Wake, the two teams in the division we SHOULD be able to beat most years. As it stands, TOB is 1-9 against the Division.

  20. transylvania 02/13/2009 at 8:47 PM #

    I see us going 7-5 with a bid to the Muffler Bowl. I’d like to be more optimistic, but I think we are still a year or two out from winning the division.

    How good is Pitt supposed to be this season?

  21. Greywolf 02/14/2009 at 1:34 AM #

    Alpha Wolf
    February 13th, 2009 at 11:24 am
    “The real USC is on the west coast. Refer to them as UsuC”

    I always use SoCar.

    Alpha, You want to piss off our ‘little sister’ sch. folks in Chapel hell? Call SoCar, “Carolina”. I have burned some serious a$$ doing that.

    BTW during the site melt down, I tried to reply that my intent with the Degand “knee swell” thing was to create a ‘likely possibility.’ I wasn’t clear. And you were right on about it being the right action if it was academic discipline. (A five year engineering degree takes a little more academic discipline than a four year Liberal Arts degree, right. Although I’ve heard we’ve got those now, too. I should talk having spent a good portion of my time in Recreation and Park Administration. Got to know a lot of jocks that way. 😉

  22. inhoc... 02/16/2009 at 12:10 PM #

    just saw this blurb on UNX rivals site…..

    [“We have chosen not to play host to previous Thursday night games due to the disruption it would cause at a university like ours where the football stadium is in the heart of campus.”

    “After discussions with Chancellor (Holden) Thorp, faculty leaders and officials from UNC Hospitals, we think we have a plan to make this work,” Baddour added. “The ACC also worked with us to select a game on the Thursday of Fall Break, thus there are no classes that day or the following day.”]

    i`m not quite sure how to take this, but does this just not wreak of the whine and cheese mentality?….maybe i`m off base. who knows…

    as you read further, this is the only notable mention of the “end of year match up (not mentioning State by name)”…
    did they really have to say is as “we aren’t playing duke” instead of, “we are ending the year with an interesting rivalry game this year”
    “The 2009 home schedule also marks the first time Carolina and Duke have not ended the year”

  23. gopack4eva 03/17/2009 at 7:27 AM #

    9-3 is very reasonable. Pitt looks tough but lost its starting back. i do not support the two cupcakes game but good thoughts on throwing in Glennon to get some good game action. and keep Russell off the field without injuries. i am optimistic but if Clemson struggles and Wake backs down due to lack of talent defensively, we may be looking at another trip to Florida for the Gator Bowl. optimistic indeed.

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