Carter-Finley Stadium isn’t as big as The Swamp in Gainesville.
N.C. State’s stadium seats just under 60,000, but fans are close to the field and there’s not much room on the visitor’s sideline – which makes communication between Florida State players and coaches more challenging.
While FSU played a road game against South Florida in Tampa last week, the 50-50 crowd wasn’t anything like what the No. 4 Seminoles will face in Raleigh, N.C., on Saturday night.
“N.C. State is definitely one of the loudest places to go to,” said FSU center Bryan Stork, a native of Vero Beach. “It’s not the biggest but it’s all on top, kind of like The Swamp. It will be loud and we have to learn to communicate even better. There are going to be points of the game where we’re not going to be able to hear each other.”
To prepare, FSU has gone into whisper mode this week, as coach Jimbo Fisher is requiring the quarterbacks to not talk or yell in the huddle or at the line of scrimmage in practice. And FSU will pipe in crowd noise on the practice field Wednesday and Thursday.
Carter-Finley has not been a fun road trip for FSU – N.C. State is 4-3 at home against the Seminoles since 1998. The Wolfpack escaped with a 28-24 victory in 2010 when FSU fumbled on the goal line in the final minute of the game.
Safety Lamarcus Joyner said the road conditions are tough, but, he added, FSU players are used to playing in intimidating venues.
“It seems like everybody hates FSU for some reason, I don’t know why,” Joyner said. “I don’t know what the older guys did before me. We embrace it though. We love that. We feed off that.”
