The North Carolina State Wolfpack football team is quite confident despite their winless effort last year in the conference. They also don’t want to be labeled with any superficial terms pertaining to the upcoming season. Defensive lineman Mike Rose shared his thoughts yesterday on how he feels about the specific term: “dark horse”
“I hate that dark horse term,” Rose said, via ESPN.com. “It seems like we have no chance, but we have a chance. I’d rather they say we have a chance to contend finally. We have the pieces in place to contend. And I think we do — a great quarterback, a stable of running backs, Mackey watch-list tight end, great offensive linemen, eight returning defensive players. If you put it all together and we play consistently all year, there’s no telling what we can do.”
With a total of 14 starters returning, including 8 on defense, the Wolfpack players expect to compete with some of the higher level teams in the ACC. They will have their chance with matchups against Virginia Tech, Clemson and Florida State. The Wolfpack will also face an up and coming Louisville squad and their hated rival, North Carolina.
A big factor in how much success the Wolfpack will have this year will depend on the type of play they get from the quarterback position.
Highly talented, but also highly erratic Jacoby Brisett, is out to prove people wrong and show that North Carolina State is for real.
“Each year, you want to make more and more people respect you,” quarterback Jacoby Brissett said. “A lot of teams respect us, but they don’t really respect us the way we want them to respect us. That’s our job this year, is to let them know we’re for real.”
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*Featured Photo (above) credit to USA TODAY Sports
