If N.C. State thought going down to Clemson was tough, that was nothing compared to what the Wolfpack faces this week. This is suddenly the hardest game of N.C. State’s schedule, and it wouldn’t matter if it were a decent opponent, although it is, at home or on the road.
Beating resurgent Florida State will be hard enough, physically, although the Wolfpack is a 3 1/2-point favorite. It’s the mental part that will be even tougher: starting over, trying to rebuild a season that took a wrong turn Saturday night.
Not that there’s anything wrong with losing at Clemson per se, but a year after N.C. State broke the skid against the Tigers and opened the door to unlimited possibilities, the Wolfpack now has to reckon with a brutal reality check, recalibrating its own goals and expectations from what it was not only a week ago but at the end of last season, to start this season.
That’s a difficult task for any team, in any sport. It’s a cliche, but there’s a reason coaches love to talk about not letting one game beat you twice: It happens! Often! And N.C. State can’t afford any slips now. There’s still a lot of season to play, many rewards still on offer, just about everything to salvage, but it absolutely has to leave what happened in Clemson back in Clemson and find a way not only to play better than it did, but closer to its best.
A lot of it is no longer up to the Wolfpack, but this game is, at least.
Without the tiebreaker over Clemson — and with Clemson also holding that edge on Wake Forest — the Wolfpack is going to need a lot of help if it’s going to make amends. Obviously, there’s no margin for error for N.C. State. This only realistically works if the Wolfpack wins out and Florida State beats Clemson next week in Tallahassee. Even then, Clemson’s going to have to lose a game at home against Syracuse, Miami or Louisville. Not impossible, but unlikely.
It’s a lot different than being in control of one’s destiny in the ACC, which — despite the disappointing loss at Mississippi State — is the position N.C. State was in after beating Clemson a year ago. Even the loss at Miami wasn’t catastrophic, as long as the Wolfpack still beat Wake Forest. Alas.
That’s the thing about windows. You never really know when they’re truly open until it’s too late, but you often know instantly when they slam shut.
Perhaps it takes a situation like this — amid even higher expectations for this season, now facing an even more uphill climb — to appreciate just how good a position N.C. State was in a year ago. Not that it helps, or matters.
The lesson therein is an old one, the same one North Carolina learned in 2020 and 2021. The Tar Heels had a chance to contend in the divisionless-COVID ACC of the pandemic fall, only to lose eminently winnable games against Florida State and Virginia. A year later, thinking their time had arrived, they found out it had already passed, starting with a Week 1 loss at Virginia Tech that proved a harbinger of unfulfilled promise.
N.C. State hasn’t done that much damage yet. And if the Wolfpack can make it to December with only a loss at Clemson on its resume, it’ll find itself in a prime spot in the College Football Playoff rankings, if not a CFP semifinal, and in the right spot to pick up the pieces if Clemson should stumble.
There’s still almost everything to play for if N.C. State can get back on the winning side against Florida State. Just not everything.
