North Carolina State is the second team in three weeks to face Syracuse coming off a bye.

It didn’t do Wake Forest any favors on Oct. 18, but Wolfpack head coach Dave Doeren feels optimistic about how his team used the off time to heal up, mentally and physically. N.C. State (4-4, 0-4 Atlantic Coast) will look to snap its four-game losing streak when it travels to the Carrier Dome for a 3 p.m. meeting with the Orange (3-5, 1-3) on Saturday.

“Excited about the opportunity to go to Syracuse,” Doeren said during the ACC coaches’ teleconference on Wednesday, “play a football team that plays really hard and forces a lot of turnovers, protects the football, doesn’t beat themselves. It’s going to be a physical football game.”

N.C. State’s four-game skid began with a 56-41 shootout loss at home to then-No. 1 Florida State on Sept. 27, followed by a 41-0 loss at Clemson and a pair of two-score losses to Boston College and Louisville.

The Wolfpack now prepares to face a Syracuse offense that has yet to truly get off the ground with freshman quarterback AJ Long taking the snaps. Long is coming off what he called the worst game he ever played in SU’s loss to Clemson, but Doeren praised the job the true freshman has done since being thrown into the fire in with Terrel Hunt out with fractured fibula.

“He’s athletic. He gets the ball out quick,” Doeren said of Long. “For a guy that went from third string to starter and had to play in some difficult games, I think he’s done a nice job for them. Just like any young quarterback, there’s things that I’m sure he’s learning from and getting better from each week. But you can see he’s a gifted player.”