NC State vs ECU football first look: QBs Devin Leary and Holton Ahlers, betting odds
N.C. State coach Dave Doeren could have a lot to mull over this week as the Wolfpack team buses roll down the highway to Greenville.
Doeren realizes preseason rankings and point spreads mean nothing and that football openers often are so unpredictable, so fickle. The Pack kicks its 2022 season off against East Carolina at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium.
N.C. State is No. 13 in the Associated Press preseason poll and oddsmakers have the Pack as an 11-point favorite. The Wolfpack has the ACC’s preseason player of the year, quarterback Devin Leary, and a roster packed with returning starters from a 9-3 team.
All that’s reassuring to Doeren as he begins his 10th season with the Pack, but he has to wonder what new X-and-O wrinkles the Pirates might have schemed up, or how his team will handle opening on the road.
“Every season you’re excited to see what you’ve got,” Doeren said last month during ACC football media days in Charlotte. “We have a pretty good feeling but you want to see them play football. Game day is the best test in the world.”
But Doeren also might have another thought on that bus ride: his first visit to Greenville, which did not end well for the Wolfpack.
In September 2016, the Pack and Pirates faced off in both teams’ second game of the season and the Pirates emerged with a 33-30 win at Dowdy-Ficklen. N.C. State, with Ryan Finley at quarterback, had 502 yards in total offense but it was not enough.
The Pack and Pirates have played 31 times through the years but just four times in Greenville. ECU has won three of the four – State winning 34-20 in 2007 when the Pirates had the best player on the field, tailback Chris Johnson, but the Pack’s Daniel Evans passed for 335 yards and three TDs.
Dowdy-Ficklen will be packed and ECU fans stoked on Saturday. Even with a noon start, everyone will be at full throat quickly and emotions could run high.
“From what I heard it’s a great environment to play in,” N.C. State offensive coordinator Tim Beck said last week.
Key matchup: QB vs QB
Devin Leary and Holton Ahlers won’t be matched up against each other Saturday — except after the game, when the final stats are compiled and the quarterback comparisons made.
Ahlers gives the Pirates a senior who has started the past three years. He’s a Greenville native who like Leary has faced nearly every defensive look and blitz package imaginable.
“He’s a veteran,” Pack defensive coordinator Tony Gibson said to the media last week. “He understands the game. He’s also a threat to run the ball when he sees something he doesn’t like. We have to be on our toes.”
Ahlers’ first look at the Wolfpack came on Labor Day weekend in 2019, when the Pirates and Pack opened the season and N.C. State took a 34-6 win at Carter-Finley Stadium in Mike Houston’s first game as ECU coach. Ahlers had a pedestrian 168 yards passing and an interception, and was sacked three times in the loss.
That was then. Ahlers, a left-hander with good size at 6-4 and 230 pounds, has 69 TD passes in 42 career games. The kid can spin it, as they say, and also has 1,262 career rushing yards and another 19 scores on the ground.
It will be Leary’s first game in the State-ECU rivalry but Beck believes he has matured enough as a player and person, to handle the challenge of opening on the road while managing some pretty lofty expectations.
“Right now, this is his team,” Beck said. “He does a great job in everything that he does – the way he handles himself, the way he plays, the way he studies the game, how much he’s grown.”
Leary and Ahlers both attended the 2022 Manning Passing Academy in Louisiana this summer, gleaning as much as they could from Peyton and Eli Manning. It was all a part of preparing for what they both believe can be big seasons, although one of them will be 0-1 after Saturday.
Vegas betting odds
N.C. State is an 11-point favorite, initially opening as a 10.5-point favorite.
NC State at East Carolina
When: Noon, Saturday
Where: Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium, Greenville
TV: ESPN
