NC State Players to Watch

Ok, here we ago again. The Deacs have another chance to break the bye week curse this week when the NC State Wolfpack come to town. Wake was able to break their other strange streak of not being able to win a conference game at home in their last outing against FSU, so lets see if we can make it two in a row. The Pack haven’t been stellar this season (they’re 4-3, but those wins are against some iffy competition), but when it comes to this rivalry, anything can happen (e.g. fumbling the ball 1 inch from the endzone). With that said, here are the players to watch for NC State.

Offense: Devin Leary | RS Fr. QB | #13

The Wolfpack have had some issues at quarterback this season, which has led them to name Devin Leary the starting QB for the game this Saturday. Leary will be the 3rd QB to start for State this season, and if I’m not mistaken, performance rather than injuries has been the cause. Leary took over in State’s 24-45 loss to Boston College and completed 15 of his 33 pass attempts (45%) for 3 touchdowns and 0 interceptions. While he started the season as the 3rd string QB for the Wolfpack, Leary was a highly recruited 4-star QB out of high school and holds the record for most passing yards and most touchdown passes in the state of New Jersey with 9,672 yards and 117 touchdown passes. The Wake Forest defense should definitely not underestimate him.

Defense: Larrell Murchison | Gr. DT | #92

The NC State defense has been much better than the offense this season. The Pack are 41st in the nation in total defense, giving up just 354 yards per game, and are tied for 7th in the nation in sacks per game with 3.71 (26 sacks through 7 games). Strangely enough however, they are dead last in the nation in takeaways. Larrell Murchison is a 6-3 290 lb. DT who is leading the Pack with 7.0 sacks this season. He has had 3 multiple sack games this season against Ball State (2.0), Florida State (3.5), and Syracuse (2.0). I don’t know about Ball State, but FSU and Syracuse basically play without an offensive line, so those stats don’t exactly shock me. Nevertheless, 3.5 sacks in 1 game is impressive for a defensive tackle, so the Deacs will need to be prepared for Murchison bull rushing to the QB on passing plays.