Revenge, ACC title implications. NC State-Clemson has a little bit of everything

There is a time for coy word-play and clever mind games.

This is not the time for N.C. State.

There are games when you throw away last year’s meeting and ignore the ramifications of this year’s meeting.

This is not the game for N.C. State.

Saturday’s game (3:30 p.m., WTVD) between the 20th-ranked Wolfpack (6-2, 4-0 ACC) and No. 6 Clemson (7-1, 5-1) at Carter-Finley Stadium is about positioning in the Atlantic Division; the winner will have the inside track to a spot in Charlotte in the ACC Championship Game On Dec. 2.

And one more thing, that’s just as important to the Wolfpack players.

“Revenge,” senior guard Tony Adams said.

You might remember N.C. State’s game with Clemson last year. The Wolfpack players do. N.C. State outplayed the eventual ACC and national champions in their own stadium and had a 33-yard field goal on the last play of regulation to win. The kick went wide right.

“I just remember being heartbroken,” senior defensive end Bradley Chubb said.

The Tigers won 24-17 in overtime and then in January were the last team standing in the College Football Playoffs. N.C. State receiver/running back Jaylen Samuels made a point to watch Tigers’ 35-31 win over Alabama in the title game.

“Watching that game, it just kind of made me mad,” Samuels said. “We really beat the national champions, basically.”

Officially, Clemson only beat N.C. State once. But the next week, N.C. State was drubbed by 41 points at Louisville. It wasn’t until a late win over North Carolina, and a bowl rout of Vanderbilt, that N.C. State had truly recovered from the Clemson loss.

N.C. State talks a lot about a “24-hour rule” and a “1-0 mentality” but those extra reps in the weight room and wind sprints in the summer aren’t driven by a chance to beat Furman or Marshall.

It’s this game, against this team, that has motivated the Wolfpack since the excruciating loss.

“This game definitely has been marked on my calendar since last year after the last couple of seconds went out,” Samuels said.

“It’s revenge time now. We get them back in our stadium – Carter-Finley, homecoming, three-thirty, ABC – I don’t think it gets any better than that.”

One of fifth-year coach Dave Doeren’s best traits is the ability to pick up his players after a difficult loss. That’s a position he finds himself in again after N.C State’s playoff hopes dissolved with a 35-14 loss at Notre Dame last week.

Doeren hasn’t tried to downplay the revenge factor with Clemson to his players but there is a reality to the stakes in this matchup.

“We’re in first place and we control our own destiny (in the Atlantic Division),” Doeren said.

This is as close N.C. State has been to a division title since 2010. The Wolfpack needed a win at Maryland in the regular-season finale to play for its first ACC title since 1979.

N.C. State lost to the Terps 38-31. Florida State took the division title and then lost to Virginia Tech in the championship game (which is the last time the Coastal Division champion won the league).

It’s familiar territory for the Tigers and new ground for the Wolfpack.

The Tigers, which lost to Syracuse on Oct. 13, only have one more ACC game (vs. 2-5 Florida State). If they win out, they’ll win the division and be in the ACC title game for the third year in a row.

With a win over Clemson – and just one more in its final three games – N.C. State would win its first division title since the league went to a division format in 2005.

“We understand what’s at stake, and we understand what happened to us last year,” Adams said.

This story was originally published November 3, 2017 at 9:27 AM with the headline "Revenge, ACC title implications. NC State-Clemson has a little bit of everything."