Wake Forest and N.C. State have both played some very good football this season, and that should produce a pretty good game on Saturday night in Winston-Salem. The city with tall buildings in the desert agrees with that as well, as the game opened up as a “pick’em” in Vegas on Sunday.

The early money is on the Deacs as of writing this article and Wake Forest is up to a 1.5 favorite already. This is without knowing the extent of the injury that defensive end Duke Ejiofor sustained on Saturday against Syracuse (looked like a high ankle sprain to my untrained medical eye), or whether or not safety Jessie Bates, III will be able to go after missing the last two weeks.

There are a lot of interesting storylines coming into this game, as N.C. State has struggled mightily in Winston-Salem since 2000 with just two wins in eight attempts.

Not only is this game a “toss-up”, but it also features a November game between two in-state teams with winning records, which is quite rare for Wake Forest.

This will be the first in-state ACC opponent that the Demon Deacons have hosted in November where both teams have winning records since November 13, 1971 (46 years ago today).

N.C. State enters the game at 7-3, while Wake Forest sits at 6-4. A night game will give both fanbases a chance to get to feeling good before the 7:30 kickoff. Hopefully the current forecast of a high of 61 and rain will get better before Saturday!