NC State at Duke (-1.5) - 9:00am Pacific
The Blue Devils started off their season as the most disappointing team in the ACC. With new head coach Carl Franks coming in from Florida and with 19 starters returning many experts were calling for an above .500 finish and possibly even a bowl game. They struggled early with their new "Airborne" offense and could not get anything going vs now top 25 ranked East Carolina in their season opener. They then lost a heartbreaker to Northwestern in OT and in the process lost starting QB Spencer Romine to injury. They played the next two games rotating backups. Both backups struggled and could complete no better than a combined 38% of their passes. Romine returned to start at Virginia, the defense came up with their best performance of the season, and Duke got a big upset win on the road. Last week vs Georgia Tech the Blue Devils showed even more promise by outscoring the #8 Yellow Jackets 31-7 in a 2 1/2 quarter span that gave them a 31-28 lead in the 4th quarter. The Blue Devils offense in particular is playing with renewed confidence. QB Romine and the offensive line have noticeably improved their play and are only getting better. Scottie Montgomery is an NFL caliber receiver. Duke should be able to finally get its running game going vs poor Wolfpack run defense which will give them a potent balanced attack. The Duke defense is good enough to get things done. They have experience (10 starters from last year) and have a couple of stars in senior DE Chris Combs (1st team ACC last year) and 4 year starting CB LaMar Grant. Last year Duke held NC State to only 18 yards rushing and lost a heartbreaker in Raleigh 27-24. This year the Wolfpack do not have Tory Holt to bail them out. NC State is much worse of a team than most realize right now. They should be on a 4 game losing streak if not for Clemson committing 4 critical turnovers and blowing multiple double digit leads. NC State was already missing critical players on both sides of the ball due to early season injuries and now things have gotten worse. Two weeks ago they lost top WR Chris Coleman possibly for the season and then last week lost their other starting receiver Ryan Hamrick for the season. This leaves them with only one ACC caliber receiver left (inconsistent redshirt freshman Koren Robinson). The others are very young and have very little game experience. Top RB Ray Robinson is still recovering from a knee surgery less than two weeks ago, he may see some action but will not be 100% if he plays at all. NC State's offense has already struggled most of the season and will definitely have some big challenges to face this week. Head coach O'Cain says they will only be able to use 25-40% of their offense! The Wolfpack defense was carrying the offense in the early parts of the season but have been porous in recent weeks. They were exploited for 514 total yards and an embarrassing 30 points in one quarter by Virginia last week. They have given up 36.3 points per game vs last 3 ACC opponents (not counting Florida State or Georgia Tech). If things were not bad enough, key starting LB Levar Fisher is questionable this week with an ankle injury. Duke will be honoring its 1989 ACC championship team at the game and several other past Blue Devil players (many friends of coach Franks) will be in attendance. Giving the Blue Devils even more incentive will be a chance to avenge a five game losing streak to the instate rival Wolfpack. It is highly unlikely the sagging Wolfpack will be able to match Duke's determination for a win here. It is time for the Blue Devils to make their move, expect a double digit win.  Duke  3 UNITS