Tuffy Talk

Chuck Amato died Monday morning at 80, and we threw out the plan and spent the first part of the show on him.

He played here, won two ACC wrestling titles here, coached here as an assistant, and came home from Florida State to be our head coach. In 2001 his team went into Doak Campbell and beat Bobby Bowden. In 2002 he went 11-3 and beat Notre Dame in the Gator Bowl, and it is still the only 11-win season NC State has ever h...

Lila Manfredonia is the No. 8 overall recruit in the 2028 class, and she committed to NC State before she left Raleigh.

She came down for the Louisville weekend, went to the football game, and told the staff she was in. "I don't see myself anywhere else really."

We got seventeen minutes with her, and most of it is not about recruiting.

Her parents both played, her mom softball and her dad baseball, and that is ...

Wake Forest 38, NC State 14, and the thing nobody around this program has said out loud yet.

Somewhere in the middle of this one we land on the comparison that explains the whole season. Two people in a middle school relationship who have stopped talking to each other. Everybody in the school knows it is over. Nobody has gone to the other person and said it. Greg's version is worse and probably more accurate: the kids have m...

Tied 28-28 in the fourth quarter, Louisville breaks a 68-yard run and is walking into the end zone. Harvey Dyson III, a defensive end who rushed from the line of scrimmage on that snap, runs the back down and strips the ball out at the 13.

Dave Doeren called it "one of the best plays I've seen as a coach in my career."

NC State 31, Louisville 28. The first Power Four win of the season, and Layton, Greg and Ethan spend...

Jeff Brohm called his starting quarterback a game-time decision on Monday. Five days before kickoff.

That is not an injury update. Our read is that Louisville already knows Lincoln Kienholz is not playing Saturday, and the betting line agrees, because it has moved three and a half to four points toward NC State since the week started.

So this preview is built around the question that decides the game. If Louisville ha...

Dave Doeren ended his press conference Saturday by stepping back to the microphone to say "by the way, we won that football game."

Macon spent about five minutes on that. You are 2-2. You just let a 21-0 lead become a 31-31 tie against a Sun Belt team. You have no place to say that. "It's just arrogance to me, and it's unnecessary and ridiculous."

Ethan is out sick and Greg could not make it, so this is Layton and Mac...

Ethan said the quiet part out loud four days after Nashville: "If it weren't for the way NC State lost, I don't know that I'd be thinking App State could win this game."

That is where this program sits going into Saturday night. A 14 point favorite at home against a Sun Belt team that cannot run the ball, and a real conversation about whether Carter-Finley boos in the first half.

App State comes in 3-0 under Dowell Lo...

Greg was in the building in Nashville. Layton found out from a text message at a wedding. Ethan spent Sunday with the box score and came back with a number nobody else in NC State media is saying out loud: by win expectancy, NC State had roughly a 15 percent chance to win that football game.

We led for 59 minutes and 59 seconds and lost 35-31. Over the last 20 seasons, teams with the ball and the lead inside 10 seconds were ...

James Henderson from Inside Pack Sports joined us, and he is taking NC State in Nashville.

His reasoning is the whole episode: "If you're NC State, you have to believe you have the better quarterback going into this game, regardless of recruiting expectations, accolades, all those different things."

Jared Curtis is a five star freshman making his first career start. CJ Bailey is a three year starter. James would take ...

Victor Snow has one catch through two games.

The coaching staff spent the preseason telling everybody he was a dog. Through two games he has been out-touched by a fourth string running back, he went out with the twos on the first play of the second half, and he muffed a punt.

Ethan's take, and he warned us he was going to be mean about it: this is exactly what NC State has always done at receiver. You rotate guys, and...

Two of the three of us are taking Richmond and the points.

The number is 32.5. Ethan took the Spiders, Greg took the Spiders, and Layton went the other way mostly so it would not be a clean sweep on our own team.

Ethan's framing is the one that stuck: this is not a quiz. This is classwork. Nobody remembers classwork. The quiz comes next week at Vanderbilt.

He is also honest that the offense cannot move the need...

CJ Bailey has taken four days of it. So the question worth asking is whether the criticism is justified.

During the game Layton tweeted that either Bailey was extremely overrated and playing terribly, or nobody was open. Four days and a lot of film breakdowns later, he has an answer. They were open. He just did not see them.

Ethan's answer is yes, the criticism is warranted, and he says he has been at the front of tha...

Doeren said at halftime that the wide receivers needed to get open.

Ethan's answer: the wide receivers who do get open, you let them walk. You told The Athletic last week that you picked the offensive line over them. And we all know you picked CJ Bailey over them.

That exchange is the show. Virginia 34, NC State 8, and we spent 85 minutes on how it happened.

The argument worth staying for is the one about roste...

Eric Mac Lain from the ACC Network joined us to preview NC State at Virginia, and he picked the Cavaliers.

But the part worth staying for is what he said about Dave Doeren. Asked about the fans who want a change, a national voice with no stake in it said what a lot of Wolfpack fans will not: you have had double digit wins once, ever, he is the best coach you have ever had, so why are you trying to get rid of him?

His ...

Three of us went on the record before the season and came out with three different numbers. Layton has NC State at 10-2. Greg has them 9-3. Ethan has them 8-4. And Greg is the only one of the three who does not have the Wolfpack losing at Virginia on Saturday.

His reasoning on Vanderbilt is the part worth hearing. By his count NC State is 1-6 all time against SEC opponents under Dave Doeren, and the only win came against Van...

Layton has NC State going 10-2 this season. Ethan has them 8-4. And both of them circled the exact same game as the loss, which is not UNC and not Florida State.

It is Duke, on November 7th. Ethan's case is that the Blue Devils have been a boogeyman for NC State across three different coaching staffs, and that even a depleted Duke roster finds ways to cause problems.

That Duke roster is depleted for a reason worth und...

Two people went through the first six games of NC State's schedule and disagreed on exactly one of them. It is not Virginia and it is not Louisville.

Ethan calls the Louisville game the biggest fifty-fifty on the entire schedule and we both took the win anyway. The one that split us was Vanderbilt, where Diego Pavia and Eli Stowers are both gone and it is still not settled whether five-star freshman Jared Curtis takes the fi...

The Technician ran a piece headlined "don't let the Doeren hit you on the way out," twelve days before the season starts. Sub .500 in conference, no ACC Championship appearances, a losing bowl record.

Here is what that argument leaves out. Dave Doeren inherited a 2013 roster that gave up 35 points in a single quarter to Florida State. Take those eight losses off his record and he goes from a .48 coach to a .52 coach. And NC ...

NC State has not had a 1,000 yard rusher since Reggie Gallaspy went for 1,091 in 2018. Duke Scott takes over the backfield this season, and Ethan and I could not disagree more about whether he gets there.

We ran seven season-long over/unders on this team and took opposite sides on the first three: CJ Bailey's passing yards, his touchdown total, and Scott at 1,000.

Then Ethan found the number that should worry you. NC ...