NC State

4-4

Week 10 · updated Wednesday, Nov 4

NC State beat California 31-10 and is 4-4.

Fan mood in the week of the California game: middle of the pack, brighter than usual for them

Fan mood in each NC State game week this season

Compared with other fanbases in r/CFB game threads that week. Each row is a week, named for its game; the further right the dot, the brighter the talk.

sourerbrightervs Richmond W 73-0middle of the packat Vanderbilt L 31-35middle of the packvs App State W 41-31sourvs Louisville W 31-28on the sour sidevs Wake Forest L 14-38sourat Stanford L 28-31sourvs California W 31-10middle of the packsourerbrighterSep 11vs RichmondW 73-0middle of the packSep 19at VanderbiltL 31-35middle of the packSep 26vs App StateW 41-31sourOct 3vs LouisvilleW 31-28on the sour sideOct 10vs Wake ForestL 14-38sourOct 23at StanfordL 28-31sourOct 31vs CaliforniaW 31-10middle of the pack
  • L 8-34 at Virginia
  • W 73-0 vs Richmond
  • L 31-35 at Vanderbilt
  • W 41-31 vs App State
  • W 31-28 vs Louisville
  • L 14-38 vs Wake Forest
  • L 28-31 at Stanford
  • W 31-10 vs California
  • Next: vs Duke, Saturday, Nov 7

Scores ours first.

Before Duke

Duke has won the last three meetings.

The playoff simulation gives NC State a 60% chance at home against Duke on Saturday, Nov 7.

In the playoff simulation, the Duke game has a bowl on it for NC State.

Duke game on Now

What the Duke game is worth

How fan mood is read

Fan mood compares what NC State fans wrote in r/CFB game threads with every FBS fanbase with enough talk that week. A week runs Monday to Sunday and is named for the game in it. The read is redrawn 300 times from the same commenters, re-ranking every fanbase each time. Sour or all in means the read sat in the bottom or top fifth in at least 70 of every 100 draws; on the sour side or on the bright side, in the bottom or top two fifths in at least 80; anything less settled is middle of the pack. A bright label also needs more positive talk than negative, and a sour one the reverse. Brighter or sourer than usual compares the week with the team's own earlier weeks, after taking out how every fanbase read that week. Each dot sits at the read's rank that week. A week read before these labels keeps the word it was first given, the fifth it sat in (sour, uneasy, mixed, hopeful or all in). Season averages are the mean of a season's reads, in fifths from sour to all in, and seasons before 2026 were read from each week's wider talk, so a comparison across seasons is rough.

Fan mood, week by week

Mood over time

Position = mood · width = volume · color = the kind of feeling

What the message boards say

Message boards

Via Pack Insider

What the reporters say

What reporters say

18 quotes collected this season

What the beat said, in their own words.

Everybody was level-headed in that locker room and I’m so thankful to have a team that’s like that
Bailey · Technicianthe day after NC State's 2026 game against California
Going into halftime and keeping everybody calm, making sure everyone knows that it is all about us
Aguirre · Technicianthe day after the 31-10 game
He is an overachiever, who challenges himself and those around him to refuse to accept the status quo
Yow · Technicianthe day before the California game

More in this tab

Fan chatter

Fan chatterThe loudest night of the season and what a usual night looks like.

Fan chatter this season

Firestorm

The loudest night was the 31-35 loss to Vanderbilt.

FirstSecondThirdFourthVanderbilt fansNC State fansusual

A usual night for NC State fans is steady.

Arguments

The argumentThe one thing this fanbase can't agree on, with receipts.

Inside the fanbase: all 5 corners

Cr/CFB
GGoogle News
LLocked On
BBacking The Pack
CCampus paper
PPack Insider
BBluesky
YYouTube
8 outlets & communities talking

One voice

+0.14Whole-fanbase sentiment · warm

Every cohort from the die-hards to the analytics crowd lands within 0.01 of each other — a rare consensus. The most upvoted post:

▶

Locked On

Opener: Nc State Basketball Runs to 19 Point Win to open the Justin Gainey Era

listen ↗

How NC State fans actually talk

Rr/CFBFan talk

I truly hate this program

open ↗

One of the crowd’s most upvoted takes — read for mood, not as a side. The cohort read is the measured part.

Every fan group, end to end

negative
0
positive
Die-hards+0.13 to National take+0.15

Cohort sentiment is a source-weighted model read — never a quote pinned to a person.

What this fanbase keeps coming back to

fan energy
28%
recent results
21%
where the program is headed
14%
the coaching staff
13%
offense
6%

Topics are model-labeled from Reddit — a rough signal of what this fanbase is circling right now.

week 10. The sources and the divergence rank are measured. Cohort labels and sentiment are a source-weighted model estimate, never a quote attributed to a person.
ArgumentsRecurring arguments this fanbase keeps returning to.

What fans are saying

rivalryOne fan's take that season

One fan thinks the intensity of the games exceeds typical conference matchups

I love playing ECU. I fucking HATE them and losing to them is brutal, but that’s what makes college football great. This game actually means something

Based on 1 comment from 1 poster across 1 thread · Aug 29, 2025 · via CFB

Show all 2
fan moraleOne fan's take

One fan believes Carter-Finley Stadium’s atmosphere boosts team performance

Carter-Finley will once again need to provide a significant home-field advantage

Based on 1 comment across 1 thread · Aug 14, 2026 · via NC State Football

Rival talk

The obsessionThe rival this fanbase can't stop bringing up.
Rent Free · r/CFB fan posts, 2026 season
NC State fans 34% of posts bring up another team#51 of 77 saltiest · mostly about North Carolina
Who NC State fans can’t stop bringing up
  1. North Carolina21%
  2. Charlotte5%
  3. Vanderbilt3%
  4. Louisville2%
  5. Florida State1%
share of NC State’s football posts that mention each team
NC State lives rent-free in
  1. Nevada6%
share of each rival fanbase’s football posts that bring up NC State

How NC State fans talk

Who they talk aboutThe people this fanbase names more than anyone else does.
Who they talk about Against the field · 2026 season

The names this fanbase says more than anyone else does — players, coaches, the places they keep coming back to. Not slang: these are the people carrying the conversation.

CJ Bailey
×116.9 the field
Signature — named ≥10× as often as the rest of college football
CJ Bailey×116.9
Dave Doeren×201.7
Finley×106.8

“CJ Bailey fumble or interception imminent”

reddit/CFB · fan post
Fans on CJ Bailey
  1. Bailey’s leadership, and his conversation with former head coach Dave Doeren following
  2. Bailey, who has been productive this season but cannot afford to give Cal’s defense opportunities
  3. Bailey. CJ Bailey Bounces Back After a Rough First Half Bailey struggled to find his rhythm
  4. There are back up g6 qbs that would be playing better than bailey has today
  5. How much more does Bailey have to do to get benched?
  6. This is why Bailey will never play in the NFL.
  7. at least the CJ Bailey experience is over after this year
  8. I'm very excited for Bailey to be gone tbh
What they're calledThe slang the sport reaches for about this program more than most.
What the sport calls them 2026 season · from Words

How often college football reaches for these watchlist words about NC State — against the average FBS program, or against their own usual rate — said by rival fans and national media as readily as by their own people.

The whole board →
Voice profileHow this fanbase sounds vs. every other fanbase.
Measured
Optimism
16th
Joy
13th
Anger
74th
Doom
52nd
Sarcasm
29th
Vs the 127 highest-volume fanbases - 2026 season
Vocabulary by eraThe words that defined each chapter of this program.

Season vocabulary

2026yards
yardsriverslouisvillethreeformerbailey
Is Devin Hester back there returning kicks? Why are we gifting them 15 yards ever kickoff
2025defense
defensesecondaryncstatebadpleaseoffense
My other flair is just as bad on defense
This page may include content derived from public news sources, social media, and fan communities. We relay these sources as-is — we are not reporting them. Sources may be summarized or quoted imperfectly; for anything that matters, go look at the original source directly. The original source may also be wrong. Text written by our model says so in a line beneath it, and it can get facts wrong. All analysis is editorial opinion, not professional reporting. Data sources · About this site