It’s been more than 20 years since an NC State team has come into Clemson and knocked off the Tigers.

The last time it happened was way back in 2002 when Chuck Amato was still roaming the sidelines for the Wolfpack. In fact, Clemson has taken 16 of the last 19 contests in the series. However, Dave Doeren’s team has won two of the past three, with both of those wins coming in Raleigh.

The Tigers have won nine straight at home over the ‘Pack and head coach Dabo Swinney noted during his weekly press conference on Tuesday that if his team wants to extend that streak, it starts with stopping the run.

“I promise you this, you better be able to stop the run against NC State,” Swinney said. “If you can’t stop the run against these guys, you are in for a long day.”

After rushing for more than 200 yards in the comeback win over Western Carolina in the season-opener, NC State ran for just 104 in the blowout loss to Tennessee. In last weekend’s comeback win over Louisiana Tech, that number climbed to 151.

Slowing down running back Jordan Waters, who averages more than four yards per carry will be key, with Swinney noting that everything the NC State offense likes to do starts with being able to move the ball on the ground.

“Everything comes through that,” Swinney said. “Stay on schedule and create explosives, especially moving the pocket and some of those things.”

Swinney also noted that underestimating the Wolfpack offense based off some of the results over the first three weeks of the season would be a mistake.

“I think a lot of things happen in college football over the first week or two,” Swinney said. “Everybody is still figuring things out. You see some weird things in college football, especially early in the season. It’s just part of it.”

“So, some of that stuff is skewed. There are a lot of statistics in these first couple of games that I wouldn’t pay much attention to. Sometimes who you play early can skew things. The picture will paint itself.”

Swinney insists that this Wolfpack team will get its offense on track at some point and that it will start with an ability to run the ball. However, the goal for Clemson is to ensure that doesn’t happen until after the visit to Death Valley on Saturday.

“When it is all said and done this is a team that I think will be able to run the football,” Swinney added. “Hopefully not this week.”

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