Backing The Pack
Cheering for anyone else is for quitters.
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Countdown to Practice #7: Eemeli Yalaho
Welcome to the Preseason – Basketball practice officially starts in 7 days, September 21st We’re counting down the 10 days to the beginning of practice ’26-‘27 by taking another look at this season’s roster, focusing on the 10 players most likely to make an impact. This article is about Finnish forward Eemeli Yalaho, who some […]
Highlights! You want to see some dead bodies?
We were all expecting a lopsided affair on Friday night, but I’m not sure anyone anticipated the sort of lopsided affair that involves breaking century-old records and setting multiple Carter-Finley Stadium records. Over 700 yards of offense, over 400 rushing yards, 10 different guys with at least one carry—seven of them with at least one […]
Countdown to Practice #8: RJ Keene
Welcome to the Preseason – Basketball practice officially starts in 8 days, September 21st. We’re counting down the 10 days to the beginning of practice ’26-‘27 by taking another look at this season’s roster, focusing on the 10 players most likely to make an impact. Somebody is going to surprise us this season, (remember […]
Countdown to Practice #9: Robert Jurkovic
Welcome to the Preseason – Basketball practice officially starts in 9 days, September 21st. We’re counting down the 10 days to the beginning of practice ’26-‘27 by taking another look at this season’s roster, focusing on the 10 players most likely to make an impact. The Wolfpack has a bunch of roster question marks […]
College football Saturday open thread
A much better slate of games on tap today, capped by Ohio State/Texas tonight. Some games I’ll be keeping an eye on: NoonOklahoma vs. MichiganWake Forest vs. PurdueOregon vs. Oklahoma StateArizona State vs. Texas A&MApp State vs. ECU 3:30Alabama vs. KentuckyUCF vs. PittArizona vs. BYUCal vs. Syracuse 6 p.m. or laterMemphis vs. Boise StateTennessee vs. […]
NC State smokes Richmond, 73-0
NC State spent almost two weeks getting angry about football, and it showed, as the Wolfpack jumped on Richmond for 21 points in the first quarter and never had anything to worry about after that. The work wasn’t difficult for the offense in that first quarter, and Richmond was DOA, and the rest was just […]
Game thread: Richmond vs. NC State
Go Pack! Spiders vs. Wolfpack Kickoff: 7 p.m. ET TV: ESPNU (Jay Alter, Tom Luginbill) Online stream: WatchESPN
What are we watching against Richmond
It’s been a long wait for this day to get here, but now we can finally turn the page to (I hope) more constructive play and move on from the UVA debacle. So what are we keeping our eyes on in the bigger picture tonight? 1.) Find at least the beginnings of an identity offensively. […]
Countdown to First Official Practice: 10 Days to Go
Welcome to the preseason! Basketball Calendar: Predicted breakdown of minutes per player: It’s been a while since transfer season, so we’ll count down the 10 days leading up to practice by reintroducing the team, focusing on the 10 players expected to contribute. And we’ll do it ranked in order of my best guess at the […]
NC State hopes to get right against Richmond
Richmond is off to a 2-0 start to its 2026 campaign, ranked in the FCS Coaches Poll, and a top-25 FCS team according to SP+. The Spiders, who are recent additions to the Patriot League, were picked to finish third in the conference during the preseason. Their 2025 season was defined to an extent by […]
The Wolfpack Basketball Schedule is Out
Coach Justin Gainey’s first schedule has been published and we get 32 games this regular season. Of the ACC’s anticipated strongest teams, Duke, Louisville, Miami, Virginia and UNC, only Louisville plays at Lenovo this season. February looks pretty good until you get to the end and we finish the season with Duke, Louisville and Virginia.
Linebacker AJ Richardson out for the season
NC State’s defense took a substantial hit in the Virginia game, as linebacker AJ Richardson suffered a biceps injury that will keep him out for the rest of the season. It’s a tough loss for a unit in need of all of the potential playmakers it can get. Richardson missed most of the 2025 as […]
NC State a 30.5-point favorite against Richmond
It’s about time for NC State to get on with the rest of its season, and thank goodness for that, since having to sit on a terrible performance for two weeks is pretty unpleasant, it turns out. I’m sure the Pack is more than ready to get back on the field. The task will be […]
Thank you, but not goodbye
As you may have noticed, my posts around Backing The Pack have become less frequent of late. My work and family commitments have become greater, and those are the areas where my focus should be. I just don’t have the time necessary to meet SB Nation’s demands for the number of posts required to continue […]
Week 1 college football open thread
We are back, baby. No amount of bad NC State football could possibly ruin the first full college football Saturday, which is today, and here and now. This is always a long wait, and it’s just nice to be able to sit back and take in an entire day of sports nonsense. Now we get […]
NC State women’s soccer off to a scalding start
It’s football season, and also football season, and at least one football team on campus is on a path of exceeding expectations. That’d be the women’s soccer team, which is 7-0 after a 2-0 victory at Western Carolina on Thursday. Already that’s two more wins than this team had all of last season. The Wolfpack […]
DJ Eliot discusses NC State’s defensive performance against Virginia
DJ Eliot handled Dave Doeren’s radio show duties on Wednesday and spoke at length about his unit’s rough first game, and one comment in particular has raised the ire of many. Given the sour mood around town, I guess that’s to be expected, but it is also unwarranted. ON BEAU PRIBULA BEING USED ON MORE […]
UNC has a lot going on over there
Michael Lombardi, a cantankerous buffoon and also UNC’s football GM, resigned from his position today after a month on administrative leave, but that’s not all! They got a lot going on in Chapel Hill these days, let me tell you. I don’t know where they find the time for all of this stuff: Lawyers hired […]
NC State’s offense has been here before
As it turns out, NC State on Saturday added to a streak that I did not realize was in progress. This is the fifth year in a row in which NC State’s offense has been limited to 4.0 yards per play or fewer in a game. How unfortunate. It’s happened nine times since 2020, and […]
Get the best of Backing the Pack on the new SB Nation app
It’s a big day for Backing the Pack. Today, the SB Nation app is live, and it’s the best way to follow the Wolfpack. You can download it by searching SB Nation for iOS or Android. A year ago we made some big changes to our community, including offering fewer ads and the addition of […]
Yeah, that was bad
Was that NC State performance as bad as it looked? You bet it was! All this purple from the advanced box score really puts a nice bow on things, I’d say. (The national percentiles are based on 2025 stats.) It’s just about impossible to find something to be encouraged about in this effort, which we’ll […]
NC State drubbed by Virginia, 34-8
Where even to begin with this monstrosity? NC State found the worst-case scenario for the season-opener and dared to dig even deeper, effectively putting itself out of the game by the early stages of the second quarter. It was a disastrous collision of poor play on both sides of the ball, which let Virginia dictate […]
Game thread: NC State vs. UVA
No more talkin’, it’s time for the footballin’. Wolfpack vs. Cavaliers Kickoff: 3:30 p.m. ET TV: ESPN (Wes Durham, Max Browne, Madison Fitzpatrick) Online streaming: WatchESPN
NC State vs. UVA: What are we watching for?
What are the early indicators, for better or worse? These are a few. 1.) Can NC State’s defense be more consistently disruptive on passing plays? State’s defense was really, really bad on passing downs last season—its havoc rate stunk, it was bad on a per-play basis, from an EPA basis, from pretty much every basis. […]
The pains of being pretty good
David Ubben has an article out today in The Athletic examining the double-edged sword that is Dave Doeren’s consistency at NC State—it’s impressive what he’s accomplished, but also, inevitably, after a certain amount of time (much less than 14 years, clearly) people are going to view that consistency as stagnation. Those people are wrong, but […]
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