Why Tennessee fans might be more worried about NC State
Tennessee football fans probably didn’t manage more than a shrug when they read that their team would play NC State in Charlotte this September.
Only a few ACC opponents would quicken the pulse of most SEC fans. NC State isn’t one of them.
Don’t get the wrong idea. Scheduling the Wolfpack on a neutral site isn’t akin to playing some early season pushover like Georgia State at Neyland Stadium.
Oh, wait. That’s a bad example. I should have written “akin to playing some early season pushover from the MAC” in September.
NC State isn’t that bad. But it isn’t high-profile, either. See if any of these names ring a bell: Chris Dunn, Ikem Ekwonu, Alim Mcneill, Terrone Prescod.
They made All-american at NC State in the past six seasons. That’s not something I knew off the top of my head. I used most of my allotted 30 minutes of weekly research time to look it up.
I did know that Payton Wilson was as good any linebacker I watched last season. Don’t worry, Vols fans. He’s off to the NFL.
Something else I uncovered through several painstaking minutes of research: NC State has a better record than Tennessee over the past 10 years. NC State: 78-49. Tennessee: 72-53.
Please, don’t bother challenging my account of UT’S last 10 seasons. I realize it had to forfeit all victories achieved in 2019 and 2020 when alleged coach Jeremy Pruitt and his babysitting-cheater ring were offering NIL deals before NIL deals were legal. I go by what happened on the field.
The Wolfpack’s better on-the-field record can be easily explained by most Tennessee fans, who are football-wise enough to know if the Vols had spent the past 10 years in the ACC, they easily would have won another 15 games.
Never mind NC State’s conference affiliation. It’s a bigger threat to Tennessee
than Florida this September since it added Coastal Carolina transfer Grayson Mccall, a mobile, accurate quarterback with plenty of experience.
A likely Tennessee fans response: “Who cares about some Coastal Carolina transfer? We’ve got Nico.”
Having Nico Iamaleava as your quarterback is certainly a huge plus, even though his experience as a starting college quarterback has been limited to one game. But until Tennessee’s revamped secondary proves its competence, you can’t assume a quarterback of Mccall’s caliber will be ineffective.
A bigger concern for Tennessee fans, particularly those who believe in conspiracy theories, might be a troubling Wolfpack-vols trend. When they cross paths, the Wolfpack get the better of it.
For one example, take former Tennessee basketball player D.J. Burns, who didn’t hang around Knoxville long enough to make an impression. After signing with the Vols, he was redshirted for the 2018-19 season.
He then transferred to Winthrop, where he scored 17 points per game for three seasons before moving on to NC State.
Burns became a March Madness luminary during NC State surprising charge to the Final Four. He no doubt had Tennessee fans thinking, “We could have used him against Zach Edey.”
Tennessee’s loss – though hardly significant at the time – became NC State’s gain. But that wasn’t the only NC State-ut storyline last month.
The Wolfpack defeated the Lady Vols in the second round of the NCAA women’s basketball tournament on their way to the Final Four. Less than a week later, UT athletic director fired coach Kellie Harper.
All that might be forgotten if the Vols win as expected in Charlotte. But if the goes the other way, Tennessee shouldn’t even think about scheduling the Wolfpack in anything else.
John Adams is a senior columnist. He may be reached at 865-342-6284 or john.adams@knoxnews.com . Follow him at: twitter.com/johnadamskns.