Norfolk State to play ACC team for first time

Game at Wake Forest highlights schedule that has 4 home games

Norfolk State finally will return to the football field this fall with a rugged nonconference schedule featuring several firsts — including the Spartans’ first game against an Atlantic Coast Conference opponent.

Norfolk State will play Wake Forest on Sept. 11 before its home opener against Elizabeth City State on Sept. 18, the school announced Thursday. That game is one of just four home dates for NSU.

The Spartans open their season against Toledo on Sept. 4 in the

Spartans’ first game since 2019.

Norfolk State’s fall season and makeup spring slate were canceled due to the pandemic.

The Spartans’ visit to Winston-Salem, North Carolina, follows by one week Wake Forest’s home game against Old Dominion.

The Demon Deacons finished 4-5 in 2020, losing to Wisconsin in the Duke’s Mayo Bowl. Wake Forest’s regular-season wins

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included victories over Virginia and Virginia Tech, and the Demon Deacons made their fifth consecutive bowl appearance.

NSU has never played Toledo, from the FBS Mid-American Conference, but there is a familiar link in former Spartans wide receiver Isaiah Winstead, who transferred there after a successful sophomore campaign in 2018 in which he led NSU in most major receiving categories.

NSU travels to St. Francis (Pa.) for the first time on Sept. 25, then renews the Battle of the Bay rivalry at Hampton on Oct. 2. The Spartans and Pirates haven’t played since 2017 as Hampton left the MEAC to join the Big South Conference.

The sixth and final nonconference game sees Norfolk State hosting Virginia University of Lynchburg on Oct. 16 for homecoming.

With just six football-playing teams in the MEAC this season, NSU will have five conference games, beginning with a trip to Howard on Oct. 23, followed by games against Morgan State (Oct. 30), at North Carolina Central (Nov. 6), at Delaware State (Nov. 13) and home to South Carolina State (Nov. 30) in the season finale.

The Spartans aim to improve upon a 5-7 overall, 4-4 MEAC mark in what turned out to be former coach Latrell Scott’s final season. Scott resigned in March to take an assistant coaching job at East Carolina.

Running backs coach B.T. Sherman is the interim head coach as NSU continues its search to permanently fill the position. Sherman was leading the team in spring practice this month before COVID-19 protocols shut down the remainder of the practices, including the Green and Gold scrimmage.