NC State vs. FSU live stream: Start time and how to watch Saturday’s game online

The North Carolina State Wolfpack will visit the Florida State Seminoles at Doak Campbell Stadium in Tallahassee on Saturday — and you can watch all the action starting at noon (ET) on ABC or ESPN2, depending on your location (livestream).

North Carolina State (2-1) is currently on a two-game win streak with victories over Marshall and Furman. Quarterback Ryan Finley has been orchestrating the Wolfpack’s passing offense well. He’s thrown for 987 yards to go along with six touchdowns and no interceptions so far this season.

Florida State, on the other hand, is coming off a lengthy break due to games wiped out by Hurricane Harvey and Hurricane Irma striking the Gulf Coast. The Seminoles last played Sept. 3 against Alabama, to whom they lost 24-7. They surrendered 173 yards and one touchdown on the ground, while their pass defense only gave up 96 yards and one touchdown.

This will come as a surprise to no one who has seen all three games this season, but NC State’s defense does not rate well when it comes to preventing its opponents from hitting on big plays. Through three games, State has given up nine plays of 30+ yards, which ranks 109th nationally.

The advanced metrics paint an even uglier picture of this performance: the Wolfpack defense ranks 121st in Bill Connelly’s explosiveness metric, which for the defense is a measure of big play prevention (That’s out of 130 teams, if you were wondering.)

Carson Wise is 1-3 on field goal attempts this season despite not attempting a kick longer than 38 yards. He missed another short kick during NC State’s blowout of Furman this weekend, but Dave Doeren said Monday that he’s not making any changes.

“Looking forward to play this weekend, its been quite a while, 21 days... Kids are anxious to play.”

The biggest key to preparing for a game after such a long layoff is, as Fisher says, controlling how the team practice’s and make that execution into the game. “You worry about rust.” He added that James Blackman has benefited from the extra practices.

With Hurricane Irma forcing Florida State’s schedule to shift around a bit, the Seminoles have not played a game in over two weeks. A midseason gap of this length usually affects preparation and focus on a team while heading into its next game. Junior defensive back Tarvarus McFadden explain how Florida State is staying focused for the team’s home opener on Saturday vs. NC State.

“Practice. It all starts at practice. We can still practice hard and practice on the things we need to work on and be ready for the weekend.”

Florida State should register its first win this weekend. Although North Carolina State’s offense is operating like a well-oiled machine, the Seminoles’ physical defense has an extensive history of halting high-powered offenses. However, the Wolfpack will still put up a fight.