As a football team, N.C. State is like a classic-rock band, still touring 25 years after its last No. 1, that gets it. No one wants to hear songs from the new album; just play the hits. And the Wolfpack played all its greatest hits Saturday.
Turnovers. Blown coverages. Special-teams blunders. Penalties. Drops. Even a sideline warning. And, in the end, a season-opening loss to an SEC team. It was an N.C. State instant classic, pulled from any decade, full of missed opportunities and self-inflicted wounds, to deliver a disbelieving South Carolina a 35-28 win.
The last time this state gift-wrapped something for that state like this, the NCAA tournament was exiled to Greenville – where South Carolina also beat a Triangle team that had no excuse for losing.