At least their uniforms have improved.
The series between NC State and Western Carolina doesn’t feature a lot of meetings—NC State is 7-0 all-time against the Catamounts—but WCU always seems to pop up at eventful times in Wolfpack football history. Times when State is at its best.
Despite the modest number of matchups, WCU has quite impressively managed to find itself up against three of the best quarterbacks in NC State history. In 1986, it was Erik Kramer, who led the Pack to a 31-18 win. Kramer broke two school records in that one (one a career record) and by the end of his career held nearly a dozen of them. State accepted a Peach Bowl bid after that victory.
NC State opened its 2003 season with a 59-20 blowout of the Catamounts. The Pack of course was led by Philip Rivers, who was 26-30 for 320 yards in that one. Nice work by Technician here as well.
They ran into peak Rivers. Gotta hate that for them. After that round of unpleasantness, WCU took some time off from the series, only to return in 2010 … for Russell Wilson’s best season at NC State.
Wilson threw for 306 yards and four TDs in that game, and State won 48-7. Here’s a big blurry photo to mark the occasion.
Here in the present day, we find our plucky Catamounts once more up against it, their scheduling luck gone south on them another time. They’ve arrived just in time to meet an NC State team that should have its best offense in years, led by another very good quarterback. (Albeit not an NC State legend … yet.)
You have really got to work on this whole deal, Western Carolina.