Quick hits: NC State best, worst case scenarios

2015

7-6 overall, 3-5 ACC

Coach Dave Doeren

Record at NC State: 18-20 (fourth season)

Returning starters

Offense: 5; Defense: 8

Best-case scenario

Matt Dayes, Jaylen Samuels and Nyheim Hines stay healthy and drive the bus in new coordinator Eli Drinkwitz’s offense. The defense, having learned from last year’s mistakes, cuts down on big plays and the front is able to disguise the problems in the secondary. The Wolfpack continues to win the games it is supposed to win, as it has done the past two seasons, and it finds a way to pull off home upsets against Notre Dame and Miami.

Worst-case scenario

The trip to Greenville on Sept. 10 ends in disaster and sinks the team’s collective confidence. The quarterback shuffle becomes a distraction and splits the team in one camp behind Jalan McClendon and another behind Ryan Finley. The defense is only a year older and not better and makes the same mistakes that cost them at the end of 2015. Throw in another season of kicking adventures and the Wolfpack is staring at a second 3-9 finish in four years.

Predicted finish

8-4, 4-4 in ACC

Joe Giglio

This story was originally published August 30, 2016 at 5:36 PM with the headline "Quick hits: NC State best, worst case scenarios."