Da, Comrades, He is Coming

Coming to a city in the southeast near you ... rain. Lots of rain. Ivan is giving the South another pounding and those of us in North Carolina will have to brace for more flooding. The models don't look good for NC. I guess Ivan is in to loitering.

The good news is that Ivan isn't likely to postpone much college football this weekend--at least, not any football outside of the Nawlins/Southern Mississippi/Southern Alabama area. The Cal/USM game set for tonight has already been postponed, but that might be it. It'd be a shame if they had to postpone the LSU/Auburn game, which is one of the bigger matchups this weekend.

Speaking of which--there's been plenty of debate back and forth regarding the outcome, and I'm a little surprised at the amount of respect that Auburn has been getting. Yeah, they're at home. And yeah, Jason Campbell is a senior ... so what? He morphed into Dameyune Craig during the offseason? As if. Being a senior doesn't seem to help Chris Rix too much, does it? Assuming Auburn continues to get subpar performances from Campbell, they won't prove to be worthy of their lofty ranking (#15 in the Coaches Poll). They won't beat LSU, either.

You'd think the pollsters would learn from 2003, but that is not the case.

Me and the rest of my compadres from Section 6 (that's where you'll find me in the student section at Carter-Finley Stadium, in case you were wondering) are anxiously awaiting NC State's clash with tOSU this weekend, rain or no rain. Seeing the Buckeyes struggle with Marshall has given me cause for optimism, but one must remember that tOSU rarely wins impressively--they just win, period.

This is a huge game for us (and by us, I mean NC State, natch) because it can be the jumping off point for a great season. Win this game and there's no doubt that we can beat anyone on the schedule (FSU, Miami, VPI, etc.), and we'll have the momentum necessary to make a run at the ACC title. Lose and we can still expect good things, but probably something like 6-5 or 7-4 rather than 9-2 or 10-1. I really think this game is that significant. Also, it'd be nice to expose Ohio State, as I suspect they are masquerading as a top ten team.

With T.A. McLendon apparently going down with a serious injury in practice today, NCSU's chances take a hit, but the Pack has a fair amount of depth at RB. The problem is that the depth is unproven. They'll have to play well and hang onto the ball on Saturday.

My prediction: NCSU 24, tOSU 14