Local Sports

DURHAM, N.C. (AP) -- Pity poor North Carolina State. During the past few years, Duke was unarguably the worst team in the Atlantic Coast Conference, yet the league's rotating schedule always kept the Blue Devils off the schedule.

Now, no ACC team is in more dire need of a victory than the woeful Wolfpack, and up ahead is a trip to Duke -- to face the best Blue Devils team in half a decade.

"They went out there, practiced, got better, and now they're winning football games," N.C. State offensive lineman Jeraill McCuller said. "We scheduled them, and now we've got to play them."

One of the oldest -- yet, as of late, the most infrequently played -- rivalries in the ACC will be renewed Saturday when the upstart Blue Devils (4-4, 1-3) continue their pursuit of bowl eligibility against the Wolfpack (2-6, 0-4). It will be a meeting of the league's two last-place teams with N.C. State the only team winless in the conference.

The schools are located roughly 25 miles apart, yet nobody on either team has played against the other program, thanks to a scheduling quirk that accompanied the ACC's expansion to 12 teams

and realignment to two divisions. They haven't met since 2003, when future first-round draft pick Philip Rivers led N.C. State to a 28-21 victory.

At that time, the Wolfpack were in the middle of a stretch in which they reached five bowls in six seasons while the Blue Devils had just replaced coach Carl Franks with Ted Roof, who would go on

to win a total four games from 2003-07 before he was fired.

The teams appear to have flip-flopped roles, at least somewhat. Now it's Duke that has entered November thinking about a bowl berth while N.C. State seemingly would need a miracle just to finish at .500.

New Duke coach David Cutcliffe, however, insists the Wolfpack are more talented than their record indicates. They may have lost four straight, but their last three losses have come by a total 19

points.

"They're good. One of the things you kind of learn to believe and you teach so hard is that you can't worry about your opponent, what they're going to do," Cutcliffe said. "You anticipate them

playing their best game, but what you have to do as a competitor is, you have to be at your best, and if your best is good enough, you win."

The Blue Devils are coming off a 33-30 loss at Wake Forest in which they missed a game-winning field goal attempt at the end of regulation and Thaddeus Lewis' deep pass in overtime was

intercepted to end the game. Yet by Duke's historically abysmal standards, this season can't be considered anything but a success -- they haven't been at .500 this late in a season since '98, and

their first bowl game since 1994 remains a possibility.

"They're very aggressive as (an offensive) unit," N.C. State linebacker Ray Michel said. "They're a very good football team all around, now."