As of midweek there were a lot of positive vibes coming out of the Murphy Center. The feeling sounded good about how NC State came out of the bye and was practicing. Whether that will carry over to game day on Saturday at Boston College, obviously, remains to be seen.
There are some natural X-factors in the game. Chances of rain are good later in the evening and could impact the second half. Prior to the rain’s arrival, it could also be windy.
The big question is how good is Boston College’s offense under backup quarterback Dennis Grosel? In his first start, BC only scored 28 points on a Temple and had just 238 yards of total offense. For the season, Temple allows 354.7 yards per game.
BC scored 41 points in an overtime win against Missouri in Grosel’s second start and led an offense that had 451 total yards. Impressive numbers until you find out the Tigers are next-to-last out of 130 teams in the Football Bowl Subdivision in yards per game allowed at 499.0. In regulation, the Eagles had 426 total yards against Mizzou.
Boston College did have 357 total yards, though, in its loss at Clemson, which is above what the Tigers’ typically allow (306.4 yards). NC State had 336 yards at the end of regulation on Clemson.
Grosel also threw for 311 yards and it could have been more, he missed star receiver Zay Flowers on deep throws that could have been multiple touchdowns (similar to Devin Leary missing Anthony Smith at Mississippi State). The weather though could impact how much deep passing the teams could realistically expect Saturday.
This game is not a must-win for NC State in terms of the ACC's Atlantic Division, but it would be an extremely helpful, beneficial victory. The way the schedule is set up, at Wake Forest on Nov. 13 is truthfully a bigger game for the Wolfpack. It is a must-win for Boston College, realistically speaking.
•••
In football recruiting news, there has been a lot of chatter behind the scenes about three-star receiver Wesley Grimes from Raleigh Millbrook. At the moment, Grimes is still talking to other colleges (note the plural), and NC State is one of them. Head coach Dave Doeren was at Grimes’ game last Friday when Millbrook played Rolesville (N.C.) High, featuring four-star junior receiver Noah Rogers.
Grimes is having a sensational senior season and is starting to catch the attention of others, and perhaps putting his Wake Forest commitment in jeopardy. As noted previously, Grimes did attend NC State’s home win over Clemson Sept. 25, weeks after committing to the Demon Deacons.
Thus the Pack may be in the mix still with Grimes. Readers may recall that we have previously and multiple times noted Grimes had the appearance of a recruitment that was not over when he picked Wake Forest. One of the reasons we felt that way was that Grimes was all set to commit to Wake Forest yet still took in NC State's opener in person and seemed to have, for a brief moment, potential second thoughts.
That said, it would be false to presume that NC State is the frontrunner should Grimes pull a switch. He was offered by Notre Dame last night. Distance will be a factor going against the Irish for Grimes, who wants to be close to his family for college. However, Notre Dame was perhaps the one school that we detected Grimes would have given an exception to that factor.
Furthermore, multiple sources are now leading us to believe that an offer from UNC could be forthcoming. There was a thought that Chapel Hill was putting all their eggs into the basket of four-star Andre Greene Jr. from Richmond (Va.) St. Christopher’s in what is shaping up as a battle between the Heels, Clemson and Georgia. Now we have a hunch that Grimes could be a new target for UNC regardless of what Greene does. We understand that Carolina assistants (apparently Mack Brown does not go to high school games in person) and watched as Grimes caught three scores in the Millbrook victory.
(And it should be noted we understand Clemson is still expressing interest in Grimes.)
If we are being blunt, there was a feeling over the summer that Grimes really wanted an offer from UNC or Clemson, perhaps more than the options he had on the table.
•••
NC State did send out offers this past week to four older players, and take note of that fact, for next year:
• Junior college mammoth defensive tackle Jeffrey M’Ba at Independence (Kan.) C.C. The 6-foot-6, 310-pounder also has offers from Kansas State, Miami, Minnesota and Nebraska, among others. He is a native of France that originally intended to go to Virginia when in prep school in 2020.
• Syracuse receiver Taj Harris, who probably would have ended up at NC State if the Pack had pursued harder when he was a senior at Palmyra (N.J.) High, the same high school that former NC State standout Kelvin Harmon attended, was also offered after entering the transfer portal. The Harmon connection could help here, but the bottom line is that Harris will be heavily sought-after in the transfer portal, especially when the bigger colleges get a handle on their needs at receiver.
• Defensive back Keionte Scott from Snow College in Ephraim, Utah also has offers from a lot of programs and is one of the more sought-after junior college secondary performers in the country.
• Safety Marquise Gilbert is playing at Hutchinson (Kan.) Community College and also has offers from Colorado, Maryland, Oklahoma State, Oregon State, Tennessee, Texas Tech and Utah, among others. It should be noted that Gilbert is a native of Flagler, Fla., a section of the Sunshine State that Wolfpack safeties coach Joe DeForest is somewhat familiar from DeForest's days first working at NASA and then beginning his coaching career as an assistant at Titusville (Fla.) High.
Especially noteworthy is offering a pair of defensive backs, perhaps an indication of a new need emerging after a midseason evaluation. We should also note that there are signs that NC State now could add a few more recruits than originally anticipated, but that is always a fluid situation.
For a reminder of all the “super senior” decisions to come this offseason, check out last week’s War Room.
The bulk of the attention in football recruiting is expected to be heavily focused on transfers and junior college players.
There are some natural X-factors in the game. Chances of rain are good later in the evening and could impact the second half. Prior to the rain’s arrival, it could also be windy.
The big question is how good is Boston College’s offense under backup quarterback Dennis Grosel? In his first start, BC only scored 28 points on a Temple and had just 238 yards of total offense. For the season, Temple allows 354.7 yards per game.
BC scored 41 points in an overtime win against Missouri in Grosel’s second start and led an offense that had 451 total yards. Impressive numbers until you find out the Tigers are next-to-last out of 130 teams in the Football Bowl Subdivision in yards per game allowed at 499.0. In regulation, the Eagles had 426 total yards against Mizzou.
Boston College did have 357 total yards, though, in its loss at Clemson, which is above what the Tigers’ typically allow (306.4 yards). NC State had 336 yards at the end of regulation on Clemson.
Grosel also threw for 311 yards and it could have been more, he missed star receiver Zay Flowers on deep throws that could have been multiple touchdowns (similar to Devin Leary missing Anthony Smith at Mississippi State). The weather though could impact how much deep passing the teams could realistically expect Saturday.
This game is not a must-win for NC State in terms of the ACC's Atlantic Division, but it would be an extremely helpful, beneficial victory. The way the schedule is set up, at Wake Forest on Nov. 13 is truthfully a bigger game for the Wolfpack. It is a must-win for Boston College, realistically speaking.
•••
In football recruiting news, there has been a lot of chatter behind the scenes about three-star receiver Wesley Grimes from Raleigh Millbrook. At the moment, Grimes is still talking to other colleges (note the plural), and NC State is one of them. Head coach Dave Doeren was at Grimes’ game last Friday when Millbrook played Rolesville (N.C.) High, featuring four-star junior receiver Noah Rogers.
Grimes is having a sensational senior season and is starting to catch the attention of others, and perhaps putting his Wake Forest commitment in jeopardy. As noted previously, Grimes did attend NC State’s home win over Clemson Sept. 25, weeks after committing to the Demon Deacons.
Thus the Pack may be in the mix still with Grimes. Readers may recall that we have previously and multiple times noted Grimes had the appearance of a recruitment that was not over when he picked Wake Forest. One of the reasons we felt that way was that Grimes was all set to commit to Wake Forest yet still took in NC State's opener in person and seemed to have, for a brief moment, potential second thoughts.
That said, it would be false to presume that NC State is the frontrunner should Grimes pull a switch. He was offered by Notre Dame last night. Distance will be a factor going against the Irish for Grimes, who wants to be close to his family for college. However, Notre Dame was perhaps the one school that we detected Grimes would have given an exception to that factor.
Furthermore, multiple sources are now leading us to believe that an offer from UNC could be forthcoming. There was a thought that Chapel Hill was putting all their eggs into the basket of four-star Andre Greene Jr. from Richmond (Va.) St. Christopher’s in what is shaping up as a battle between the Heels, Clemson and Georgia. Now we have a hunch that Grimes could be a new target for UNC regardless of what Greene does. We understand that Carolina assistants (apparently Mack Brown does not go to high school games in person) and watched as Grimes caught three scores in the Millbrook victory.
(And it should be noted we understand Clemson is still expressing interest in Grimes.)
If we are being blunt, there was a feeling over the summer that Grimes really wanted an offer from UNC or Clemson, perhaps more than the options he had on the table.
•••
NC State did send out offers this past week to four older players, and take note of that fact, for next year:
• Junior college mammoth defensive tackle Jeffrey M’Ba at Independence (Kan.) C.C. The 6-foot-6, 310-pounder also has offers from Kansas State, Miami, Minnesota and Nebraska, among others. He is a native of France that originally intended to go to Virginia when in prep school in 2020.
• Syracuse receiver Taj Harris, who probably would have ended up at NC State if the Pack had pursued harder when he was a senior at Palmyra (N.J.) High, the same high school that former NC State standout Kelvin Harmon attended, was also offered after entering the transfer portal. The Harmon connection could help here, but the bottom line is that Harris will be heavily sought-after in the transfer portal, especially when the bigger colleges get a handle on their needs at receiver.
• Defensive back Keionte Scott from Snow College in Ephraim, Utah also has offers from a lot of programs and is one of the more sought-after junior college secondary performers in the country.
• Safety Marquise Gilbert is playing at Hutchinson (Kan.) Community College and also has offers from Colorado, Maryland, Oklahoma State, Oregon State, Tennessee, Texas Tech and Utah, among others. It should be noted that Gilbert is a native of Flagler, Fla., a section of the Sunshine State that Wolfpack safeties coach Joe DeForest is somewhat familiar from DeForest's days first working at NASA and then beginning his coaching career as an assistant at Titusville (Fla.) High.
Especially noteworthy is offering a pair of defensive backs, perhaps an indication of a new need emerging after a midseason evaluation. We should also note that there are signs that NC State now could add a few more recruits than originally anticipated, but that is always a fluid situation.
For a reminder of all the “super senior” decisions to come this offseason, check out last week’s War Room.
The bulk of the attention in football recruiting is expected to be heavily focused on transfers and junior college players.
