The Carolina Panthers are 3-0 for the season after beating the Houston Texans on the road last Thursday. But the biggest football news in the Carolinas happened back at home this weekend — and it was on the college level. Then-unranked N.C. State pulled out a surprise 27-21 win against the Clemson Tigers in Raleigh.
The double-overtime win shocked the sports world, earned the Wolfpack a ranked spot and called Clemson’s playoff chances into question.
“It’s the biggest win of (N.C. State head coach) Dave Doeren’s career,” The Charlotte Observer’s Langston Wertz Jr. told WFAE’s Gwendolyn Glenn on this week’s installment of Time Out For Sports. “... Clemson had beaten N.C. State eight straight times in Raleigh, they’ve beaten them 15 of 16 games.”
Looks even better today. #HTT pic.twitter.com/yg6F9NatlJ
— NC State Football (@PackFootball) September 26, 2021
There was a Charlotte high school football matchup for the ages this weekend, too, when No. 2 Hough High beat No. 1 Julius Chambers High at Memorial Stadium. The final score was 16-10. Wertz says Hough quarterback Tad Hudson, who is signing with the UNC Tar Heels, “looked really good” in the game.
“Hough’s defense really slowed down Chambers,” Wertz said. “Chambers just couldn’t get anything going in their passing game… And that was the difference in the game. Field positions, defense and special teams — it all went Hough’s way.”
You can listen to Glenn and Wertz’s full conversation above. Here’s a quick look at a few other things they covered on Time Out For Sports this week:
- Panthers quarterback Sam Darnold threw for 304 yards and scored two rushing touchdowns in Thursday night’s 24-9 win over the Texans. But running back Christian McCaffery, Jaycee Horn and Justin Burris were injured in the game. “You can’t lose a potential league MVP and think things are not going to change,” Wertz said. “McCaffrey is going to be out one to four weeks, it looks like, and I think it’s definitely going to hurt Darnold.”
- Wertz says Thursday night NFL games are “doing pretty well” as far as ratings, with Carolina-Houston drawing more than 7.3 million viewers.
- The Georgia Tech Yellowjackets handily beat the Tar Heels, 45-22.
- Wertz shares his thoughts on which ACC team he thinks is the best in the conference right now: Wake Forest.
