Last season, N.C. State handled Cincinnati at home 30-19 in a game that wasn’t that close. But this season the Wolfpack must travel to Cincinnati for an ESPN Thursday night game this week, and State coach Tom O’Brien expects the Bearcats to be better.

O’Brien notes that Cincinnati has the quarterback, receivers and most of the line back on offense and 10 of 11 starters back on defense. “The difference is they’ve played for a year in that system so now they’re more into Coach (Butch) Jones’ style of play,” he said. “It was his third game last year where now he’s been there for a year. They’re much more aggressive up front on both sides of the ball at the line of scrimmage coming off the ball than they were a year ago. They’re attacking more on defense. They’ve made big strides. “

The Bearcats are 1-1 after being beaten 45-23 by Tennessee while State is 2-1 after defeating South Alabama 35-13.

But the Pack is beat up.

Linebacker Terrell Manning injured his knee last week and will be out at least three weeks.

“It’s been a tough season to play defense,” said O’Brien, a Cincinnati native. “We lost a corner to start the year, we lost our captain and best defensive lineman, we lost the next-best defensive lineman, we lost the back-up middle linebacker, lost a corner, lost a linebacker.”

With the game being on Thursday, it will be a short week for the Pack to prepare shorthanded.

“If you’re a veteran team it’s better rather than if you’re in our situation where you have some young guys that we’re trying to get locked in, in case they have to go in the game,” O’Brien said.