NC State upset No. 12 Florida State on Saturday in Tallahassee, 27-21. The Seminoles are 0-2, and the Wolfpack are 3-1 with their first ranked win ever under head coach Dave Doeren. They’ll have a great chance be ranked themselves on Sunday.
NC State upsets FSU in Tallahassee, and the Noles still don’t have a win
The Wolfpack were 0-9 against ranked teams under Dave Doeren. FSU is their first win.
Melina Vastola-USA TODAY Sports
At the end of the first half, NC State QB Ryan Finley found Jakobi Meyers for a 71-yard touchdown pass. Myers juked the pants off FSU’s star safety, Derwin James, before front-flipping into the end zone later.
The Wolfpack had gone up 10-0 in the first quarter, punctuated by a fourth-down touchdown by Samuels. The touchdown was cool; the entire NC State line shifted itself to the right before Samuels took the ball and scored.
This is a bona-fide UPSET ALERT, because FSU is FSU and playing at home. But the Seminoles haven’t played in two weeks, the result of hurricane-driven schedule changes. And they’re starting a freshman quarterback, James Blackman, who’s never played before. He’s replacing the injured Deondre Francois.
The circumstances were absolutely ripe for FSU to lose and fall to 0-2. The Noles lost to No. 1 Alabama in Week 1’s mega-opener, the same night they lost Francois for the year with a patella injury. Blackman’s talented, but he’s not Francois just yet. They didn’t play either of the last two weeks, because of hurricane-related reschedules. They were sloppy on Saturday, and the Wolfpack punished them for it.
The Wolfpack are a talented team, with a couple of really outstanding players on both sides of the ball. They’ve yet to beat a ranked team under coach Dave Doeren, but they’ve come close a few times. Last year, a short missed field goal was all that prevented them from beating eventual national champion Clemson.
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