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Boston College returns from their BYE week to play the NC State Wolfpack, a team also coming off their BYE and a recent upset win over Clemson that the Eagles could not quite achieve. Let’s take a look at this Wolfpack offense and how it was able to be the first ACC team to slay the Tigers in quite a while:
Quarterback
NC State is led by QB Devin Leary, a third year player who has already racked up some impressive stats this season. Leary has 1,283 yards, a 67.4 completion%, 12 TDs, 2 INTs, and 9 sacks through 5 games this year. He was especially impressive against Clemson’s stout defense a few weeks ago, throwing for 238 yards, 4TDs, and no picks. Leary won’t beat you on the ground however, as he has -36 total rushing yards this season, as well as -36 against P5 competition. His longest run of the year was 8 yards.
Leary is an impressive QB and is a big reason the Wolfpack have remained competitive on offense this season, so BC will have their work cut out for them in the passing game.
Running backs
NC State has a pair of RBs that they use together pretty effectively. Sophomore Zonovan Knight and junior Ricky Person Jr. are about even in carries this season and have each put up 462 yards and 346 yards total on the season so far, along with 7 combined TDs. Person is more of a threat in the passing game with 11 catches for 73 yards so far this season, but it’s not a big part of this Wolfpack offense.
The Wolfpack rushing game hasn’t been super scary this year so far, but 148 rushing yards against Clemson was pretty impressive and helped them pull off the upset. NCSU’s rushers, while not elite ACC backs, are capable of taking over the game when necessary.
Receivers
Much like their RB corps there aren’t any amazing standouts in this receiving group, but any number of them can pop-off and make this a tough group to defend. Their leaders in receiving are WR Emeka Emezie (369 yds, 1 TD), WR Devin Carter (259 yds, 2 TDs), WR Thayer Thomas (190 yds, 3 TDs), and WR Porter Rooks (129 yds, 0 TDs). No big-bodied TEs have made an impact for them season so far, which is good news for BC’s LBs who can struggle to drop into coverage and for BC’s DBs who are sometimes a bit undersized for covering TEs.