NC State at Miami 10/23/21 - College Football Picks & Predictions

The North Carolina State Wolfpack will hope to continue their excellent start to the season when they travel on the road to Hard Rock Stadium to take on the Miami Hurricanes. NC State has rattled off four straight wins since a non-conference loss to Mississippi State, beating then #9 Clemson and beating Boston College 33-7 on the road to improve to 5-1 (2-0 conference). Miami has lost back to back close games to Virginia and North Carolina, and at 2-4 is in real danger of missing a bowl game.

Miami also is forced to deal with the season-long injury to D’eriq King and has turned the rains over to Tyler Van Dyke, he’s completing just 52.3% of his passes for 737 yards and five touchdowns to three interceptions. Miami also lost star running back Cameron Harris fior the season, he was averaging 5.8 yards a carry and five touchdowns, Jaylan Knighton will take over the main responsibilities, he ran for 92 yards and two touchdowns against North Carolina. 

The Miami defense has been the real issue this season as they come in allowing 30 points and 385 yards per contest. Opponent shave been able to run the ball effectively, averaging 150.8 yards per game. In the high-scoring loss to North Carolina, they held the Tarheels to 382 yards of offense but the Hurricanes offense turned it over three times.

NC State has been one of the best teams in the ACC to this point in the season and their offense led by sophomore Devin Leary has been incredible. Leary is completing 67.3% of his passes for 1,534 yards and 15 touchdowns to just two interceptions, in his last four games, he’s thrown 12 touchdowns without an interception. Fellow sophomore Zonovan Knight is leading the team with 503 ruhsing yards on over six yards a carry, adding in three touchdowns. 

NC State is also excellent defensively allowing just 14.3 points per game and holding opponents to just 292.7 yards per contest. With Miami missing key players all over the field, including arguably their two most important players on offense, this defense has a chance to really feast on a banged up Hurricane offense.