NC State vs. Tennessee Preview | College Football Week 2 Predictions

[Music] the irrational confidence podcast NC State wolf pack it's a Wolfpack party facing the Tennessee Volunteers Rocky Top you'll always be uh we're in North Carolina I guess it's kind of mildly Rocky in North Carolina but at time I record the Tennessee volunteers are seven and a half Point favor over under in this game is set at 60 and a half I thought that was a little on the high side for me but I'll get your take here freshh NC State I was a little disappointed in them were you i' I'm I'm gonna fully admit folks you haven't listen to podcast before um for six or seven years I worked at Jacksonville University here in Jacksonville Florida we had a football program that head coach of the football program was kin Bale after leaving ju he went and won a D2 Natty at belad Offa State and now he's the current head coach at Western Carolina um his DC when he ju Jerry Odum it's the DC at Western Carolina so half of me actually want NC State to lose that ball game because those two guys know some ball um but what they did is they attacked NC State and that's what they've always done at BD State that's what they did at ju that's their mentality the way they offensively in Co and defensively they coached and they gave NC State a lot Grayson McCall uh didn't he didn't look confident yes concepion had three touchdowns Jordan Waters ran pretty well but they didn't look ready for the ball game I thought they figured hey it's it's an opening weekend we got an FCS team coming even though that Western Carolina team is in the top 20 FCS rankings we're going to go through the motions we got team we we'll take care of business and we're gonna get ready for Tennessee and they overlooked Western Carolina and they almost bleeped around and found out um and would have ruined the entire season off the bat so the first question I have coming into this game is where's their mindset because if you were looking atad Tennessee and you had to kind of scramble are you are you having some self-doubt now that you're actually good enough um is the team like wait what are we going to do we struggle there you got the coaches now maybe coaching a little scared coaching K the Warriors like maybe we're not as good as we thought we were um especially when Tennessee did what they did at Chattanooga and they put a a whole heck of a whooping on them um this is gonna a major checkpoint here for Dave Doran the ncate program we high expectations again big big Marquee matchup in your own state which I'm going tell you right now it's going to be 7030 Tennessee fans anyway um it's going to be a home game for the for the balls how do you come out here shake off that rust and get after Tennessee and play with a rless abandon um you have offensive weapons you have some great re you know we've seen talented receivers you have a quarterback you have an offensive line can they put up points on this volunteer defense which hasn't been tested so no one really knows how improved or what they are if they're World last last year so you've got to come out and play confident and aggressive and do not sort of Sleepwalk into this ball game because if you do nio in the balls will put up 21 on you in the heartbeat right defensively Aiden white Braden Cy your two corners they have got to play out of their minds now it's G be it's gonna be a philosophy situation because you're gonna have four or five receivers potentially on the field for volunteers so it's not going to be man coverage for both these guys half the time you're going to have some Zone you're going have some matchup issues but how are they going to rise up and help that secondary maintain control and keep that that volunteer offense under control if the two of them can play great games it allows the NC NC State offense to compete and not get in a shootout if this is a shootout which defense has enough Firepower to get off the field who or who has the ball last um I don't I'm not going to say Tennessee's defense is fantastic because we have we' saw what they did last year the year before they weren't very good always knows James Pierce J's coming back um but if you get a shootout and James Pierce Jr's just pin his Zer back come after mall that's a problem right there for NC State because who do you have a tackle to guard him who do you have to stop him um this is a big game for NC State's program not just the team but where's this you know where y'all at if you get back and play with Tennessee and show up it puts you in at least art maybe they're a contender maybe they'll put we can have a Miami NC State you know where Georgia Tech potentially faing off with the ACC if you you get blown out it's another big referendum on the ACC that wow this league is in serious trouble on the other side Tennessee ni how do you handle the height you had your first ever St vers iow against a bunch of backups you played real well but you you ran three touchdowns your first ever home start is versus Chattanooga you light him up now you actually have a real legit big game where starters are all playing the lights are GNA be bright it's a night game how do you handle the Heisman talk of being a you know people are saying three-time High has been winner which we already know is ridiculous but all of that living up to that you're already having to play at that level where you had head and hooker dominate you had pton Manning already going to hang over any quarterback of Tennessee forever all time how do you come out here manage those expectations and make your throws to squirrel white to brew McCoy to Brazil uh Dylan Samson run the ball how do you get all those guys in play and keep them on a on a full um game check looking at the offensive philosophy in general sometimes you might to slow the ball down uh you know there and help the help the defense get some rest if it becomes the sh out Tennessee run the ball run the ball run the ball let the passing game you know evolve from there and defensively will the vaulton ever play defense um that's the biggest question the enemies ever have will we see a defense that's improved is that more than just James Pierce Jr getting off the edge can anyone in the secondary they lost guys through transfer portal and graduation how do they have that solidified um this is that I think the biggest story lines of all these games is all these unknown knowns are coming in whether poor play week one or just unknowns because they dominate somebody and you come out to the last question I have who is legit who is legit right if it's a 35 31 ball game all right you can say both these teams are pretty solid right good take 38 to nothing 42 to 10 ball game one team getting blown out the building um we know Pretender Contender at that point in the end I think Tennessee covers I think they win by 10 um I'm just the State struggling there versus Western Carolina not coming out with their uh their guns of Blazing and their hair on fire just to set the tone has me worried that they're not gonna be able to get up speed as fast in this ball game and Tennessee will take care of business and cover um we'll say a 3727 ball game um when it's all said and done Charlotte R I'm glad you brought up the cornerbacks because that was one of the notes I had here was the matchup that is going to go on with these Tennessee wide receivers versus the NC State cornerbacks you take a look at Tennessee's wide receivers 62 63 65 they all got a lot of size over there and I believe the tallest NC State cornerback that that starts a 6 foot one may be wrong on that but that's what I was able to find in my research here I I said the same thing almost I said that I would be shocked to see NC State run man coverage in this because the matchup night nightmares that they're going to have on the outside with this Tennessee offense Nico I've been a big fan of Nico since he came out of high school I I thought he was going to be a really good quarterback when he was a senior in high school when Tennessee got him I thought man it's a great place to go now I disagreed with what they did last year they went with Joe Milton I thought you should have let the kid take his bumps get learn along the way but maybe he did maybe it was the best thing to hold the clipboard because maybe in this day age we are too quick to let the young kids start we see it all the time in the NFL the rookie starts and back in the day you used to hold a clipboard and let them learn a little bit so maybe maybe it was the best thing for his career and I hope it was because you know everyone knows that I do like and respect Josh hypo as a person in the times I've met the guy I am intrigued with this Tennessee offense I am very intrigued because if they can hang a 3540 spot on a defense like NC State that is a respected defense especially with Dorne running that thing then we'll know that this Tennessee offense is legit it is also another opportunity to see is Pierce really that top five top 10 level of a draft pick as an edge rusher is this Tennessee defense legit or are you only going to be able to hold a team like Chattanooga down to three points in here for me NC State you got to run the ball this this has got to be a long you actually want the under to come in long drives take your time control the time of possession let Waters do his thing if it is if Pierce is Wrecking it or you running a draw you running scream plays stuff that will combat a pass rush really really well is Grayson McCall being able to have that internal clock and say hey that pass rush is coming time to get the ball out you know live to fight another down in all those cliches that I could say right now I really think that it's going to be a talent issue here I think Tennessee has a better has more Talent than NC State I think NC State's going to make this respectable for about three quarters then all of a sudden Tennessee is going to do like 14 points in three minute type of thing to NC State to put this game away if Tennessee run has a a a marquee win and I'm talking like really shows up kind of puts the boots to NC State you don't have to blow them out but like a solid strong win I'm going to say this here fresh and people are going to jump and go oh this is crazy but hear me out I think this Tennessee team could be a lot like last year's Florida State team with the size that they have in receivers with a guy like Nico is very is some similarities to Jordan Travis there with they have a good running game there they have a Marky Edge rusher as well now I don't think they'll have the same level of cupcake like schedule that they'll play they don't have the same kind of Defense either right but that's what if we see that this weekend that's why I'm saying if we see that this weekend maybe they do maybe that the changes are coming now again seeing is believing and I need to see that first before I make that comparison but I'm saying it's not totally out of the realm of possibility for me now for the wolf pack fans out there saying Welly we've won big games for look you beat Clemson twice in the past three years both at home one against dju and one against K kumnick and we've seen this past weekend that neither of those quarterbacks are World beaters so you beat tough teams with terrible quarterbacks can you beat a fast explosive team with a solid upand cominging quarterback and match them TouchDown for Touchdown field goals will not win you this football game if you want to pull up the upside NC State you've got to score touchdowns and I lik what you meant about Jordan Waters maybe just kill the clock give him the ball run the ball keep ni in that Tennessee offense on the sideline