NC State heads into Friday night with no shortage of urgency, even if the season has already handed the Wolfpack two conference losses. Dave Doeren kept the focus simple when talking about the stretch run.
“Six games left, one at a time,” NC State Head Coach Dave Doeren said. “Look forward to the opportunity to finish well.
That’s something that we take a lot of pride in, and look forward to the opportunity to start that this Friday. NC State doesn’t have much of a history with Stanford.
The Wolfpack has only played Stanford once before, when the Cardinal joined the ACC in the 2024 season. State won that Nov. 2nd meeting 59 to 28.
NC State has 3 things to watch out for if it expects to come away with a victory today.
The biggest question for the Wolfpack is how they answer after the 38 to 14 loss to Wake Forest in Week 6. That game brought a mix of unavailable players and missed execution, and now the bye week gives State a chance to reset.
NC State has already shown some response after earlier losses this season, bouncing back the week after each of them. Whether that pattern holds again is one of the key things to track.
Stanford arrives with a clear ground threat. In last week’s win over Elon, the Cardinal piled up 222 rushing yards as a team, and Micah Ford did the heavy lifting.
Ford ran for 179 yards on 19 carries and scored four touchdowns, finishing with an 81-yard burst in the fourth quarter. His 529 rushing yards rank sixth in the ACC, and he figures to be central to Stanford’s plan again.
For NC State, Popo Aguirre and the rest of the defense will have to deal with a run game that has already produced some eye-catching numbers. The Wolfpack have generally held up against the run, but Virginia’s 258 rushing yards, Louisville’s 231, and Vanderbilt’s 132 all stand out as examples of where things have gotten away from them.
Then there’s the setting itself. Doeren had the Wolfpack fly to Stanford on Wednesday to get ahead of the time change, since a 7:30 pm PT kickoff means a very late night by Eastern time standards. The staff even pushed practice to midnight this week to help the players adjust.
“The goal of this being that we understand how to play at that time of the evening,” Doeren said. “Under the lights, It’s been pretty fun being out on the field with them, but to be ready for that 1:30 am fourth quarter.”
That late-game element matters because NC State has watched a few leads fade in the fourth quarter this season. If the Wolfpack can carry their usual response after a loss into a long night on the West Coast, they put themselves in position to leave with a win.
NC State: 28, Stanford: 17
The Wolfpack and the Cardinal kick off tonight at 10:30 pm ET on ESPN.
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