The Seminoles and Wolfpack clash Thursday night in an important ACC matchup that could end up being a deciding factor in the Atlantic Division.

Florida State returns to the field for the first time since September 23 when they blasted Rice 55-7. Despite the week of rest, the Seminoles come into this game with a number of injuries. The Seminoles have had problems running the ball this season and it doesn’t look like that will be getting any easier with four offensive lineman bothered by injury. Cory Niblock and David Overmyer both have ankle injuries, Shannon Boatman has a knee injury, while Jacky Claude is bothered by a concussion.

Quarterback Drew Weatherford will need to make do with as much time as the thin line can give him Thursday night. Weatherford has completed 61.3 percent of his passes for 715 yards with three touchdowns and two interceptions so far this season. Receivers Gregg Carr and De’Cody Fagg have been Weatherford’s top targets. Carr has caught nine passes for 145 yards and three touchdowns, while Fagg has hauled in 15 balls for 180 yards, but has yet to find the end zone.

The Wolfpack may have saved head coach Chuck Amato’s job with a 17-15 upset win over Boston College back on September 23. N.C. State had lost to lesser teams Akron and Southern Miss in their previous two games. The struggling Wolfpack offense was handed over to backup QB Daniel Evans, and it will be up to him to find a way to score versus a tough Florida State defense. In two games this season, Evans has completed 54.8 percent of his passes for 276 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions. Andre Brown and Toney Baker have been sharing the rushing duties and have combined for 438 yards and three touchdowns on 81 carries.

The Seminoles and Wolfpack clashed last season when N.C. State shocked Florida State 20-15 as an 11.5-point underdog. Over the past five seasons, N.C. State is 3-2 SU and 4-1 ATS against Florida State. The Seminoles are a 10.5-point favorite this time.

Kickoff is at 7:30 pm ET with ESPN handling the coverage.

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The Chase for the Nextel Cup cruises into the Talladega Superspeedway this weekend, after coasting out of Kansas a week ago.

We say they coasted out of Kansas because a few drivers had no choice after running out of gas in the Banquet 400. Tony Stewart was running of fumes before his gas tank ran completely dry, but it didn’t matter as he simply dropped into neutral and rolled over the finish line. When you have a 17-second lead over the rest of the field you can do that.

The Chasers weren’t able to escape Kansas without their own gasoline troubles. Jimmie Johnson was leading the race before hitting the pits for a quick shot of fuel with only four laps to go. Johnson was penalized for speeding in the pit area and ended up finishing 14th. Johnson’s chances at the championship were slim to none heading into the race, and they’re all but gone now.

The leader heading into Kansas is still the leader heading into Talladega. Jeff Burton finished fifth at Kansas and holds a 69-point lead on Denny Hamlin, who was 18th last week.

Mark Martin is only 70 points back and has a shot at the checkered flag at Talladega considering he has won there twice before in his career. Always the pessimist, Martin has declared he expects to wreck this weekend.

The Chaser that lost the most at Kansas was Jeff Gordon. When the race began last week, Gordon was second in the driver’s standings. After being forced out of the race with car trouble with 29 laps to go, Gordon dropped down to sixth in the standings. If Gordon hopes to make a move back up the standings, Talladega looks like the place to do it. In his career, Gordon has four career victories at the Superspeedway.

The only driver with more success at Talladega than Gordon is Dale Earnhardt Jr. Junior’s chances at a championship are quickly slipping away. Heading into the UAW-Ford 500, Earnhardt Jr. sits 123 points behind Burton. Junior has five career victories at Talladega, so don’t count him out quite yet.

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Look for a determined Horned Frogs club to come out with their hair on fire, and hand the Ute’s their second straight home loss of the season. Their defensive pressure up front should be enough to rattle Ute’s QB Ratliff into a couple mistakes that allows the Horned Frogs to bounce back from last weeks humiliating loss. This one won’t be pretty, but grab as many points as you can get since their at a premium in such an important MWC showdown like this. I was truly shocked at what transpired on TCU’s home field a week ago in the second half of their game against BYU. Their pass defense simply disappeared, and HC Patterson was none to happy about what transpired on the field. Utah got their brains bashed in by a potent Boise State club, and the Ute’s just aren’t executing well on either side of the ball this year.
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So, you like ugly huh? Well, sit down and brace yourself for what could be the ugliest game in this being the 5th week of college football action. Yes, possibly even uglier than Buffalo’s Week 1 9-3 OT win over Temple in Week 1. For some unknown reason, the Noles offense just hasn’t gotten off this year. Even with all that talent on board, it’s painful to watch this club compete. NCST always gets up to play the ‘Noles, and HC Amato seems to have Bobby’s number winning 3 of their L/5 match-ups. This series has predominantly been an ‘Under’ series in its history. The L/8 Wolfpack home games have stayed below this current number, while the ‘Under’ has cashed in 20 of FSU’s L/26 road games. Mix those streaks in with the Noles woeful offense (on the road no less), and NC State starting a very green QB that’s making his 2nd career start vs. a ferocious FSU defense, and you’ve got yourself a nice little recipe for a defensive struggle.

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The Yankees got the best of the Tigers in Game 1 last night by playing a bit of long ball, and coming up with some clutch two out thunder. I’m looking for tonight’s game to be dominated by the pitching this time around, as both Justin Verlander and Mike Mussina put forth stellar campaigns in 2006. Mussina won 15 games this year, and was especially nasty at home going 9-2 and sporting a solid 3.19 ERA. Verlander comes in having won 17 games and sports a 3.63 ERA. He only gave up 187 hits in 186 innings of work, and struck out 124 batters while only walking 60. His ERA only jumped up to 3.91, and he picked up 60% of his season strikeout total in the role as the visitor. Now, the Yanks have one heck of a line-up. It almost seems like its unfair to be that stacked, but Verlander will be up for the challenge when his squad needs him most. Look for a very well pitched game to be put forth by both sides, and this one to crawl ‘Under’ the posted number. Call it 3-2 or 4-2 to the victor!!!

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