Programs like N.C. State greatly look forward to playing on a Thursday night in their home building. While the Wolfpack have enjoyed some success at times in the recent past, it would be aggressive to cast N.C. State as a nationally relevant college football program and, when playing on Thursday evening, teams are normally given a national television platform that can greatly aid in recruiting.
For the 2017 campaign, N.C. State's platform arrives in the form of a match-up against the Louisville Cardinals on Oct. 5 and the Wolfpack aren't holding anything back. In this case, they will be wearing special "black howl" uniforms and they were revealed on Wednesday.
This is an innovative and, frankly, very smart approach from the program. The helmets are catchy and the entire unveiling was done in a trendy way that will attract attention to the program, even at this early hour in the 2017 football calendar.
The match-up between Louisville and N.C. State on Thursday evening won't be taking place for nearly four months. With this move, though, the Wolfpack insert themselves into the national college football discussion for a while in early June and this is a rare instance of that happening without negative off-field dealings to facilitate it.
