NC State already knows what the ACC road map looks like for 2027, and it’s a bruising one.
The Wolfpack’s nine-game conference slate will bring Clemson, Miami and UNC to Carter-Finley Stadium, while the road trip list includes Duke, SMU, Syracuse, Virginia Tech and Wake Forest. No dates have been announced for any of those ACC games yet, but the shape of the schedule is already clear enough: there won’t be many soft spots.
Dave Doeren said on the Ovies & Giglio Podcast at ACC Kickoff that State will open the 2027 season against Clemson. He noted, "Next year we open with Clemson," while talking about starting the season against Virginia in Charlottesville. "So we'll have back-to-back openers this way."
That matchup would give the Wolfpack a shot at a three-game home winning streak against Clemson if things break the right way. Clemson, meanwhile, has not opened a season on the road against an ACC opponent since the 28-7 loss to Duke in 2023.
The rest of the home slate is just as demanding. Along with Clemson, Miami and Pitt are headed to Raleigh, and the rivalry game against North Carolina is on the schedule at Carter-Finley as well. On the road, NC State gets a mix of tricky league trips and familiar in-state stops, with Duke and Wake Forest joining the trek to Virginia Tech and SMU.
The conference format change is part of the reason the schedule keeps shifting. With the ACC moving to nine games for most teams beginning in 2026, every program’s slate has been in motion. For NC State, the result is a 2027 lineup that looks heavy from top to bottom.
That makes this season’s ACC schedule matter even more. After a rough start against Virginia in Week 0, the Pack needs to squeeze every bit of value out of the games in front of it, because the climb next fall is going to be much steeper.
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The special teams picture is just as worth watching. Jonathan Paylor now shows up as a kickoff return option, while the kickoff specialist job is still unsettled with Nick Konieczynski and Drew Lovelace competing for the role. For a team trying to settle in before facing Vanderbilt, those are the kinds of late-August decisions that can hint at how much is still open beneath the surface. [Read more 🡒]
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Jonathan Paylor Just Gave NC State A Reason To Wonder
Jonathan Paylors 51-yard run against Richmond was the kind of burst that reminds everyone why NC State was so eager to get him on campus in the first place. The four-star back has had a long road back after the torn ACL that wiped out his 2025 season, and this was one of the clearest signs yet that he is moving closer to the player the Wolfpack expected when they recruited him.
Paylor has spent the past two years fighting to get back to full speed after limited action, and he is still working his way up the depth chart as a backup in the backfield. Dave Doeren pointed to the run as a confidence boost, which makes sense for a player trying to rebuild both his form and his rhythm. The bigger question now is how quickly that momentum can turn into a larger role. [Read more 🡒]