5 college football teams that will be better than you think in 2024
By John Buhler
2. North Carolina State Wolfpack may be good enough to win the ACC
Perhaps no team benefits more in the ACC from the current changes in college football than Dave Doeren's North Carolina State Wolfpack. Yes, they still have to play regional rivals like Clemson and North Carolina annually, but not having to draw Florida State and Louisville every year in the Atlantic Division is a huge plus for them. More importantly, this team is low-key good and will be around 9-3.
With former Coastal Carolina star quarterback Grayson McCall transferring over, I would expect NC State to be on the shortlist of teams who can realistically go to Charlotte and win the ACC. I may not be as bullish on the Wolfpack as Cody Williams is, but I feel very comfortable that they are a top-three team in the league. They will be in the top 15 to 20 range all season long, until the very end of it.
Eventually, I would suspect that the Wolfpack will break through into the top-12 range. That may be this year, as I have Florida State as one of my five biggest pullback candidates in the Power Four. Clemson may be my de facto projected ACC champion, but the Tigers really feel like merely a placeholder in that regard. That all could change. What won't is that I will be one with the Wolfpack.
If you like the Pop-Tart Bowl-winning Kansas State Wildcats, then you should be about NC State, too.