N.C. State is suddenly one of the few positive stories in an ACC football season that has been derailed after only two weeks.

Virginia Tech, the preseason pick to win the league,has been humiliated, with defeats to Boise State and now James Madison. Miami, Florida State and Georgia Tech all suffered deflating losses. And North Carolina is under a double investigation that has the feel of Ken Starr investigating the Clintons – it just goes on and on and on. Even Duke, which has high hopes under David Cutcliffe, couldn’t hold Wake Forest under 50 points and 500 yards in yet another exasperating loss to the Deacons.

The league will have only one team – Miami – in the rankings when they come out Monday, a pretty humbling turn of events for a conference that yearns for recognition in football. It seems like the net of expansion has not been that other teams rise to the level of the incoming powers, but the new teams instead stumble back to the ACC pack.

The ACC should have at least four programs in the national picture on a regular basis – Florida State, Miami, Clemson and Virginia Tech – and North Carolina, N.C. State and Georgia Tech have the resources and traditions to make regular appearances in the Top 25 as well.

Some ACC team could well get on a roll and go on to a decent year, but any thought of a team contending for a national title is out of the question. The ACC is far from fielding a team of that caliber, as Alabama will show on Saturday in Durham.

So that leaves N.C. State at 2-0 with Cincinnati coming to Raleigh Thursday for an ESPN contest. Wolfpack coach Tom O’Brien is already complaining about the fast turnaround, but that’s often the price of national exposure. A win Thursday puts State on target for a winning season, a great reward for Wolfpack fans who have hung in there with the program.

On a day that saw Virginia Tech being upset by James Madison, Georgia Tech losing to unheralded Kansas, Florida State being humiliated by Oklahoma and Miami falling to Ohio State, the Wolfpack of N.C. State held some honor for the ACC with a 28-21 victory at the University of Central Florida.

A surprisingly effective running game early and a big-play defense that came up with five turnovers throughout led to State’s victory in a game that wasn’t really close or in doubt until the last five minutes of the game.

The Wolfpack ran out to a 21-0 lead and still led 28-7 going into the fourth quarter.

The defense set up the first touchdown when sophomore safety Earl Wolff intercepted a Rob Calabrese pass and ran it back 31 yards into UCF territory. Eight plays later, Dean Haynes, a redshirt freshman converted to tailback, got a good block from guard Andrew Wallace – a 6-foot-4, 304-pound redshirt sophmore – and busted in untouched from four yards out.

State QB Russell Wilson, who didn’t have the big numbers we’ve seen so often, did thrown four straight completions on the next drive, including a 26-yard TD lob to a wide open Darrell Davis.

A muffed punt gave the Wolfpack the ball deep in UCF territory and runningback Mustafa Greene sliced up the middle on a draw play on third and long and went 21 yards for the score to make it 21-0.

UCF’s Quincy McDuffie took the ensuring kickoff back 93 yards to give the home team some life as the teams went into the halftime lockerroom at 21-7.

In the third quarter, State seemingly wrapped it up when cornerback C.J. Wilson picked off an overthrown Calabrese pass and ran it in from 43 yards out to make it 28-7.

Midway through the third quarter, short and speedy backup quarterback Jeff Godfrey came in with fresh legs and gave the tiring Wolfpack defense a fit. He passed for 107 yards and ran for 52, including two touchdowns to make the game close.

The second score came with 4:29 left and the fired-up defense held the Pack on four downs and UCF got the ball back with less than three minutes to go.

Godfrey moved UCF into Wolfpack territory and completed a 21-yard pass to Quincy McDuffie at the State 10 yard line, but the defense came through once again for the final time of the night. Safety Brandan Bishop popped the ball loose with a jarring tackle and linebacker Terrell Manning fell on it to wrap up the victory.

Random Thoughts: At least twice, State linebacker Audie Cole changed momentum. Once he made a nice diving catch to intercept on a halfback pass to stop a drive. Earlier he ended another drive with a big sack. He also had double-digit tackles.

Former Texas Tech coach Mike Leach, serving as the color commentator on TV, made the “duh” observation of the game when, with less than five minutes to play and UCF down by 14 points, he said, “UCF needs a score on this drive.”

A horrible shanked punt by State’s Jeff Ruiz with less than three minutes to play gave the Knights the ball at the Wolfpack 49 on that last drive that made the game more exciting than it needed to be.

Wilson completed only 10 of 30 passes for 105 yards. State rushed for 134 rushing yards, led by Greene’s 55 yards. UCF, with the late rush under Godfrey, actually outgained the Pack.

N.C. State, which was 114th last year in turnover margin, did not turn the ball over once while UCF turned it over five times. The State defense hit hard and really controlled the game except during two fourth-quarter drives.

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The most surprising statistic from N.C. State’s game with Western Carolina Saturday was the zero posted in the tackles column by Pack linebacker Nate Irving.

Irving, of course, missed all of last season because of a car accident and has been shifted to middle linebacker by new position coach Jon Tenuta. It’s easy to see why Irving may not be where he was in 2008, but to see zero tackles against Western was a surprise.

“Nate didn’t have many opportunities,” Wolfpack coach Tom O’Brien said this week. “I think he got a little frustrated out there. Everything got funneled to Terrell [Manning]. He was the linebacker they attacked. … I don’t know if that was by design or not but that’s the way things worked out.”

Manning led State with 10 tackles (two unassisted and eight assists).

Here are 10 football games that are within driving distance in the Triangle area Friday night. In bold is the predicted winner. Most games are at 7:30 p.m. Check with local officials as some games start at 7.
My record last week, again, was 7-3 for a season total of 21-9.

Athens Drive at Green Hope

Cardinal Gibbons at Ravenscroft

Carrboro at East Chapel Hill

Cary at Fuquay-Varina

Durham Riverside at Garner

Lee County at Apex

Leesville Road at East Wake

Middle Creek at Holly Springs

New Hanover at SE Raleigh

Northern Durham at Millbrook, 7 p.m.

Check the scores in our Sports Roundup on the left navigation bar.

Yes, Wake Forest has beaten Duke 10 straight times and are at home but in order to beat the Devils again, they’ll have to get good production out of the quarterback position.

With four-year starter Riley Skinner gone, Ted Stachitas, a sophomore, is expected to get most of the snaps this year but he has had two surgeries on his right shoulder. Therefore, freshman lefty Tanner Price, who had been a redshirt candidate, saw action last week against Presbyterian.

“We feel like Ted Stachitas can win a bunch of football games for us,” Wake coach Jim Grobe said this week. “I think as he plays more, he’s going to be better. But his injuries have been an issue for us. You just have to have Plan B ready, basically because of his history injury wise.”

Grobe seems a little ambivalent about Stachitas. “I like a lot of the things that Ted did (in the opener). He misfired on a couple of pretty easy open throws which was disappointing. And he fumbled the football at one time, and that’s something we can’t do.”

Grobe went on to decisively say, “I think he was somewhat indecisive at times, but at times he was very decisive.”

Unless he’s playing possum, you’d have to give the quarterback matchup edge in Saturday’s game to Duke’s Sean Renfree.

“A couple of people that are from Arizona that knew about the kid when he was in high school told me when Duke first signed him that they had signed a great quarterback,” Grobe said of Renfree. “Of course he got some snaps early last year. And with Thad Lewis being as good as he is, I knew that Coach Cutcliffe wasn’t going to put that kid on the field and take reps away from Thad Lewis unless he thought he could help them win. So I knew with him being on the field last year he had to be pretty special.”

Renfree completed 80 percent of his passes against Elon last week. “It’s hard for a kid to hit 80 percent if there’s no defense on the other side if you’re just out there throwing on air. On one hand I was probably a little surprised and disappointed that he played so well last week. Watching the video was pretty special.”

While Wake Forest is favored to continue its streak against Duke, Renfree could be the difference maker.

North Carolina is no closer to resolving its roster when it comes to the NCAA and school investigations into the football program, coach Butch Davis said Wednesday.

“There’s no movement today on any of the players we were not in position to play last weekend,” he said on the ACC teleconference.

Carolina held out 13 players in Saturday’s loss to LSU, with an obvious impact on the defense. Those losses rippled across the UNC lineup in other ways as well.

The Tar Heels started Johnny White at tailback and he promptly fumbled the ball away. UNC turned to Anthony Elzy, a converted fullback, after that and even sophomore Hunter Furr. Asked about his running back situation for the Sept. 18 Georgia Tech game, Davis said both White and Elzy had ankle injuries and he was uncertain what would happen.

Carolina also had to use inexperienced players on special teams, which led to some disastrous coverage issues in the first half against LSU.