Syracuse vs. N.C. State TV, History, Odds & More: Orange 5.5 Underdogs

Teams: Syracuse Orange (2-3) vs. N.C. State Wolfpack (3-2)

Rankings: Syracuse (UNR), N.C. State (UNR)

Day & Time: Saturday, October 12, 3:30 p.m. EST

Field: Carter-Finley Stadium (Raleigh, N.C.)

Line: N.C State -5.5 (opened -4.5)

TV: ACC RSN (MSG+, NESN, CSN-MA, ROOT Pittsburgh, SportsTime Ohio and a whole lot of Fox Sports regional channels)

Announcers: Wes Durham, Brian Stann

Radio: Syracuse IMG Network

NC State News: Backing The Pack, Riddick & Reynolds, State Fans Nation

Rivalry: 6-0, NC State

Streak: Six, NC State (duh)

First Meeting: The first meeting between the two schools took place in 1972. NC State won 43-20. Not too much info out there about it but, knowing what we know about 70's Syracuse football, sounds about right.

Last Meeting: Syracuse was feeling great following their epic win over Michigan in The Big House and a game against Rutgers in which they put up seventy points. Ranked No. 11 in the nation, nothing could derail Syracuse's best team since 1987 en route to a national title. Except maybe Torry Holt and the NC State Wolfpack. The Orangemen traveled to Raleigh on a Thursday night and came away with a 38-17 defeat.

Best Meeting: The closest game in the series was in 1997. The Wolfpack edged the Orange in overtime, 32-31. It was the first overtime game in Syracuse football history (having recently been approved). If you can believe it, the story of the day was a ranked Paul Pasqualoni team looking unprepared against an unranked opponent early in the season.

School Connections: The most glaring one is SU head coach Scott Shafer and NC State OC Matt Canada. The two were grad assistants at Indiana together in 1992 and both coached at Northern Illinois between 1998 and 2003. George McDonald, Tim Daoust and DeAndre Smith were all on that staff as well.

Randomly, both teams have a player that transferred from Arkansas: SU's Quinta Funderburk and NC State’s Brandon Mitchell.

Head Coaches: SU: Scott Shafer (1st Year, 2-3), N.C. State: Dave Doeren (1st Year, 3-2)

Last Year: The Wolfpack finished the regular season with a 7-5 (4-4) record, which including a win over Florida State, and received an invite to the Music City Bowl. That wasn't good enough to save sixth-year head coach Tom O'Brien's job and he was fired in November. The Wolfpack ran into a pesky Vanderbilt squad in their bowl game, losing 38-24 and finishing 7-6.

"Fear Me, I've Killed Hundreds Of Timelords": Offensively, the Pack seems to be a beat-you-by-committe kind of team. So we'll look to the defense, where LB Robert Caldwell leads the Wolfpack in tackles (42) and tackles for loss (7.5). Dude wasn't a starter when the season started and wasn't even on the team's depth chart in August.

Last Game: After coming close to beating Clemson, the Wolfpack followed it up by....losing to Wake Forest? And apparently, this is just something they do. The ACC is weird, you guys.

Fun Fact: Syracuse is 6-6 all-time in games played in North Carolina.

Fun Fact 2: If my calculations are correct, which they probably aren't, ten coaches involved in this game have tied to Northern Illinois football.